Romania

August 15^th – August 19^th 2021

Terebletsche, Ukraine – Sucevita – Voronet – Dorna Arini,  Romania

Miles: 160

Miles total: 3’010 

Entering Romania and Monasteries in Bukovina region

With some sadness we left the Ukraine in direction Romania. We enjoyed the Ukraine almost without any other foreign tourists, even though it was high season! For us unexplainable that around the west of the Ukraine the campgrounds are full and still nobody dares to cross the border!

Nothing was required to cross the border into Romania! Not even a negative Covid test. Without any hassle, we entered Romania and already missed the Ukraine the first evening on a small campground. At the small place were more camping cars that we saw in the entire 5 weeks in Ukraine! The reason why we stayed not longer in Ukraine is, that firstly Romania is a huge country that we want to visit without hectic, but also because Covid. It is never sure when countries are changing their rules and didn’t wanted to take the risk of having to go into quarantine. 

Romania is compared to Ukraine also more expensive. It is just slightly less expensive than Slovakia. Campgrounds are about 15$ and eating in a restaurant costs about 15 to 20$ for both. As we did in every country before, we bought in just 2 minutes a new SIM-card. Like this we can always access the internet and look at maps and so on. For 6$ we got 106GB, that’s more than enough for the entire Romania trip, unbelievable!

In the region of Bukovina, where we were just after crossing the border, are the numerous monasteries the biggest attraction. We visited the monasteries Arbore, Voronet und Moldovita. The monasteries from the 15^th and 16^th century impress with their colorful paintings. Unique and absolutely stunning are the paintings on the outside of the churches which draw masses of tourists to some of the religious places! At the monastery Moldovita were paintings on the outside walls basically illustrating like a picture book the entire bible.

The region Bukovina seems very original and authentic with its soft hills and the traditional villages, dotted with old wooden buildings. The landscape in the Bukovina region is a bit similar than in the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine, even though the Ukraine is a bit wilder and more untouched.

August 20^th – August 26^th 2021

Dorno Arini – Prisol Pass – Borsa,  Romania

Miles: 130

Miles total: 3’140

A folklore festival and hiking in the border area Bukovina – Maramuresch (North Carpathian Mountains)

The first hike those days was quite short. But nevertheless was the path really something! We hiked to the so called princess rocks Pietrele Doamnei, which are a group of three, straight up looking huge limestone cliffs. At an altitude of about 5300 feet (1600m). There were tons of people since it is accessible by car. One of the 3 rocks can be reached without being a real climber and of course we started to go up there :-).

It was full of people, even though it was actually quite dangerous and it was necessary to climb a bit. People with terrible shoes, small children, older people, really inactive guys etc., everybody was climbing up and down. When we arrived on top, we had a wonderful view across the nearby valleys.

In the afternoon, we continued West until we reached the Prisol Pass, which marks the border between the regions Bukovina and Maramuresch. We were actually just looking for a place to sleep when we arrived on top. But to our surprise was a lot going on! A stage was built up, many people were installing their market stalls and a police man came directly to us when we drove to the area. In French, he explained very friendly, that the day after tomorrow (Sunday) a festival is happening, for the Rumanians that live abroad and are currently back home for summer vacation. He just mentioned that on Sunday it will not be possible to drive through here, but that there are nice places to spend the night further back. So let’s take off to look for a nice place.

We were not the only once with this thought. 4 more campervans were staying in the nature and the following day was also a German couple driving their old VW-bus straight out of the National park where it wouldn’t be allowed to drive! It’s a shame that such rules in National parks aren’t being obeyed. As nice Swiss people we stayed of course outside the National Park on a outstanding place :-). We could enjoy on both evenings spectacular red sunsets.

Out of curiosity we wanted to know what kind of festival it is, so we decided to stay. We used Saturday, so one day before the festival, to do a short 4-hour hike.

Along some mountain alp huts and berry collectors we went to the mountain Cearcanu. Bushes have completely blocked our path just before the peak, but we had anyways a great view from a nearby view-point.

Then on Sunday was the day of the festival. As already in Ukraine is Covid not in the minds of the people from Romania. Huge gatherings of people enjoyed the festival without masks and caring about distance, and this in a country where only 25% are vaccinated.

There were several market stalls who sold beautiful handmade products from the area, as well as other stalls that sold made in China plastic crap. Then the food stalls with local specialties were feeding the hungry Romanians with mainly meat. Many people grabbed their old traditional ward robe out of the closet, a wonderful picture. Muscle loaded horses with traditionally dressed horse riders on top were going through the middle of the crowds. Several priests were making money for their church by selling blessed cards and little waters.

At lunch time, music and dancing started at the stage. Marvellous performances from different regions of Romania were showed. A lot of traditional dance and music with great dressed groups. A superb insight in the traditions of this country :-).

