OFR-33 11.05 cont.
Start: 05:45 Finish: 18:05
Total km., for day: 278,3
Camped at: N46.03836° E25.21185°
Finally got back on the road at 08.55. This was going to be my day of Fortified Churches. I won't bore you with all the details, if anyone is particularly interested go into Wikipedia and search for "Villages with fortified churches in Transylvania". This covers the major ones but the area is actually bursting at the seams with them. For all, or most of them try RomaniaTourisim.com.
Two we gad visited in October 2017 on the 1x Meet only this time I came onto them from totally different directions, and although enjoyed them back then having been driven I had no idea anymore which ones they were, so it was a pleasant surprise to see them again. When we did them last time it was better from the point of view, less bodies. Both were knee deep in tourists, like yours-truly, so I gave them a passing wave. Quite a few of the others were also closed and not accessible so I just had a look-see all around and carried on.
OFR-34 12.05
Start: 05:50 Finish: 14:45
Total km., for day: 252,7
Camped at: N46.29327° E23.47743°
Was on the go again by 08:50 and found a few more fortified churches, but nothing extraordinary.
It did turn out to be my day for potholing though. Seen some rough stuff so far this trip but today turned out to be the winner by far. Two I nearly didn't see in time, I was lucky to see them at the last second. Hate to think what could have happened to my undercarriage if I hadn’t. Was the sort of stretch where ideally one should have been assured of a mobile signal and all the necessary Mountain Rescue emergency numbers, they were deep enough to warrant the guys if you were unlucky enough to land in one.
Otherwise the drive was through pretty cool countryside and the landscapes were grand.
Finished up in a National Park again for the night. Cheile Rimetului be its name. High craggy mountains all around. Nice quiet night.
OFR-35 13.05
Start: 05:05 Finish: 14:40
Total km., for day: 303
Camped at: N46.59945° E24.15543°
Again interesting drive. Having done all of the main parts of the route that I had originally planned for I'm now more or less just following my nose around. That naturally has the consequence of struggling to find a suitable place to camp on occasions. Today after 303 kilometres I'd had enough and finally just parked up off the road a bit in a field. Great view, looking at lots of rolling green countryside. Just hope I don't get run off but there is no-one around anywhere I can ask. Time will tell. There was a town on my planned “follow the nose route” called Turda so I gave that a wide berth.
Blowing up a storm now great.
Plan to head up towards Botosani in the NE tomorrow, see how far I get.
OFR-36 14.05
Start: 05:15 Finish: 14:45
Total km., for day: 286,5
Camped at: N46.69595° E26.16170°
Had a great night and got the eyes open by 05:15 and up and away by 06:55. The drive continued through the same wide open rolling countryside for about 70 kilometres but started to get steep as I headed NE.
This was markedly so after having left Gheorgheni behind me. Then it turned into a really windy trip, hairpin bends almost doing an Oozulem Bird trick. Going down the other side of the pass into Bicaz-Chei it, the road, gets squeezed into a gorge and the sheer cliffs there must rate as a rock climbers idea of paradise.
I stopped at 11:30 for half an hour and a Bovril bevy. In Bicaz proper, (this closed a loop as I’d passed through there at the beginning of my trip), I turned E towards Piatra Neamt again to carry on towards Botosani. I was getting a bit tired though by then and noticed a sign to a Monastery, so I shot off in that direction. My thinking being that as they always seem to build the bloody things at the back of beyond there was a fair chance I’d find a place to camp.
I followed the road right into the monastery, about 25 kilometres up through the pine forest into the mountains. Tar except for the last ten k’s. The monastery wasn't much to write home about, looked more like a work in progress to me. Spotted one Nun doing her thing in the garden so I’m guessing it was ladies only up there.
