Day 33: Miru-Bora to nr. Lake Vidraru, 215km

Day 33 - Miru-Bora to nr. Lake Vidraru, 215km

Tough day, as the distance shows.

Morning just as stunning as last night.

Morning. Check out the clouds in the valley!

Descending off the ridge line through the meadows this morning.

Morning's descent.

Morning was great. Ridge-line ride then descent off moors through forest to meadow below. Amazing views. Moderately tricky descent for final 3km to road (steep earth, rutted with run-off channels).

My confidence I'd outrun the gypsies was misplaced. After hiding in my sleeping bag long enough for the sun to warm up, I emerged to find an old BMW 3 Series a few hundred metres away. Unlike them, I took my litter with me. I was amazed they'd made it down the deeply rutted track - but then later saw an oil sump's load spilled along the trail where someone else hadn't made it. The line of black stuff suggested they didn't notice for a while...

Start of the gorge north to Sibiu

Besides the gypsies and the dogs, though, I've been surprised how friendly and keen on bikes people are. Kids holding out for a high five, fair enough, but parents and old ladies wave as you pass too.
After the briefest of road links, there was a 25km stony, muddy, roller coaster of a ride up a gorge and over almost all the way to Sibiu. Goggle-wettingly deep puddles!

Sibiu.  Former capital of Transylvania.

A silvery mineral in the rocks and sand make the whole route glisten in the sun. And my number plate too.

Lunch in Sibiu. Pretty. Then during a short jaunt back into the hills through farmers' fields I started to think. First, "I've seen other riders further along the route coming a cropper on tricky stuff, but everything so far has been immense fun, even manageable by me on a bigger bike". Then, "I'm in Sibiu, but where do they run Romaniacs? This is too flat surely."

Immediately, I got my butt handed to me by Jon Florea, well tenderised and served on a platter. Really tough section starting up a river, then steep steep steep loose trails with metre deep run-off gulleys to slide into. I fought my way on, as the GPX track and my increasingly exasperated way-point comments will show, tiring myself just by recce'ing on foot, before eventually throwing in the towel and finding an easier way. Fortunately that was easy enough, only a few hundred metres to retrace, but even then I had to pick my way and double back a couple of times from the terrain. Brilliant on a smaller bike with less luggage, or just more skill, but worth treading carefully if not!

Beginning of the tricky bit. Run up a river.

Arse. Picked the wrong rut. Backed up and got up the right side eventually.

My shortcut. Made me feel better about not managing Jon's beastly bit!

Just finding somewhere to camp.

After Jon's beastly bit, normal service more or less resumed, with sandy runs through villages and past horse-drawn carts. Except for one horrid descent that I half fell, half footed it down.

Stopped in a meadow by some abandoned shepherd's crofts. Hoping the sheep opposite and men herding them mean no wolves or bears here.

Partly it's my lack of skill and experience, and the bags don't help (lofting the front more readily on silly steep stuff), but I also lack the confidence to commit to some of the more explosive bits necessary to bounce up some of this stuff.

To think, I was worrying about reaching Brasov too soon!

Stove not working. Low gas, probably. Good job I had a big lunch. Cold beans tonight. Smelly. No coffee in the morning!

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