We started to drive from the mountain pass down towards Borsa later in the evening, when most people have left the festival. It was a bit stress for us, but the weather forecast didn’t leave us any choice, since we wanted to do a longer hike. We finally came to the campground at 9:30PM, where we had to get prepared for the next day’s hike after getting a “welcome-grappa” from the manager.

August 23rd 2021

Today’s hike led us on top of the 6330 feet (1930m) high Toroioaga mountain that lies in the same named National park. To plan our hikes we use the Rother hiking guide that sometimes offers unmarked routes. They are sometimes unmarked and therefore once in a while quite adventures. We usually do find our ways good also thanks to the Romanian hiking app „Muntii Nostri“, where we can access also offline maps. Already after 100 yards (100m) we left the marked trail and went into a steep forest path that led us through spruce-forest until we ended on a ridge.

Over a ridge it went up and down until we finally reached the peak. We enjoyed a fantastic panoramic view onto the entire north group of the Eastern Carpathian Mountains until deep into the Ukrainian lands.

Back down we went through a spooky looking dead forest where the purple flowers did put some signs of life in between.

Soon we reached a small melt water lake where a small snake was swimming around. Even up here was a really crappy “track” were we saw an old, broken Jeep driving around. Also our route went down this “road” along a not really idyllic industrial mountain mine that is closed for 20 years. All in all, a wonderful hike where we didn’t see the whole day any other tourist.  

August 26th 2021

Our planned route to the Pietrosul Rodnei mountain would have taken 2 days. But since we are not really equipped for multi-day-hikes, we tried to shorten it by taking a taxi for the first bit. Our campground host tried to get us a taxi for the next day at 6AM. But there are no taxis in this small town at this time. By coincident was a relative from the owner listening to us and he agreed to drive us this crazy early time. Of course for a bit a higher price :-). So it came and we started hiking at near dawn at 6:15 with cloudy weather, fog hanging in the trees and a cold wind blowing. 

Soon we encountered the first creek crossings when walking deeper into the wild Repedea- and Buhaescu valley. We knew about the missing bridges from the hiking guide, but we still imagined the crossings a bit easier. We probably had to cross the same small river about 6 times. Once over very slippery tree trunks, jumping from stone to stone and even once we had to cross it barefoot, and this at 7:15AM. So we were definitely awake from the really cold water :-)! The small river path led us through a dense forested valley where the path was sometimes visible, sometimes not, sometimes it went through a creek bed, or through high wet grasslands. And before every turn we were wondering if maybe a bear crosses our path. 

Also this hike, through the wild romantic area, was, until we reached the peak, totally lonely. After reaching the tree line we came to a tiny alp hut with some cows and not very friendly looking farmers. Of course was a herd-dog welcoming us with his barking. 

By the way, we had never problems with the sheep-herd-dogs on our entire Eastern Europe trip. Even though we encounter regularly herds that are sometimes protected by seven or eight huge dogs. As a protection against wolves and bears are the dogs always with the herds and they are fenced in every night. The fog was still coming and going. 

The route led us through really steep gorges with high grass where we actually couldn’t see the path anymore. Thanks to the river crossings and the high grass were our socks slowly getting wet … We passed the three picturesque Buhaescu glacier lakes and hiked up through serpentines steeply up. Along the way we filled up our bellies with the finest blueberries from the untouched bushes. 

They are too far away for the local berry collectors. As closer we got to the peak, as thicker became unfortunately the fog. A cold heavy wind accompanied us on the last part to the 7550 feet (2303m) high Pietrosul Rodnei peak. We were now on the last part together with the other hiking routes and met quite a few other hikers. It was busy on top of the peak even though the fog was really terribly thick. We did spend some time on top, but the fog didn’t leave. 

Shortly after starting the descent, the fog started to open up here and there and we could get beautiful glimpses to the surrounding mountains and to the Lezer glacier lake. Happy and tired we arrived after 12 hours hiking at the campground and looked back to an adventurous day in wild and partially untouched nature. 

August 27^th – 31^st 2021

Borsa – Viile Tecii – Durau, Romania

Miles: 210

Miles total: 3’350

Into the Eastern Carpathian Mountains and hiking at the lake Bicaz

Our next destination was further East, the lake Bicaz. It is the largest artificial reservoir lake in Romania. We stayed for the night somewhere before Durau since 200 miles (320km) are a bit much for us ;-), and we found with some luck a very interesting place. Several small, artificial lakes are lying beside each other and are home to thousands of birds!

Already after 30 minutes, a local guy was coming and explained us that we are not allowed to fish or walk on the dams between the lakes. He further explained in Romanian language “Urs” “Urs” what means bear. We shouldn’t go out when it is dark since bears are roaming around. And if something happens we shall just hit the horn, then he’d come with his riffle :-), really nice guy!

