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.

Sun finally disappearing.

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Day 31: Belgrade to Bozovici, 305 km

Day 31 - Belgrade to Bozovici, 305 km

Romania! Journey is in its last phase now. Heading to Bucharest. Going to see how far along the TET route I can get before running out of time and dropping off the Carpathians and blitzing to the capital.
Straightforward leaving Belgrade. Changed tyre at Mitas distributors. Then 80km road blast to rejoin route at Kovin.

Delibato Sands were great. It took me a while to re-learn to ride in the soft stuff, but I soon had my weight back, lightest touch on the bars, letting the bike pick it's own line, and keeping on the power. The full lap is about 90km and all worth doing - the deepest, softest fun stuff is near the top!

Then over the border and an immediate change. Instant trails, and really good fun. Soon into the hills. Now in a field south of Bosovici. There's a giant illuminated white cross staring across from the hill opposite.

Remarkably flat. Pin straight roads.

Apparently it's a prehistoric desert and the largest area of sand in Europe.

Sand! It got deeper too.

Even deeper.

This was a great section - steep down and back up the other side. See my fishtail tyre marks! 

Danube

Romania! It turns out that, despite what everyone seems to be saying, it's quite straightforward rejoining the EU after you've left...

This is just a few hundred metres from the border. Quickly covered the remaining flat stuff to those hills in the distance.

OSM mapping took another step down in accuracy. Not only are there trails missing, but it's absolutely pot luck what the road is marked as on the map versus reality. This immaculate tarmac is "unpaved road", leading directly off a "highway" which was bone-jarring dirt!

Slight admin snafu. No Romanian Lei, and no ATM for a good 50km. I didn't stock up on supplies in Serbia, and they might not have let me through anyway with a carrier bag of food (they didn't exactly nod me through as it was!). Fortunately I found water in a village and tucked into some back-up rations. I'm sure if I got desperate someone would have helped, and I had euros too.

Campsite tonight. Back on EU roaming too, so I can upload this post from inside that tent.

Sun setting. Body armour drying.

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Day 30: Sightseeing in Belgrade

Day off. Hot!

Kalemegdanska Fortress 

Danube Waterfront

Ministry of Defence 

Got a shock when I went in here, one of the largest churches in the world...

Stripped to bare concrete! Pod remont. No gold or icons in sight (except downstairs, in the crypt)

Day 29: Bajina Bašta to Belgrade, 215 km

Day 29 - Bajina Bašta to Belgrade, 215 km

Dramatic day! Started with a long and slightly pointless 40km loop on tarmac (and short sections of might-as-well-be-tarmac gravel) to Makovishte. Improved slightly by a wrong turn I took (I'll submit all changes to Ivan Gligorijevic shortly).

To the top!

Summit of Srednji Povlen

The other way at Srednji Povlen

Great view.  Don't miss it!

It quickly got better, with great bits to small summit of Srednji Povlen. Vistas of plains to north. I looped round the back of the hill too which was even more fun. Trail started to get really engaging after that, when brake-gate happened! I reached for a handful when I too-late saw a near invisible electric fence wire across the track, only for the lever to fracture and come off in my hand.

Just starting to get fun!

When... This isn't actually the scene of the crime. The wire I crashed into didn't have any plastic bags or other markers, so was essentially invisible to me.

This is what I wrote on FB at the time: (https://www.facebook.com/groups/Transeurotrail.org/permalink/856870194468126/).

Stay tuned folks, as I work out how to get myself out of this one!

Saw an unmarked - so practically invisible - electric fence wire taught across the track. Too late. Instinctively pulled on the anchors, hoping the ABS (front only) would make up for the threadbare tyre. It didn't, because the lever came off in my hand! Fortunately the fence was low enough that the bike took the brunt, rather than my neck.

Couldn't find the farmer to tell him about his cows. So limped slowly, with no front brake and only half a rear, over 10km to the nearest road and then another 30km into a town.

Next update shortly...

Oh, and I don't think KTM Belgrade could even help with this one. 701s have brembo brakes and magura clutch; 690 is the other way around!

Limped into Valjevo where Elter Moto rescued me with a welding torch, all for free! Update: (https://www.facebook.com/groups/Transeurotrail.org/permalink/857012607787218/).

Brake update. Fixed it up well enough to get to Belgrade. Huge thanks to Luka at Elter Moto, and the other mechanics who referred me on to him. He welded it back together and more to the point, did it all for free. Absolutely refused payment, even for the coke he bought me.

Now in Belgrade and KTM have fitted an old 990 lever with the end ground off, which is good as I didn't actually have the gorilla hands necessary for the fixed-span of the Elter lever. Definitely keeping it as my back-up though!

I had the time to double back to the trail, and I was at least one spoke of the radial roads to Belgrade too early to shoot off, but it would have been 25km each way on tarmac so I regretfully headed towards the capital. That did mean I got to KTM Belgrade today though, and managed to patch up everything else that needed tweaking on the bike. Sadly, not free, but much needed.

KTM patching up the rest of the bike in Belgrade. Pity the workshop's not blue and yellow... 

Spot the difference.

Power Parts TP. €20.

Staying with friends again now until Monday when tyre shops open.

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