Biking in Romania
second report of Dave, 08.08.2007-08.13.2007
I finally have new, real updates about Dave's adventures biking in Romania - from Dave himself. He tried to communicate the details with me by way of voice recordings, as before, but all he could do instead was to send me tiny updates typed into the keyboard on his phone. The recordings wouldn't work. So using that little keyboard, he told me only the barest of details - the place where he is and that he's fine. Later, once in Sibiu, he sent me a looong email from an Internet Café. Well, long and detailed but in a telegraphic style that I have worked to try to make a story from.
biking in Romania
So, first of all a short update to the previous biking in Romania update. Dave pedaled between Pitesti and Curtea de Arges. The road was flat, good and easy to spin. At the Hotel Posada (will open a new window) they let him keep his bike in the Lobby. After spending three nights just hanging out, visiting the Royal Court and Monastery and having good time (even though it was raining a lot) he headed out on his bike to Corbii de Piatra.
Important for biking in Romania! Dave found he had bent his bicycle chain in shipping. He carefully bent the 3-4 bad links back as best he could since he could not find a bicycle shop in Curtea de Arges. Then, on his way to Corbii, just north of Curtea de Arges he spun past a small open air market. Guess what? He found a woman with bicycle parts and he bought the exact chain he needed from her for about 1EUR/ 2$. So, biking in Romania can't be so difficult - or, at least there are some options for parts replacement.
The road to Corbii de Piatra is good but has a lot of ups and downs. Once in Domnesti he found there was no B&B in that area. He was forced to spin some more and found a hotel a few kilometers north of Corbii, in Nucasoara. In fact it's a B&B called Pensiunea Danvi (will open a new window) and Dave said it's a "VERY nice place" (about 30EUR/42$ a night). The only trouble was the road to Nucasoara from Corbii. The last 4 km/2.5miles is bad but no real problem on a bike - just a lot of work. Even thought the road there is paved, there are many "wash-outs" that have not been repaired so you don't bike straight ahead. You must slow down to avoid the ruts. After he spent the night in Nucasoara, he returned to Corbii and visited the built in stone wall monastery, Corbii de Piatra.
He returned to Curtea de Arges where he stayed at the Venus Hotel over the night. You'll find this hotel at the north exit of town. Inexpensive (20EUR/30$ a night), old, but clean and comfortable. Breakfast was included in the cost, but he didn't like their breakfast so he spun over to Road (he said) 7D (but I think he wanted to say 7C) where he found a nice café and had a good breakfast. Then it rained for the first time on him. He held up under the covered entrance to a strip club until the rain stopped.
Then he biked to near the Poenari Castle (Dracula's castle). Perfect weather. The ride there was not difficult although the road started to have more and more frequent holes. Dave absolutely loved visiting the Citadel and stayed up there a couple hours. Wonderful experience.
BTW, Alex in Placerville, CA (a 6 year old very cute boy who have been following David's trip on this website and when Alex saw that David had visited Dracula's castle, he was SOOOO excite) Dave will share ALL of the details and pictures with you, when he returns home. Thanks for following along.
Dave spent that night (in a terrible lightning, thunder and rain storm) at La Cetate Hotel (about 35Eur/50$ a night) at the bottom of the hill from where Poienari Castle watches the neighbourhood. They didn't let him keep the bike in room until he showed them it folded up into a small space. Then it was OK. Nice restaurant there.
Next morning Dave started to bike the Transfagarasan road. At first it was steep but he could bike, then he found it to get steeper and steeper until he could no longer pedal and had to walk the bike mostly. But it was getting late and all the hotels had no room (not unusual as he happened to be there on a Saturday when it is very crowded) so he had to camp instead.
Watching the clouds he felt it was going to be a repeat of the previous night. He set up camp (didn't said where but I suppose in the neighbourhood of Capra Chalet) as usual and prepared as best he could. He now writes that he has never camped in such a rainstorm. Solid heavy rain for hour after hour. Brrrr! Sometimes, biking in Romania can be a pain! Soon every thing was soaked, sleeping bag, cloths, everything. Dave thought the night was never going to end. It was absolutely the worst he has ever experienced.
Fortunately it was not cold. Cool, but not cold. And, in this, he was very fortunate. Because there, on top of the Fagaras mountain, bad weather means really bad. He had the good instinct (or he simply couldn't go further?) to stop on the southern side of the Fagaras Mountains where the temperatures are generally 5-10 Celsius degrees higher than on the northern side. Had he camped on the northern side, who knows how much worse it might have been?
So, the moral of this biking in Romania story is: if you arrive here, in the top mountain area, during a weekend time, be sure you have a reservation in advance at one of the hotels/B&Bs. Or, if you intend to camp, be prepared for "the worst weather in the world" (minus 5 C degrees in middle summer, very powerful storms, great wind). David was able to devise methods to survive the torrents and wind, but he was VERY glad when morning came and he could be on his way out of there.
The road on to the summit for David now continued to get very steep with many one ways due to wash-outs. Finally he made it to the tunnel at the summit. There, on the northern side of tunnel there were many kiosks selling food/drink.
I can't believe he missed to tell me about Balea Lake and the neighbourhood beautiful landscapes. Perhaps the weather was so cloudy than he can't see further then few meters. Or he was so tired and wet after the previous night than everything else beside a dried place was shadowed.
Dave got a pancake and some juice. And then mounted his bicycle and FLEW down the northern side of mountain. No wash-outs. VERY good road.
He spun into Cartisoara and followed the signs to Casa Duse. Dave found this little B&B cheap, clean, with a great view and great service. They washed and dried all his stuff and did not a charge him for it! (He gave them a tip anyway).
The road from there to Sibiu is flat and good but narrow until you get close to Sibiu. Then there are a few hills but not a problem. As Dave got even closer it was more like a freeway with a very wide clean paved shoulder. Very easy. But signs prohibited bicycles. He simply ignored the signs (well, a bicycle rider has no other choice there) and got into Sibiu in the early afternoon.
More about Dave's biking in Romania trip after his next update.
Or read the previous report.
Back to Biking in Romania page.