In the morning we watched birds and a big herd of sheep with several herd-dogs. The dogs are also present because of the high number of bears in Romania. The big dogs were relaxed against humans, so we didn’t have to be scared when a couple times a pack of dogs walked by the campervan.

It was a pleasure to watch the birds. Hundreds of ducks were swimming on the lake, numerous herons were flying around and thousands of other birds like raves, gulls etc were making the watching entertaining and interesting.

We continued along beautiful valleys of the Eastern Carpathians to the Bicaz lake, where we stayed for the night somewhat above the lake at a viewpoint. 

The coming night we spent 5 miles down in the village of Durau to go hiking the following day in the Ceahlau National Park.

August 30^th 2021:

The hike on top of the 6250 feet (1907m) high Toaca peak was more adventurous than we expected.

Just before lunch we arrived at the ridge. Besides admiring the usual great panoramic views, we also saw a nun plucking berries and two religious believers were barefoot collecting mushrooms. The highest monastery of Romania was very nearby at an altitude of 5670 feet (1730m).

We weren’t alone anymore since a couple of hiking trails were meeting up there. To reach the peak we had to go up 519 steps on a stair and crossed numerous other visitors. A wonderful 360° panorama with a view to the largest artificial lake in Romania was around us.

Later, we made a pit stop at a nice cabin in the middle of the 4000 feet (1200m) descent and enjoyed a beer while checking out the surroundings :-). Some of the hikers were not anymore in that good shape, since many people underestimate the walking down. Like this also a woman that barely could walk due to pain in her knees. We felt so bad for her that we gave her our hiking sticks for the last 1000 feet (300m) down, and told them that they can bring them back to us to the campground. The poor lady was extremely happy and we got the sticks back with a bottle of wine :-).

Another wonderful hiking day came to an end. 

September 1^st 2021

Durau – Lacu Rosu, Romania

Miles: 60

Km Total: 3’420

Today we could enjoy a wonderful drive! It went through the famous Bicaz gorge with its tall cliffs, that puts even famous gorges in Switzerland in the background. Majestically reaching the cliffs on the right and left side to the sky, then the serpentines are directing the narrow road further up. The two hiking hitchhikers that we picked up shortly before also had to wait at all the photo-stops we did during the gorge drive :-).

Our final destination for the day, the Lacu Rosu itself (red lake), was simply a place with some hotels, restaurants and lots of souvenir-stalls. Nothing beautiful. The lake, that we walked around in an hour, on the other hand is worth seeing. Mainly because its dead tree stumps that are still reaching out of the water everywhere. The natural lake just developed due to a massive landslide over a hundred years ago. The myth says, that the name “red lake” is coming because the landslide has buried an entire village and the red coloring of the lake is coming from the blood from the buried residents.

September 2^nd 2021

Lacu Rosu, Romania

We stayed for the night at a not very nice parking lot near the “red lake”. From there we started our hike to the Suhardul Mic, that dominates the entire landscape of the Lacu Rosu with its shiny white cliffs.

Continuing along the picturesque little Cupas-gorge until the junction of the two rivers Cupas and Bicaz.

Now we are in the Bicaz-Gorge, the most spectacular and deepest canyon in Romania, where we actually drove already yesterday through it, and today have to hike along the main road. The cliffs on the sides reach heights of 1300 feet (400m) and then we reached the so called “Hell’s gate” where the road only passes in one lane. Further down the road was the „Romanian Matterhorn“, the 3765 feet (1148m) tall Piatra Altarului. Funny story, finally 1934 someone was able to climb this peak. But the effort was shortly after pulverised by Zoltan Keresztes, when he climbed it barefoot in a traditional dress :-). Just after the narrowest section of the road, the “devils gorge”, we could finally leave the road and hiked along the Bicajel-river, again into a gorge.

A high scary suspension bridge led over the fury waters of the gorge. Continuing through beautiful landscapes with traditional mountain-farms where we had great views to the white cliffs that looked out of the green forest. Back at the Bicajel River, we had to cross the river but there was no bridge.

We had to construct our own little bridge from wood around us, since we didn’t wanna wade barefoot through the river. Even the existing tree that was laying across wasn’t very inviting and we weren’t in the mood of falling down and get wet :-). 

September 3^rd 2021

Lacu Rosu – Sfanta Ana, Romania

Miles: 80

Miles total: 3’500 

In half of our todays trip we enjoyed a yummy lunch in the surprisingly beautiful town Miercurea Ciuc.

September 4^th 2021

Sfanta Ana, Romania

We went down to the lake just before the big crowed of visitors were coming. It went from the campground about 300 feet (100m) in elevation down to the base of the volcanic crater, where the beautiful St. Anna lake is embedded in the middle of the forest.

