Biking in Romania

the 2008 adventue of a 6 Englishmen group

This is about the biking in Romania adventure of six sweet crazy English men. Why? They came in Romania in a holiday and pedaled like crazy from the morning to the evening cumulating about 700 km/450 miles in 7 days. And pay attention! Not on a nice asphalted perfect road. How does this sound to you? Read their report as Clive sent to me after his arrival at home.

Day 1 (6th June 2008)

Arrived at Cluj-Napoca airport at noon where the 6 of us un-packed our bikes and set off for the town centre. After 4 km we decided its time for lunch and beer so found a little bar and watched the world go by. After finding our hotel and showering it was time for an evening stroll and bar hopping experience. Cluj was quite a nice town and the old town was interesting with cobbled streets and good restaurants. The locals were all friendly. The area deserved more time to explore but we ran out of time.

Day 2

After a hearty breakfast we set off out of town via the E60 as Delia had marked on the map. We soon turned off the main road at Luna de Sus and headed in land on roads that soon turned into compressed mud and stones.

They are building a new road along side and the construction traffic meant the road was quite busy. It also became undulating and we noticed the difference on our bikes having panniers weighted down by our clothes and spares.

We also came across dogs barking at every point, some of which shot out to chase us. This gave us a chance to use our sticks and keep them at bay. At one point all 6 of us were either throwing stones or thrashing sticks around like mad men. Every house seemed to have a dog which mainly was locked up but still loved to give us a good barking.

The day wore on and after a couple of tea breaks at Savadisla and Baisoara we finally made it to route 75 where we crossed and climbed up the hill through Buru and headed for Rimetea. For obvious reasons we gave Turda a wide berth! We had a late lunch stop at Livezile where we emptied the food stock of the local tumbling down bar and proceeded to cause havoc with bread and tomato's all over the place, god we were hungry.

After arriving at Aiud we followed the main road to Alba Iulia where we stayed. We had travelled about 130 Km and deserved a good evening out with Pizza and beer. The town seemed to die out about 10 pm and we struggled to find any late bars or café's to fully un wind. So off to bed it was to rest the tired legs.

Day 3

Rather than follow, what would have been an easy route (Delia's route) we decided to take a short cut across even minor roads that we thought could not exist. Initially we had tarmac roads but these soon stopped and we found ourselves on gravel tracks cutting across fields, SHEEP. Now we had a problem, as we knew about the sheep dogs and when they came running we saw what all the fuss was about. These dogs, we had been warned, would attack you and rip you to shreds! Luckily a shepherd heard the barking and saw us so he stopped his dogs. We pressed on, always watching for sheep dogs that hide in the fields. We kept together and made good progress on the gravel tracks even though some sections would be better served by mountain bikes.

We got to Rosia de Secas where we re-joined Delia's route. This small town had a well where the locals get all their water from. In fact many villages had wells and the women walked around carrying water carriers. We noticed the men sat about watching this activity and many of us wanted to stay and live in the villages so we could have women doing all the work whilst we sat around. Its different in England.

We stayed on Delia's route in Sibiu and covered about 100 Km that day mainly on dirt tracks.

Sibiu is worth a visit and we had a good evening there as it was some sort of cultural festival. We met many locals in the bars and explained we wanted to cross the mountains on the 7 c road. This was met with cries of "you're all perish, it's covered in snow, many avalanches, roads shut, you're all doomed". This seemed to confirm that we would give it a go so next day we headed off to find a hotel near the base of the pass.

Day 4

Oh my god what a day, 50 Km only across fields (full of sheep) 7 hours of hard cycling. Yes, our short cut did not pay off. This was meant to be a sort of rest day but turned into an adventure. Many sheep dog incidents, lots of laughing and cries of "where the hell are we". We crossed fields that our bikes just sank into the sand and mud. We did meet lots of local people who seemed surprised to find strange dirt covered strangers in their villages.

We managed to get a pension house in Cartisoara 4 km up the 7c road. Tomorrow would be a major challenge so early to bed. Unfortunately I had to share a twin room with the group's loudest snoring person. I slept in the corridor that night!

Day 5

A 30 km climb up the 8 - 10% Mountain. This was hard work and lucky we found a coffee stop half way up. The road was fantastic and no cars or buses as it were still officially closed. The views were stunning and the melting snow caused fantastic water falls. 5 km from the top we hit the snow, some sections were tarmac surrounded by 10m metre snow banks.

The lake at the top was totally frozen and as can be seen by the photo's it was a fantastic route. At the top the bar was open so had a good lunch as discussed if we could get through the tunnel to descend the other side. We were told that only fools would go into a 800m long tunnel full of ice, pitch black and possible bears. So off we went.

After a very very nervous trip through the tunnel we made it to the other side to be confronted with a bank of snow, see pic's. After stopping laughing we proceeded to carry the bikes over the snow and find the road that would give us a fantastic descent. After 30- 40 km free wheeling we hit the foot hills and carried on, in pain, till we found a pension house.

Day 6

Another long day and 6 minor climbs over the foot hills. We passed Curtea de Arges which seemed like a lively town with a few things to see.

We arrived at Cimpulung which is a type of university town. We found a reasonable hotel and some good bars and restaurants to enable us to fully un-wind.

Day 7

A morning's fast ride took us all the way to Targoviste where we spent the afternoon at Vlad's palace and church. It was very welcome to have an afternoon off as we had a fairly flat day covering only 60 Km. The route we took was stunning and the mountain road always seemed either flat of downhill. There were many wild animals, horses, donkeys, etc.

Day 8

From Targoviste we spend the first part of the day on minor roads but after a few hours we had to risk life and limb on the main road into Bucharest. This was a nightmare as drivers do not give you any space. We were all relieved to get to Bucharest alive.

Summary

Transylvania was a fantastic place to cycle and over the 600 Km + we cycled it proved to be an experience.

The only down side were the sheep dogs which caused us to always be looking around in case one shot out. Only 2 of our team had to sprint away after being chased and are lucky to be able to tell the tales.

The best day was the 7 c road and is a must if going to Transylvania.

The people we met, whether on the road, or in local bars, were always helpful and friendly.

The hotels and pension houses (the Romanian B&Bs) were all of a good standard and reasonable price. We never struggled to find a hotel and always had hot water. We did not book places to stay in advance but I would assume this is required if travelling in peak times. I think mid June was the ideal time to go and we all look forward to a re-visit in the near future.

We saw no wolves, wild bears or boars so were we lucky or un-lucky, I'm not sure.

Back to Biking in Romania page. or
Go directly to Dave's first report.