There was nowhere to camp around the place but back the way I'd come in at the coordinates above there was a great big clearing in the forest which is where I put down roots for the night. Check it out in GoogleEarth, great camp, not too crowded. Bit eerie in the night and dark as hell. But great fun
OFR-37 15.05
Start: 00600 Finish: 18:45
Total km., for day: 525,9
Camped at: N47.60316° E25.85249°
A very quiet night.followed by a long old day, but my choice. The ride up to Botosani was pretty boring and my usual lack of any sort of major empathy with cities made me dodge straight back out once I’d got into the suburbs.
Its location put me in a corner of Romania which runs out east to Moldova and the Ukraine in the north. I figured it would be similar terrain as the trip down from Iasi down into the Delta. Long rolling agricultural land with next to nothing in it apart from lots of small villages. Still me being the way I am I had to find out for myself, and being the clever sod that I am it was as I thought it would be. Still that done I qualify for the T-shirt and don't have to rely on other folks say so. Which brings me to one of my favourite quote’s, it's from Aldous Huxley - “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”
If any one is interested where I’m talking of this is the route I took:
From Piatra-Neamt (N) to Pascani then (E) to Targu Frumos then (N) to Botosani. From there (E) to Stefanesti to go (NNW) on the 24C to Radauti-Prut. Thats as good as the Ukraine and I turned (W) and followed the 29A until I met up with the 29C which took me up to Siret. From there I just bashed down to Suceava and then (W) to here.
Here being a camping site with shower and stuff where I shall take another day off.
OFR-38 16.05
Start: 05:00 Finish: 00:00
Total km., for day: 11 (To the supermarket and back)
Camped at: N47.60316° E25.85249°
Up at 05:00 sorted van and myself out, good long shower and reverted to my usual beautiful handsome self, caught up on my notes and stuff and chilled.
Plan tomorrow is to head down to Hangu and back up into the hills, were a lot of image possibilities there and I want to see if I can get some more of the charcoal burners that were working there. Shall camp close I guess. After that a slow meander back to Baia Sprie which is where I met with my friend Radu at the start of the trip. I’ve found that this top northern part is my favourite so leave from Baia Sprie to head back home on the 26.05. That will be my final post then until I’m actually back home.
Start: 05:45 Finish: 18:05
Total km., for day: 278,3
Camped at: N46.03836° E25.21185°
Finally got back on the road at 08.55. This was going to be my day of Fortified Churches. I won't bore you with all the details, if anyone is particularly interested go into Wikipedia and search for "Villages with fortified churches in Transylvania". This covers the major ones but the area is actually bursting at the seams with them. For all, or most of them try RomaniaTourisim.com.
Two we gad visited in October 2017 on the 1x Meet only this time I came onto them from totally different directions, and although enjoyed them back then having been driven I had no idea anymore which ones they were, so it was a pleasant surprise to see them again. When we did them last time it was better from the point of view, less bodies. Both were knee deep in tourists, like yours-truly, so I gave them a passing wave. Quite a few of the others were also closed and not accessible so I just had a look-see all around and carried on.
OFR-34 12.05
Start: 05:50 Finish: 14:45
Total km., for day: 252,7
Camped at: N46.29327° E23.47743°
Was on the go again by 08:50 and found a few more fortified churches, but nothing extraordinary.
It did turn out to be my day for potholing though. Seen some rough stuff so far this trip but today turned out to be the winner by far. Two I nearly didn't see in time, I was lucky to see them at the last second. Hate to think what could have happened to my undercarriage if I hadn’t. Was the sort of stretch where ideally one should have been assured of a mobile signal and all the necessary Mountain Rescue emergency numbers, they were deep enough to warrant the guys if you were unlucky enough to land in one.
Otherwise the drive was through pretty cool countryside and the landscapes were grand.
Finished up in a National Park again for the night. Cheile Rimetului be its name. High craggy mountains all around. Nice quiet night.