The 22 feet (7m) deep lake is creating together with the neighbouring Mohos-swamp a nature reserve with numerous protected botanical rarities and animals. Many tourists choose to rent a boat to paddle around the lake. We chose to walk quietly around the small lake. In the late afternoon, we visited the Mohos-swamp that lies just beside the campground.

The peat bog can only be visited with an hourly guided tour. The guide couldn’t unfortunately speak English nor German, so we didn’t really understand that much during the tour. What we figured out anyways from info-panels was, that they used to have a huge problem with the bark beetle and many trees died. The path on the tour led us mostly along wooden stakes and walkways to a shiny blue lake. Furthermore, there were many special and rare plants, among them hallucinating and carnivorous plants.

After dinner, we tried once again to spot a bear with our binoculars at the open grassland and at the edge of the woods. Instead of a bear, we were able to watch a wonderful white-grey owl, that was looking for food around dusk.

September 5^th 2021

Sfanta Ana – Braşov, Romania

Km: 50

Km Total: 3’550

We continued again without any bear sightings. Even while driving we were looking for the furry animals. Near the city of Braşov we landed in the yard of the preacher’s house, at the official campground :-).

September 6^th – 8^th 2021

Braşov, Romania

Miles: 40

Miles total: 3’590

Those days, once again we had to do our laundry and write some of the reports for the web page. At this small campground, you have immediately contact with the other guests and we chatted and exchanged stories. Even with a couple that lives less than 10 miles away from us :-). Also the further trip in Romania had to be planned and took several hours.

Then we had to find a repair shop because we couldn’t fill in gas for cooking. We ended up in a shop that makes unique mobile homes. One project that is currently being built is a former double deck bus that even contains a bathtub. We were really overwhelmed but still prefer our Iveco :-). The guys from that company “Sfinx” really knew there stuff and we are now little gas-experts. The tank was full of air, that’s why we couldn’t fill it up anymore. The owner refused to take any money even though it took about an hour, instead he showed us a lot of pictures from the vehicles they made.

The city Braşov with its population of nearly 300'000 counts as dynamic and richest of Romania. „BRAŞOV“ is written at a hill with huge letters like in Hollywood. The city is quite inviting to stroll around with its pedestrian zone, restaurants and also with the ancient city walls and churches. Besides that, it also has with less than 4 feet width one of the narrowest alleys in whole Europe.

September 9^th 2021

Braşov – Noroiosi volcanoes, Romania

Miles: 140

Miles total: 3’730

A “must-visit” destination for nearly all tourists that come to Romania was on today’s schedule. The over 600 years old Bran castle, where, according to a novel, the famous Graf Dracula called this castle his home. 

Along the way towards south-east, we often passed small villages where many of the houses’ yards contained numerous plum trees. Almost all those trees were fully packed with fruits, quite astonishing the abundance of plums! As well quite special were the many small booths along the road where they were selling sea buckthorn berries. Along the road we intended to buy some honey, but realised finally in front of the table that something else was in the glasses :-). We drove away with a small bottle of rose syrup and a glass of sea buckthorn jam, because we couldn’t disappoint the old granny. 

Some miles further ahead we came to the campground that lied nicely between the mud volcanos.

September 10^th 2021

Noroiosi volcanoes, Romania

On both sides of the campground were within about 20 to 30 minutes walking the so called Noroiosi mud volcanos. They are considered to be part of the main attractions in whole Romania.

These are not real volcanoes, they rather got their names by their shape. The “volcanoes” developed by methane gases that are coming from a depth of 10’000 feet (3000m). The gases come up through clay and water layers and bring them to the surface. The plant and animal unfriendly region looks rather like a lunar landscape. Everywhere are crater like increases where it is seething and blubbering.

It is even possible to watch the methane gases coming out of the bursting bubbles. At the warning signs of the park is therefore also mentioned that you shouldn’t get too close with a cigarette or a fire. Probably because you’d get a black head :-).

This detour was worth every minute after all the hiking and cities of the past weeks. Something totally different that we’ve never seen before!

September 11^th 2021

Noroiosi volcanoes – Lake Mocearu, Romania

Miles: 30

Miles total: 3’760

We continued from the mud volcanoes over crappy unpaved roads to the Meledic salt plateau. Besides the road appeared a sparse cliff landscape, that remembers with its white rocks rather to a winter landscape.

But it was no snow, it was dried crusty salt deposits. At this salt plateau arises also an extremely salty creek, that is coloring the below bigger river for quite some distance white. The road led us uphill to the lake “Lacul Mare Meledic”, that lies on top of the salt plateau. The Iveco got overheated at the really slow steep road, since our thermostat is damaged since over a week. So, from now on are we playing „thermostat“, and once in while we have turn up the heating all the way, independent of the outside temperature :-).

