Tuesday 19th July - Budapest to Baile 1 Mai

Mark drove us out of Budapest, and he actually said that he enjoyed it, but in his excitement he missed the turning and we ended up driving over the Daunbe 3 times instead of just once.

Once at the border with Romania we had our passports stamped for the first time, and the border guard even wished us luck on out journey.  Unfortunately with Mark still being so excited we missed all the exchange places and ended up in Romania with absolutely no Romanian money.  

We drove through Oradea, which wasn't very pleasant, road works everywhere and again not many road signs.  We were heading for a place called baile 1 Mai, a tiny village but our Rough guide to Romania said that there was a campsite there.  We pulled up to what looked like a series of sheds in somebody's back garden, these were in fact Cabanas, and our home for one night.  Unfortunately we had no Romanian money and the owner didn't speak English French or German (the only three languages we know), so with a bit of sign language and a few gestures Mark managed to arrange something with the owner to stay for one night. It was very noticable that the chap in charge would only talk about money with me (Mark), as if it was something that should be decided between men...

We made ourselves dinner and we had almost finished our bottle of wine when our neighbours came over and offered Mark a drink of cherry brandy, and so the evening began... a few bottles of wine later we had met all six neighbours two of whom were Etel and Ferri from Hungary, but who now lived "...as a minority..." in Romania.  They were very nice people who knew a bit of English, so that helped the conversation.  They explained that the locks on Hector were very good and that we would need them in Romania.  All in all a very good evening.

Wednesday 20th July - Baile 1 Mai to Sibiu

Not to be outdone by Etel and Ferri, 2 of our other neighbours offered us breakfast and Mark a glass of home made hooch...at 08:30 in the morning! It would have been rude to refuse, but 1 glass was more than enough at that time of day. The owner wasn't around when we wanted to leave, so we wrapped up a few dollars (as had been agreed the night before) and entrusted them to our neighbours to hand over when the chap came back - hope that he got them....

Amy drove today and we had decided to go off the beaten track a little bit and follow a brown (minor) road up and through the Apensui Mountains, which form part of Transylvania. The drive up and through the mountains was as spectacular as the roads were poor - and they got very poor indeed: full of potholes, ditches and assorted other hazards such as horse-drawn carts!:

"We're on a road to nowhere......"  Typical church overlooking a village

The "interesting" roads...                Doesn't say anything about overtaking horses and carts!

The sight of Amy driving Hector caused quite a stir in some of the villages and there was much pointing and waving. At one poiut we drove though a town where there were hundreds of people in the road all dressed up in their "sunday best". We later learnt that they had just come down from the mountains from the annual "Girl Fair" which was held over the weekend - it's part a folk festival and part an opportunity for families from far flung and often isolated villages to get together and sort out the futures of their children.

After leaving the mountains we headed to Sibui, couldn't find the hotel we were after and so booked ourselves into the local "Petrom" motel. After 3 weeks of camping it was sheer luxury! It was here that we found out that we were 1 hour behind everyone else, and had been since we entered Romania andhadn't put our watches forwards - we only realised when the bar shut up shop at what we thought was 10pm....

Thursday 21st July - Sibui to Cumpana.

Today was another mountain day - this time the Vargas mountains which form part of the Carpathian range - what a good move! The road up to the highest point was truly amazing and in very good condition. As we got higher it got colder and colder until eventually we were driving past snow! At the top (Bailie Lac) we were in the clouds and had to drive though a very long tunnel with no lighting - on with the spotlights and the whole thing was lit up like daytime. We then descended to Lake Vidaru which was still over 2,600m high. We drove round the lake to Poenari Castle, apparently the "true" Dracula's castle - the locals get very sniffy if you mention Bran Castle, pointing out that it isn't even in the right mountain range! Naturally we stopped for a look, and hiked up the side of the mountain to get there. The castle itself is in ruins, but is pretty atmospheric perched atop a ridge overlooking the river and the pass between the densely forested mountains.

The mountains from the foot.        Amy at the viewpoint                 The road up into the clouds

Poenari Castle                            Count Duckula at home...

Leaving the castle we decided to take a white road up to a lakeside camping spot. As soon as I turned onto it the road surface disappeared and we were on a muddy forest track going through an unlit tunnel - our first chance for a bit of off-roading. So it was into "low box", and Hector lapped it up for 14 km through some at times quite hairy driving - muddy uphill hairpins with a sheer drop down to the lake below - all good fun though! Once at the site we booked another garden shed for a couple of nights and settled in. The scenery is fantastic here and it's very peaceful.

Cave driving....                            A garden shed for two please     Lake Vidaru

Friday 22nd July 2005 - Lake Vidaru

A lazy day sunning ourselves by the lake and making friends with the local dog population.

A muddy Hector after his forest drive    Bernard the shaggy dog.

Saturday, 23rd July 2005 - Lake Vidaru to Ploesti.

Amy drove us the 7km back to the top of the lake and the proper road, then it was back down the mountains and onto the main road to Ploesti. On the way down we stopped at a chap selling honey. He kept his hives in the back of an old Russian Army truck and drove his bees to the forest pastures. He was very impressed with Hector and we had quite a chat about Land Rovers, the forest and beekeeping. He used to work in a factory and spoke very good English. Of course we bought some of his honey (well, it was delicious...). He introduced us to his wife and waved us off like long lost friends when we eventually left. After the mountains it was a longish drive to Ploesti where another Petrom motel awaited. On the way we got flagged down by a Romanian Traffic Cop who wanted to fine us for not having the appropriate vignette. I explained that we didn't realise that we had to have one, that we hadn't seen anywhere selling them and that of course we would now buy one at the first opportunity. He was happy with this, probably couldn't be bothered with the paperwork involved in booking us, and let us go. We did stop at a few garages on the way to try and buy a vignette but none sold them - it was only when we left Brasov that we eventually found one. Massive thunder storm in the evening with immense peals of thunder and forks of lightning - great to watch from a motel roon.

Mark and the chap with the bees in his truck.