Bromley to Bucharest: Day 32: Bozovici to Miru-Bora, 316 km

Day 32 - Bozovici to Miru-Bora, 316 km

I'm now properly out of the foothills. Camped in an amazing spot above the clouds, watching a dramatic sunset.

Day started with some nice trails to reach the sulphurous Băile Herculane (Hercule's Baths), with its romantically dilapidated Austro-Hungarian architecture. Then wonderful bouncy muddy loop of Iovanu Resevoir, and logging roads up and over the valley - poor condition, so high-value fun.

Slightly frustrating that many of the trails seem to run perpendicular to the main valley and direction of travel, meaning some big zig-zags. Towards the end of the day, the temptation of 8km to shortcut Vulcan Pass (25km trail, then 50km of road back up) was too great. Glad I did though, otherwise I wouldn't have been out of the trees before sunset.

This morning's meadow.

And the trails to leave it. Nothing technical today (that couldn't be easily side-stepped), so suitable for even a novice on a bigger bike, but still engaging great fun - scarcely any dull gravel!

New country, new sticker! Probably the last of the set

Iovanu Resevoir

Heading through another gorge.

That looks a bit steep... Yeah, nope. That's fifty degrees. I had trouble standing up! Fortunately it was an easy loop round.

Donkeys this time.

Miru-Bora National Park. Currently, occupied by gypsies. So never mind the "no camping" signs. Separately, I've had to dodge a lot of angry loose dog's here, far more than in other countries so far.

Sun setting, clouds forming below.

I loved this sunset and the clouds clinging to the hills below. So much so, that I went a bit nuts taking photos of it. There are a few here...

Outcrop I finally stopped on. I'm actually out if the national park by now, nearest peak is Puru at 2059m

Looking back towards the sun. You can just see the trail too behind.

Beautiful

Tent's up!

Camping above the clouds. Going to be cold again tonight. In fact, all day; after 39 Celsius in Belgrade, 18 today was refreshingly chilly. Heated grips on for first time since Dolomites.