We made a short hike at the lake Lacul Mare Meledic and marveled the so called „big amphitheater“. A steep slope made from salty rocks with several vertically oriented clefts. A superb view and besides our countless hikes really something out of the ordinary and fascinating!

The tracks we continued with the Iveco were mostly bumpy and we drove with 10mph. But on the other hand, it was very exciting to drive around in those deserted areas and tiny villages. The day trip came to an end in the late afternoon at the picturesque lake Mocearu.

September 12^th 2021

Lake Mocearu See – Crasna, Romania

Miles: 50

Miles total: 3’810

A really tragic subject in Romania is the constant garbage everywhere. Also on this picturesque lake was garbage at the many picnic spots. We started before breakfast a little cleaning up project around our sleeping spot and filled up a big bag of plastic bottles and a little bag with paper towels. We put them later on properly into recycle bins. We placed the garbage nicely at the back of the Iveco with the hope that some people start to think why we did this!

Anyways we could really enjoy our breakfast outside at the lake.

Before we continued we walked in an hour around the lake. On the way, we crossed a herd of sheep with the shepherd and his dogs. The three big dogs came to greet us with loud barking. The friendly shepherd came and put us 2 slices of bread into our hands. He mentioned, that when the actually nice dogs were coming back, that we give shall them the bread and afterwards they’d be happy and tame :-).

The journey continued over crappy, unpaved roads. Hilly landscapes and smallest villages were forming our way in this abandoned but interesting region.

We drove a couple of miles after we reached the main road and stayed overnight at the wonderful Buzau creek, vis-à-vis of a huge sheep herd.

September 13^th 2021

Crasna – Carnic, Romania

Miles: 240

Miles total: 4’050

The main road between Braşov and Sibiu was very crowded, but the chauffeur Maryse was handling all difficult situations perfectly, even the crazy passing maneuvers of the Romanians.

Finally, we arrived at 8PM at our destination, the Retezat Nationalpark. Just a few miles before where we wanted to go, we slept on the side of the quiet road in the forest, since it didn’t make any sense to go on the campground and pay for it when arriving this late.

September 14^th – 17^th 2021

Carnic, Romania

Already before lunch we got installed at Giovanni and his wife, the always very friendly and happy camping owners. The two retired people are leading the campground full of joy, so we felt very good at that place.

We all enjoyed a funny evening together with the camping crew having wine and cheese. The next day was easy for us, since we only walked up 1300 feet (400m) to the Pietrele mountain cabin.

We started hiking after lunch and made a short detour to the Lolaia waterfalls. After 2 hours hiking we already arrived at the cabin that lies in the middle of the forest. People stay either in the „villa“ or in little, spread in the woods, huts. The grumpy cabin-manager gave us a key and we checked out our double-room in the “villa”. The next day we got up at 6.15 AM and started hiking at 7 AM without breakfast. There was unfortunately no food before 8AM at the cabin. Our todays destination, the peak of the Retezat mountain, lies about 4000 feet (1200m) higher up. Just out of the bed, we immediately had to go steeply up the forest until we reached the Lolaia-ridge.

Because of annoying flies, we had to postpone our breakfast, until we finally could eat some bread and cheese after 2 hours. The morning sun colored the mountains with its red colored blueberry bushes into a fantastic light. Fall has definitely arrived. The path across the ridge was rather annoying and time consuming. Often it went across gravel fields with big rocks, where we had to concentrate.

We finally reached the 8140 feet (2482m) peak and were rewarded with a fantastic view across the Retezat mountain range with its numerous mountain lakes. Shortly after, a group of Romanians arrived on top with 4 dogs following them. We actually thought that the dogs belonged to that group. The dogs then followed us when we started our descent. So, we realised that those were stray dogs that just followed the other group until the peak.

On our way back we got wonderful views to the large Bucura lake and several smaller mountain lakes as well as the adjoined valleys.

The way back led us through the long Pietrele valley back to the campground. Quite far down in the valley, our companion „Lumpi“ came out of nowhere and followed us a bit until he definitely disappeared.

We finally arrived at 8PM at the campground after a 5200 feet (1600m) descent. We recovered the next day at the campground from the exhausting but wonderful hike. We went to the campground-Mama Doina for ordering dinner.

September 18^th 2021

Carnic – Transalpina Pass, Romania

Miles: 60

Miles total: 4’110

Now we had to say goodbye at the campground. We will always remember the home-feeling atmosphere, and said goodbye with taking some pictures and exchanging addresses. We reached the famous Transalpina-mountain-pass-road via a side valley.

We stayed overnight on a hill, just slightly below the highest (7000 feet; 2132m) point of the road by cold and strong winds. On the top of the pass was thick fog, but luckily the fog cleared up just a bit further down where we stayed and the great mountain scenery became visible. The constant wind gave us the whole night a feeling as when we are on a train or a big ship :-). 

