Bike to Asia

Mountain pass before lake Vidra

After sleeping about 12 hours we started next morning early knowing that we have 2 passes and about 120km in front of us. Stepping outside we immediately knew that while we were sleeping in the warm room it didn’t get warmer outside, the thermometer showed 0 degree… The way up to the first pass was really steep, about 16% at some places and I have to admit that I had to take off the bike and push it at those parts. Pushing is also really tiring though. At the top 7 puppies approached us. They were very cute and curious, they followed us for a long time. We were happy to have some company with us because we heard strange sounds, like a bear roar (??) from the woods. It was a bit scary as we didn’t know if there were bears in the woods or not and except that voice and the 7 little puppy the landscape was quite abandoned. We heard that the bear will only attack us if we appear suddenly so we talked quite loud and yelled at every turn: hello uncle bear, don’t be frightened, it’s just us, coming down. It was really, really cold. We couldn’t speed down because of 2 reasons: 1. The quality of the road was not good, it was mostly frozen mud. 2. It was so cold that we had to stop from time to time to warm our hands up on our belly. I wouldn’t imagine that once I will think that but I could hardly wait to start to go up again because in that case I was not cold. As we rode the bike only 1 dog stayed with us which I felt really sorry about because I didn’t know if it could find its way back to its brothers and sisters. The bear roar turned out to be only the sound of people cutting woods with a chainsaw.

(Actually, Zsofi did see a brown bear while squatting in the bush, but it was a small and harmless one… )
The lake Vidra was not so stunning as we expected. And although the road went along the coast line for about 15 km, we hardly could have a glimpse of it because of the thick pine tree forest…

Lake Vidra

The second pass was a lot easier, not so steep and it felt we got up there really quickly. Finally speeding from there was possible, yuhuuu. The villages of the other side of the Carpathians were very nice and lovely. The only problem was that it was already afternoon and still about 70km’s in front of us… That day we biked the most in km’s and in hours as well. After Brezoi, we joined the main road (7) again – it was awful with lots of trucks and without a bicycle lane. Apart from the traffic, the Olt valley was beautiful as the river broke through the Carpathian mountains in a narrow gorge.
At around 7-8pm we reached Ramnicu Valcea. We only noticed there that the tracking device was discharged and our sign is still at lake Vidra but some friends were so nice that complemented the route as you could read from the tracking comments.
Because of the longest day we slept next day very long, wrote some emails and posted some writings on the blog. Our host, Stefania was very kind, she fed us more in the evening and in the morning as well and his father even made some sandwiches for us for the trip. It was already afternoon when we left so we hardly had time to leave Ramnicu Valcea. We only went 30kms and found a playground with some slides where we thought we could spend the night. We cooked paprikáskrumpli, it was very tasty! We gave the rest of the food to our newly adopted dog – it was there on the playground, barking at others but letting us in.
We haven’t received any replies for our couchsurfing request from Slatina so we just thought will camp later on as well. We even avoided Slatina: on the left side of the river the road was really bad, the asphalt even disappeared at some places so we felt we are lost but then it reappeared again. And the villages are never ending here! We wanted to have a rest outside of the village but it only came after 20 km’s. We decided to go the main road on the right side of the river, because we were very slow on the bumpy road on the left. But as soon as we crossed the river, strong headwinds came so we were not faster eventually…
Right now it is Monday and while I am writing this Félix is fixing the battery charger device in a bus stop. He almost used the soldering iron as well!
Now we continue so I have to stop writing.
…
The Olt valley was quite boring – all the villages looked the same. The only good things were the lovely yellow baby geese. Generally the people were kind, giving water and letting us eat at the tables.
In Caracal, we tried to look for a place where there is internet. Zsofi went in to a small Xerox shop to ask, they told something which she didn’t understand. Then after a while, the lady came out and grabbed Zsofi’s hands and took her inside (she was kidnapped!) There was internet in there. So we quickly made some CS requests, replied to some emails and did the most necessary things on internet. We really miss internet on the road! And when there is, there is not enough time to do everything we wanted…

