To go off-roading in Romania has been on our (okok my) mind for a while. So when Nik and Vidli agreed to join, the group was complete and we started making plans.
As Melanie and I had more time to spare we left earlier and spent some time in the Dolomites 🇮🇹 and in Maribor 🇸🇮 until lake Balaton 🇭🇺 where the other two finally caught up with us.
Two of my friends have been to Romania by motor bike in the spring and lent me their off-road guide book. So we followed one of the tracks until we found a nice place to camp for the night. During the day we had to use our (electric) chainsaw the first time as a fallen tree blocked the road. And in the evening we all had a go cutting up fire wood 😊
Our first night wild camping got us all excited/scared about all the bear stories... But alas no bears, only a pack of (wild or shepherd?) dogs encircling us in the night and keeping us awake with their barking.
Continuing further south we headed to lake Marul where we planned to do some hiking. Sadly the weather had other plans, we barely setup camp when the torrent started. After almost 24h of constant rain we were fed up with it and decided to head to the Danube for warmer and drier weather!
The shortest way was obviously over the mountains 😁
On the top of the mountain was a winter resort village, derelict hotels and restaurants. Eerie scenery with everything closed and only dogs and horses! on the street.
At the Danube we found a little side arm and set up camp, enjoying the sun and warmth. The next day we headed north again, but quickly stopping at the Danube to snap a picture of the last Dacian king Decebalus.
To plan our route we used OsmAnd with the "Prefer Unpaved" road feature, which led us onto some wild trails:
We were lookin forward to a lovely night at Vidra lake, sadly the locals had other plans in mind.
During the entire night there was very! very!! loud!!! music playing from different groups around us, with the occasional gun shot mixed in.
The next morning when driving past them nobody was outside the tents but the beats were still pumping, maybe their way of scaring away the bears?!?
Once again the "shortest" (but very steep) way was directly over the mountain, with the guests stepping out of the chair lift looking strangely at us 😂
The "road" was quite overgrown but we had our chainsaw at hand 😏
Also worth mentioning are that horse drawn carriages haven't gone out of fashion here, even with license plate 👮♂️
The following day we stopped at some neolithic graves, the mounds of Sona.
And for the night we camped at lake Sfanta Ana, a popular tourist spot in the middle of bear country. Weird when the electric fence is around the campsite and not the animals...
Anyway, somewhere we read that the best time to spot bears is during dusk, so when everybody left we descended to the crater lake. The view was faboulus and we were the only people around...
Then it was more off-roading with some timber works 😎 If there is a hip high tree growing in the middle of the road, you can assume it hasn't been used much.
Also did I mention the heaps and heaps of storks? Storks everywhere!
Time was running out and we were already heading back west but made a quick stop at the old salt mine of Turda.
The huge excavated cavern was impressive, the gaudy circus like attractions they placed inside them not so much. Also was quite a shock of two weeks with next to no human interaction to see the huge crowds...
At least we found some little creek nearby to setup camp.
On the way home we stopped for a night on Neusiedlersee (even shallower than lake Balaton!), a night besides Kitzbühl and then already back in Switzerland we camped in Scuol. Where somebody had to break a leg... 🤦♂️
Beside this downer the trip was awesome, off-roading as we haven't seen it since Mongolia 🥰 Huge shout out to our Ryobi Chainsaw and OsmAnd, without which this would not have been possible!
This is where we started to wonder if this had been a good decision 😂 We saw no bear but were still happy to be back at camp 😉
Having all but given up on seeing any bears, we again took the "scenic" route the day after. After having missed our turn, we got out of the cars to discuss our options and then drive 50m back. And there it was, just beside the road in a field teeming with butterflies. It was almost a bit too much to take in 🤩
Did I mention that we were off-roading? 😝
With some spectacular sceneries!
And some more technical parts ☺️ Needed a counter „weight“ to avoid scratching the awning on the tree 😅
A quick dip in the Crisul Pietros and that was it with Romania.