September 19^th 2021

Transalpina Pass – Obârsia Lotrului, Romania

Miles: 20

Miles total: 4’130

Our central heating in the camper has been used several times now! We ate very cozily at 73°F (23°C) our breakfast in the Iveco while the frosty wind was blowing around the insulated cabin. Near the highest point of the mountain pass, we explored the area with the Iveco going through the countless serpentines. 

A nice roundup was a little hike to some hill at this famous road. 

September 20^th 2021

Obârsia Lotrului – Obârsia Lotrului, Romania

Miles: 40

Miles total: 4’170

What happens today if you have no access to the internet? Going on a short hike without knowing the weather forecast! Something went wrong when we tried to recharge our Romanian cell phone so we have no internet since a couple of days.

It was already raining slightly in the morning, so we decided to be “umbrella-hikers” this day :-).

The weather stayed the entire day wet and unfriendly! Anyways we could enjoy the fantastic scenery of apparently one of the nicest mountain lakes of the southern Carpathians. The Câlcescu lake is nicely surrounded by mountains. During a rain free break we could eat our lunch.

Not really surprisingly was, that we were the only people at the lake :-). At this weather, we were happy to be back at the camper after 7 hours and 2000 feet (600m) of altitude difference. We stayed overnight at the same location as the day before.

September 21^st 2021

Obârsia Lotrului – Lake Oasa, Romania

Miles: 40

Miles total: 4’210

Just a relaxed day where we said good bye to the Swiss people and drove a bit down the valley to the next sleeping spot at a lake.

September 22^nd 2021

Lake Oasa – Sibiu, Romania

Miles: 50

Miles total: 4’260

We chose the backroads to get to the city of Sibiu. Along several villages we then arrived in the 170'000 population city Sibiu.

First, we intended to receive the new thermostat for the Iveco and get installed. That the engine is not too hot when we arrive at the Iveco-shop, we chose to make our lunch break directly besides the shop in a worker-restaurant. The both of us chose one of the daily menus. Our Romanian language skills were enough to understand that we ordered one plate with chicken. But the skills were not enough to understand that we ordered one plate chicken liver. We really couldn’t eat that plate!! Inconspicuously we packed some of the liver into paper and contributed later on to the cat at the campground. The cat really did enjoy it :-).

Now unfortunately the shop didn’t have time to replace the thermostat, so we continued with the spare part to the rather unattractive city campground.

September 23^rd 2021

Sibiu, Romania

Besides Brasov is also Sibiu exemplary for the economic boom of Romania in the past 20 years. Many foreign companies, mainly suppliers for the German car industry, settled down in this area. From a touristy point, the baroque architecture specially stands out.

In the year 2007, it became the cultural capital of Europe, what led to renovation and improvement of the historical sights and the infrastructure. The several baroque churches, palaces and squares are from the 17^th century. But the city is not just offering historical architecture, but also contemporary culture as well as outstanding gastronomy. Regularly are countrywide famous festivals, operas, ballet, film and theatre happening. Since we were only one day in the city we mainly looked for the gastronomy :-).

September 24^th 2021

Sibiu – Porumbacu de sus, Romania

Miles: 30

Miles total: 4’290

The daily trip only brought us to a campground at the starting point for the next hike. But interesting to mention is the following. One of our regular jobs as campers is emptying the grey-water tank. We have to get rid of the water somehow, since almost no campground in Romania has a place to empty the tank. We don’t just wanna empty the tank along the road (most certainly a lot of people are doing this anyways) because of the washing soap, toothpaste and so on. So, we use often car wash places. At one of those bigger washing places led us the very nice boss of the place to the best place, unfortunately directly in front of his “office”. And so we ended once again washing down a bit our van and opened inconspicuously our 35 gallon (140L) grey water tank :-). 

September 25^th – 28^th 2021

Porumbacu de sus, Romania

Hiking the Negoiu peak

Since we are not planning way ahead, we just tried yesterday to book a room in the Negoiu Mountain cabin. The plan would actually be to sleep there today… Our calls and text messages kept unanswered. The owner of the campground couldn’t really help us, on the contrary, he even thought it might be closed due to renovation. But we really wanted to take advantage of the forecasted, picture-perfect fall weather. So the only possibility we had, was to start early in the morning, that in case the cabin is closed, we’d still have enough time to walk back down. So that’s what we did. Shortly after 8AM was the village already behind us and we walked 6 miles (9km) on a bit boring dirt road, along the Raul Mare-river through the forest deep into the valley. Once in while a car passed us slowly since most of the people were saving the long way on foot. From the parking, it was another 2 hours steep up through the forest until we reached after a total of 4 ½ hours the mountain cabin. 

