“TET ROMANIA”
It showed out, that after two days living on the bike, I’m back in my daily “adventure-mode”. I’m not talking about the necessary tasks like managing the shelter life, planning for fuel stops or food-organization, but rather in the ways of my general thinking:
First my thoughts often rotated about the left behind everyday life, like: work, family, private issues, …, and now, whilst traveling, such thoughts have nearly vanished. My thoughts changed and were about the other simple tasks like: gaining distance, keeping to the planned route as close as possible, finding detours, taking some nice pictures and get over all the small and big hurdles, which such a ride is coming with.
In hindsight, this change in my ways of thinking during this adventure (and also other adventures) was like a mental holiday. But to whom do I tell this? Each of us motorcyclists knows the therapeutic effect a proper motorcycle ride brings with it!
But now, enough of this bla bla, here’s the first part of my ride report of day three of the breakdown ride. This time, Чернотa and I rode in a well-balanced dual sport manner along TET Romania into Bulgaria. Enjoy!
0515 AM: Dawn awoken me in my tent. After a short surf on the internet, it was clear, that the incoming day will be a perfect one for riding. Maybe a bit hot, but hey it’s summer! When the first sun rays hit …
the tent it was time to go up. So I did. After giving …
trusty Чернотa a gentle clap on the chest, I compressed the sleeping gear and dismantled part after part the tent. Thirty minutes later the whole gear was stowed, and we left …
the huge field, in which we slept last night. Now we slowly entered the …
calm hills of Romanias West-Carpathian-Mountains. In the village …
“Sacca-Montana” it was time for getting some fuel.
Romania overall is in its countryside most of the time very poor looking compared to its neighbor Hungary. Most of the houses are simple rundown and less maintained. Such …
beautiful houses like this one are a rare occurrence, when traversing this rural areas. After we left the village “Sacca -Montana” …
we entered the for the first time this ride Romanias TET-Trail, which passed this …
“Bee-Lorrie”. The track followed some dense …
populated valleys and some parts of the …
TET Trail itself were freshly paved.
Чернотa and I …
gained hight and followed for a while some …
nice hilltops southwards. That’s exactly what I love when riding parts of the Trans European Trail:
Remoteness and endless views apart from main touristic sights.
Next the first gravel parts of this day …
the ride continued, along a well swung piece tarmac through the …
bottom of an idyllic valley. Before entering …
the hills again, I bought a sweet snack for lunch in the roadside village “Eftimie Murgu”. At the hillside entrance of this village …
this little water plant located. While I took this picture, the guy down there waved at me, pointed to the spirit bottles on the table in front of the hut, and showed me to come over for a drink. I waved back with a shaking head and in the lack of Romanian language just shouted “спаси́бо!” (=”spasibo!”; what means in Russian “Thanks”). For underlining, I showed him with my hands that I have to ride the motorcycle further, which made him nod and laughing. I gave the friendly man a last wave and …
continued following the forest trail …
along the valley.
a hikers rest, …
a Y-cross, …
and a lumberjack cabin later …
we entered a huge deforested area, where
two bear-proof shepherd dogs began barking aggressively to us/began to chase us whilst passing.
Here is a tip for such situations: Keep on a steady pace whilst passing such dogs (~20 km/h or 15 mp/h) and rev the engine properly if the dog gets to close to you or the bike. A Albanian shepherd told me this a long time ago. He also told me that you should not try to kick this dogs with your feet, because they would take the chance to bite you in your boot/and worse: If the get enough force on your boot/feet/trousers they are able to pull you and the bike down to the ground. So: keep a steady pace and just let the bike roar. The engine noise is way too loud for the dogs, so they will keep at least a small distance, what allows riding past.
We followed the trail through this huge ragged meadow, till …
we entered the forest again. Near this …
remarkable huge dead tree …
a surprisingly big gravel pit was located next the TET-Route. A local told me later, that all this gravel used for building tracks into the nearby forests for transporting incredible amounts of harvested wood out of the deep woods. It was midday and so it was time …
for having a sweet break at a lost junction. This huge chocolate croissant delivered my body highly needed energy. Nearby, I found …
a few small plumps for a “second dessert” after the “main dessert”. 🤤
Just a few miles after continuing the ride, I had …
the opportunity to …
refill my water supplies at this rocky source directly at the edge of the gravel track. Right at the place where we left the TET Trail …
this beaten trailer was standing aside the route. A closer look showed big scratch marks around the ventilating shaft in the middle and the big hole in the back. It was likely that a bear did this damage. Especially a torn open fridge in the inside approved this assumption. I had to remind myself that Romania, Bulgaria and Northern Greece are the homestead of the biggest bear populations in Southern Europe. Therefore, I should carefully choose my incoming wild camping spots and do some precautions before going to sleep.🤔
Near the village Orsova we …
had another meetup with the stream “Danube”. In this part of Carpathian Mountains, the river equals the borderline between Romania and Serbia. Especially this location is well …
visited from tourists. On one hand side because ther is one of the biggest stone faces in the world located:
This is a rock sculpture of King Decebalus, which fought for his country “Dacia” (=former Romania) against the Roman Emperors. On the other hand side: For the …
“Iron Gates“, where the huge Stream Danube is ongoing feeding its way through the narrow gorge between the Carpathian Mountains in Romania and the hills of the Northern Balkan Mountains in Serbia. I highly recommend having a stop near the most narrow place of this gorge, where the impressive speed is visible, which flowing water reaches in this natural bottleneck. Still impressed from both attractions, I continued the journey south-eastwards. Near …
the city “Drobeta” the stream Danube is ….
damed up two times by impressive long dam walls. Within this area …
big forlorn port areas where lined up along the stream. It seems like the flourishing times of this trade is long gone. Nowadays, the seclusion of this place and especially its empty parking lots, is obviously used for some kind of …
other buzzing business. 🍑🍌
Чернотa and I left the urban area for the border between Romania and Bulgaria. On our way, …
we saw the first consequences of the harsh heat at the horizon, which this summer came along with. Right before we crossed …
the border between Romania and Bulgaria, I …
took the chance for a power nap under this astounding bridge.
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