When we tried to camp next to a small lake, two men (who were fishing) told us that it was a private ground at that we can’t sleep there. No way. But they recommended another place 2 km’s from there, which we found to be quite good for camping.
The headwind continued until the RO-BG border unfortunately so we made slow progress. We camped on the shore of the Danube – the landscape was very nice with lots of birds, sheep and dogs – we already got used to the dogs here in Romania. It was almost full moon and a starry sky, so it was very cold at night! I even had to zip the inner collar of my sleeping bag tight!
On day 14 we could only go at 13 kmph in the headwind. The road was very bad at some places. I thought that the ferry goes every (half an) hour, but it turned out that it goes only twice a day: 10am and 5pm. It is 3pm now. The border guards seemed surprised when we told we are going to Istanbul (we usually do not say we’re going to the Himalayas, only to the next big town). And it costs 10.30 Lei per person. So we are wasting time and money. Had I known this, I’d planned another route through Romania… Now as we have time to kill, we finish writing the story at a cafe next to the border control area. People are flexing and hammering some iron here which is very loud. There is a big ugly factory next to us so we don’t like this border. On top of all that, the road that led from Turnu Magurele to the port was cobbled  – just to have nice memories of Romanian roads.
Romania in a sentence: helpful and kind people, bad roads, dogs, cheap ice cream, BINE ATI VENIT / DRUM BUN signs, and drivers pushing the horn (well before overtaking, fortunately), nice mountain villages in the Carpathians.

More photos at: http://picasaweb.google.hu/felix.kovacs/BikeToAsiaRomania#

We’ll continue with our Bulgarian adventures soon.

Our room in Deva

Day 7 was a rest day in Deva. So we slept twice in the monastery in the little guest house. Fortunately there was a wifi router in the opposite building (the monastery itself). This is a foundation to help children. There are quite a lot of them, whose parents are missing or cannot afford feeding them or for other reasons they are here. Most of them (if not all) are Hungarian speaking.
Anyway, it was raining almost all day so we spent most of the time indoors – which was good for us. We did not like Deva much probably because of the bad weather. There was a castle on a hilltop (the famous “magos Déva vára”) but it was under construction so we did not visit it.
Thanks to Évi, Zsófi’s ex-colleague, we could wash our clothes, and could hang them to dry in our room to a self-made rope.

Starting from Deva

Day 8 started a little bit late, 10am instead of the planned 8am, but this is usual. We visited the castle of Vajdahunyad (Hunedoara) which has a smaller copy in Budapest. There was an entrance fee of 8 lei + 5 lei for taking photos! Fortunately I could go in and take a photo without paying, before the guards appeared. Then I told OK I’ll wait outside, Zsofi bought a half-price ticket.

Vajdahunyad

After Hunedoara we took the smaller road to Hátszeg – there was a smaller double-pass already. Zsofi was very proud that she could make it without difficulties. After Hátszeg the road was newly built and without much traffic, and on top of all that we had a good tailwind! But we had to face our first real pass, 759 m high.

Rains came and went, Zsofi was overtaking me because I stopped to take photos quite often. We liked the Carpathian landscape very much! Nice tiny villages, green grassy hills with scattered trees. Zsofi told that if at home we will get bored in Diósjenő, we can come here to live for a while.
Petrosani was on 600 m so fortunately we did not have to descend a lot before our next pass, which we planned for next day and is 1575 m high. We arranged a couchsurfing accommodation in Petrosani at a guy who came from the US to teach English here. He came here because he likes hiking – in the surrounding hills (Retyezát, Paráng, etc., above 2500 m high peaks) he can do that a lot.

Day 9 – we had to get up very early, at 6.30am, because the guy travelled to Turgu Jiu by train. It was raining and so cold that we stopped at an empty house (under construction) to eat. It was a good decision because the rain stopped and the sun came out to shine a bit – of course the next clouds came very soon. After Jiet, there was a nice gorge, Zsófi told that the landscape is unreal, just as if we were in a tale.

The sign told it!

The road quality was quite bad but we could avoid the holes – by car it would have been more difficult. By the way, we only counted 8 passing cars this day.
Weather changes here in the mountains every minute. There was snow on the ground at already 1000 m altitude, and it was snowing before the pass, which was enough to Zsofi to call it a day and have a half rest day again at a house. We were invited to this house by people who stopped as they passed by, and told us that they saw us near Hátszeg on the road. We got a free hot chocolate and when we were just about to continue the pass (the house is on 1200 m), they told that we could sleep here as well. “For how much?” “50 Lei total.” “OK.” It was 1.30pm but because Zsófi had a knee-ache and she didn’t wanted to cycle when it was snowing, we decided we’ll spend the night here. The original plan was to camp on the hill between two passes (and among bears) at the lake Vidra on 1300 m.
We got a small rooom with a fireplace inside, they quickly made fire (I had to patch the openings of the stove with mud to avoid smoke in the room), and we fell asleep for 3-4 hours. We should have slept these 3-4 hours in the morning, our bodies knew it. Now it is quite warm in the room as I write this. We could also have warm showers. The electricity was turned on from 7pm to 10pm only. So we quickly charged every device. There is no mobile signal here so maybe my mom thinks the bears ate us.
We had cooked pasta and had some bread for supper, but we are already longing after normal food (meet, rice, etc.). Tomorrow will be a tough day with 130 km until Ramnicu Valcea, where a CS lady waits for us.