At the roof were some guys working, around the cabin it was a bit a chaos and out of the windows was loud but quite good Blues-music coming out. We then asked a younger guy if the cabin was even open. He said yes and that we shall come in. All the double rooms were taken, but luckily, we found two beds in an 8-person dorm. We mentioned that we didn’t get any answers to our calls and messages. The Rasta-woman just said that she gets too many requests to answer them all… We got cozy at the cabin, ate our lunch and shortly after a tiny hike to the nearby Serbota-waterfall. Afterwards we of course enjoyed a beer at the sun with a great view and good music. Step by step were more and more people arriving at the cabin. Some of them came back from the peak, others came up from the valley below. The large, well heated dining room was full of people in the evening for dinner time. There is to say that the Negoiu cabin is the largest cabin in the entire Carpathians and is also very well equipped for a mountain cabin. Across 3 floors is room for 126 people, sanitary rooms on every floor with hot showers and every room is heated by radiators. The hot water generation as well as the heating is done by photo-voltaic systems. Something to get used to is the entertainment of the cabin. There is a disco-area with a bar and the music could be listened to in every room. Luckily was the music turned down at 10PM :-). In our 8-person dorm we had luckily only one other person inside. We were happy about it in times of Covid. The next morning, we finally got our huge breakfast at 8:45AM with nearly one hour delay. Afterwards we finally began our 3300 feet (1000m) altitude change upwards. 

The path was really diversified: Scary artificial narrow bridges, an astonishing waterfall, mountain creeks, sharp tall rock formations and some climbing passages were making the hike interesting. In the higher altitudes was even a bit snow since it was cold and wet the days before. 

The marvellous panorama across the Fagaras mountains was presented to us at the peak of the 8315 feet (2535m) tall of the Negoiu. The Negoiu is actually the second highest mountain in Romania; the highest is simply 30 feet (9m) higher :-). We spent relaxing and marvellous 2 hours on top of the peak since we have booked another night at the cabin. We went back down to the cabin the same way we came up. This Sunday evening was much quieter then the last one, we were the only once besides two regular guests. If we’d have known that we could have saved changing into a double room… One of the regulars suddenly talked to us in really well Swiss German! It was Romanian guy that studied for 4 years in Switzerland. Monday morning, we said good bye to the cabin and went 3300 feet (1000m) back down. 

Once again, we a furry companion, named “Barry”, on the way down. We noticed the huge St. Bernhard similar dog already at the cabin. With his dog eyes, he always was looking for some little food from everyone. For us it was actually clear that this dog belongs to the cabin. This was apparently not the case and the dog came with us like it is the most normal thing on earth. Several times we tried to scare him off since we still believed he belongs to the cabin. He pretty much didn’t care about it, just followed us and even waited patiently when we took a break. All the way down, just before the village he said good bye and disappeared. The rest of the day we just spent at the campground.

September 29^th 2021

Porumbacu de sus – Lake Bâlea (Transfăgărășan Mountain Pass road), Romania

Miles: 40

Miles total: 4’330

The bad and foggy weather accompanied us on our way in the direction of the famous Transfăgărășan mountain pass road. Apparently one of the most beautiful mountain pass roads in Europe. We stayed quite below the highest point of the pass at a nice but foggy place because of the expected cold temperatures during the night.

September 30^th 2021

Crossing the Pass of the Transfăgărășan Mountain Pass road, Romania

Miles: 10

Miles total: 4’340

At the top of the mountain pass road was the fog constantly coming and going. Anyways we made, how else could it be, a little hike. We walked an hour up to the ridge to get a glimpse on the other side. We could still see quite well the surroundings, despite the fog. 

Besides the fantastic scenery we’ve also seen the impressive, with countless serpentines covered mountain road. The Transfăgărășan road was built in the 70’s and counted at those times as a big accomplishment of the socialism. Since then, the road is purely used for tourism purposes. 

Later, we crossed via a short tunnel on top of the entire road to the southern side of the pass. Several hundred feet further down, we went over an Offroad track to a magnificent sleeping spot, where we could enjoy the views finally the next morning because of the thick fog in the evening.

October 1^st 2021

Transfăgărășan Mountain Pass road – Bucharest, Romania

Miles: 140

Miles total: 4’480

Unbelievable 5 months we were in the entire Carpathian Mountains. we went with some wistfulness down towards the flatlands, towards south along the last mountain pass road. Out of nothing and completely unexpected turned destiny to the positive side! We already gave up on seeing a bear, but then this. At the last section, at the last 10 miles where it was possible to spot a bear, a splendid specimen of a brown bear walked across the road just in front of us. „A Bear “ „A Bear“ was sounding from both seats :-).