OFR-35 13.05
Start: 05:05 Finish: 14:40
Total km., for day: 303
Camped at: N46.59945° E24.15543°
Again interesting drive. Having done all of the main parts of the route that I had originally planned for I'm now more or less just following my nose around. That naturally has the consequence of struggling to find a suitable place to camp on occasions. Today after 303 kilometres I'd had enough and finally just parked up off the road a bit in a field. Great view, looking at lots of rolling green countryside. Just hope I don't get run off but there is no-one around anywhere I can ask. Time will tell. There was a town on my planned “follow the nose route” called Turda so I gave that a wide berth.
Blowing up a storm now great.
Plan to head up towards Botosani in the NE tomorrow, see how far I get.
OFR-36 14.05
Start: 05:15 Finish: 14:45
Total km., for day: 286,5
Camped at: N46.69595° E26.16170°
Had a great night and got the eyes open by 05:15 and up and away by 06:55. The drive continued through the same wide open rolling countryside for about 70 kilometres but started to get steep as I headed NE.
This was markedly so after having left Gheorgheni behind me. Then it turned into a really windy trip, hairpin bends almost doing an Oozulem Bird trick. Going down the other side of the pass into Bicaz-Chei it, the road, gets squeezed into a gorge and the sheer cliffs there must rate as a rock climbers idea of paradise.
I stopped at 11:30 for half an hour and a Bovril bevy. In Bicaz proper, (this closed a loop as I’d passed through there at the beginning of my trip), I turned E towards Piatra Neamt again to carry on towards Botosani. I was getting a bit tired though by then and noticed a sign to a Monastery, so I shot off in that direction. My thinking being that as they always seem to build the bloody things at the back of beyond there was a fair chance I’d find a place to camp.
I followed the road right into the monastery, about 25 kilometres up through the pine forest into the mountains. Tar except for the last ten k’s. The monastery wasn't much to write home about, looked more like a work in progress to me. Spotted one Nun doing her thing in the garden so I’m guessing it was ladies only up there.
There was nowhere to camp around the place but back the way I'd come in at the coordinates above there was a great big clearing in the forest which is where I put down roots for the night. Check it out in GoogleEarth, great camp, not too crowded. Bit eerie in the night and dark as hell. But great fun
OFR-37 15.05
Start: 00600 Finish: 18:45
Total km., for day: 525,9
Camped at: N47.60316° E25.85249°
A very quiet night.followed by a long old day, but my choice. The ride up to Botosani was pretty boring and my usual lack of any sort of major empathy with cities made me dodge straight back out once I’d got into the suburbs.
Its location put me in a corner of Romania which runs out east to Moldova and the Ukraine in the north. I figured it would be similar terrain as the trip down from Iasi down into the Delta. Long rolling agricultural land with next to nothing in it apart from lots of small villages. Still me being the way I am I had to find out for myself, and being the clever sod that I am it was as I thought it would be. Still that done I qualify for the T-shirt and don't have to rely on other folks say so. Which brings me to one of my favourite quote’s, it's from Aldous Huxley - “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”
If any one is interested where I’m talking of this is the route I took:
From Piatra-Neamt (N) to Pascani then (E) to Targu Frumos then (N) to Botosani. From there (E) to Stefanesti to go (NNW) on the 24C to Radauti-Prut. Thats as good as the Ukraine and I turned (W) and followed the 29A until I met up with the 29C which took me up to Siret. From there I just bashed down to Suceava and then (W) to here.
Here being a camping site with shower and stuff where I shall take another day off.
OFR-38 16.05
Start: 05:00 Finish: 00:00
Total km., for day: 11 (To the supermarket and back)
Camped at: N47.60316° E25.85249°
Up at 05:00 sorted van and myself out, good long shower and reverted to my usual beautiful handsome self, caught up on my notes and stuff and chilled.
Plan tomorrow is to head down to Hangu and back up into the hills, were a lot of image possibilities there and I want to see if I can get some more of the charcoal burners that were working there. Shall camp close I guess. After that a slow meander back to Baia Sprie which is where I met with my friend Radu at the start of the trip. I’ve found that this top northern part is my favourite so leave from Baia Sprie to head back home on the 26.05. That will be my final post then until I’m actually back home.