We made the first pictures by mobile phone because we were worried just to see him shortly. In the 30 minutes where we were really close to the bear, the photographing has advanced from the mobile phone, to the compact camera and finally to the big SLR-camera. The whole thing was surely a highlight for us, but it also has its down side. The reason that we could watch the bear for that long is unfortunately, that they are being fed out of cars at the side of the road. 4 Romanian cars were stopping during the time we watched the bear. But finally the bear got fed by an older German couple in a campervan :-( ! Not even to attract the bear, they threw a bread 20 feet (6m) to the animal. We made then a comment „That’s exactly what people shouldn’t do “, then came a comment back from the German guy „That is not a wild animal, the bear is always here “. Then we again „Exactly because of this they face problems with the bears “. Shortly after he drove away. Unfortunately, there are enough such stupid people that this bear is most probably the entire day near the road. Nevertheless, we totally enjoyed the moment. Romania really is having a problem with the 4’000 to 6’000 brown bears. They are going closer and closer to human settlements and this is causing conflicts. Different reasons are called. Of course, one of the main reasons is the extension of humans, either with more and more settlements or with deforestation. Another reason is the climate change, that shortens the bears hibernation and they find less food and go more to villages. Then there is the prohibition of hunting them. Rich hunters from foreign countries are missing and therefor is money missing that they used to regularly feed the bears in the forests.

Passing a huge artificial reservoir lake, the flat land came closer and closer.

We visited for a change a Cathedral about 100 miles (160km) before the Capital Bucharest. The Cathedral in the town of Curtea de Arges is one of the most famous buildings in Romania and is as well the tomb of the Roman Royal family.

Now to a total different topic. It’s now 3 month ago since we crashed and demolished our steps of the van in Slovakia. After we installed the steps, we took the old one with us to drop it off at a recycling place. Three months later were the steps still mounted at the back of the car. Then we found a junkyard shortly before Bucharest, so we finally got rid of our steps. Most impressive was the granny that smashed around a gearbox with the big hammer to split it into the separate spare parts :-). We put the steps on the scale; 10 pounds (5Kg). So, we got 2$ for scrap metal. We didn’t want the money, but the scrap dealer insisted and said that we shall go and get soup for it :-).

In the capital Bucharest, we ended up at a campground 10 miles (16km) away from the city centre due to a lack of other options.

October 2^nd – 4^th 2021

Bucharest, Romania

We usually took an UBER-Taxi from the campground to the capitals city center. It usually didn’t take that long since the drivers sometimes reached up to 60mph (100km/h) :-). In Bucharest, when you research the guide book, you can experience a time travel, back to the communism and to the collapse of the communistic eastern bloc more than 30 years ago. On one hand surely during the visit of the gigantic and massively exaggerated palace of the parliament.

After the one hour guided tour and 1 mile (1.6km) walking through the building, the female guide told us that we now have seen about 5% of the building! Fascinating and shocking at the same time what insane megalomania can do to people like the former president Ceausescu. This guy led the building construct in the 80’s. It is after the pentagon the 2^nd largest government building in the world and costed an estimated 3.5 billion dollars. It got built purely out of material from Romania. Some ridiculous figures: Surface area 700’000 ft² (65’000m²); 5'100 rooms; 35’000’000 ft³ (1'000'000 m³) Marble; 480 chandeliers.

On the other side, you clearly experience the collapse of the communistic eastern bloc more than 30 years ago by visiting the building of the former central committee.

That building, where Nicolae Ceausescu had his last speech on December 21^st  1989 and from where he had to flee from the roof by helicopter shortly after. A few days later, on December 25^th 1989 was the former president of the communist party, Ceausescu together with his wife executed after a short legal process.

We then mainly enjoyed the old town besides some other highlights of the city like the triumphant arch from the 1^st world war or the Athenaeum.

As Covid simply didn’t exist for the Romanians during summer, are the cases now rocketing. So, the government quickly decided to let only vaccinated people into restaurants. So, we had beers in cans and food on the park bench. At some point we also ended up in middle of a Covid demonstration. Bucharest is definitely worth a visit, but we were happy anyways to continue.

5.10.2021

Bucharest, Romania – Koshov, Bulgaria

Miles: 130

Miles total: 4’610

We had a few things we needed to do before we could cross the border into Bulgaria. Visiting a shopping mall, a campervan shop, and a Asia shop to get chilli paste. All those shops were north of the city and we needed to go south. Since the big road around the 1.8 million population city was too crowded, we crossed through the entire city of Bucharest, through downtown. We made it without problems thanks to the horn :-). The border crossing went on without any issues within a few minutes. But our Covid tests got checked seriously. We drove the first few miles in Bulgaria when it was already dark. After we got some cash (no €uro in Bulgaria) in the border city of Russe we continued for another hour until we reached the empty campground in Koshov.