Tuesday 10 June 2014

Transfagarasan in pictures

Well, it had to be done.

Some Very good memories and a feeling of "Yesss, did it".

There is a lot te be said about the trip, but I hestiate to bore too many ppl with what is essentially a few hrs on a bike.

Suffice to say: Recommended, but Be Very Careful.

Road quality was better then the (north part of the) Transalpine, but road is still bad in many places.
It was officially still closed (signs said so), but too many ppl just went and did it.

Main "risk" I had were the donkeys hidden in a dark part of a tunnel. But there is also: falling debris just around corners, wet (fozen?) patches, and plain mud on the road (slip...).

Here are the pics..

Tankstop before going up, the previous ride over Transalpina was very economical: 4.3l/100 km, shows what you can do going slowly.

Going north from Ramnicu Valcea: Beautiful valley, good road, but a lot of traffic in convoys behind trucks. So when you hit a convoy, you stop and take pictures...:




Beautiful scenery, but this is what it is like, mostly.


Same location, looking away from the road:


About to go up..


Intimidating (due to all the hype around "best driving road in the world?):


Officially still closed ???
Nah, the souvenir vendor said to just go... and plenty ppl did.


First picture stop: Wow..





Above the treeline, see the road going up ??


Acutally: each time a challenge: park the bike, safely and on flat, stable ground (otherwise it will tip over, as it did on me once on the transalpine - different story)


So... This is what the hype is about: Curves! 
however, if you let rip on this road there will be debris, mud, rocks and other fairly dangerous obtacles (slippery cow-flaps even)


At one fotostop, I heard voices... ??
had I gone mad?
nope, these guys were working above my head





Tricky moment: at first I just noticed the riders at the other end..
Why where they standing there  ??
Then the Donkey on the left moved and I noticed donkey-ear-shadow against the light.
I took a precautionary stop and low-n-behold! more donkeys hiding in the shadow !!!
The two riders in front were going down snails pace when I overtook them, they must have had a very close call with the animals.



Later, on road to Pitresti: This was one of those "built-up-areas with a speed limit" 
Stories! 



Arrived into Ruse, parked, looking for hotel.


Found hotel with view of Danube.
Window on 8th floor opens completely, and there is a 1ft wide ledge via which you can go and visit next-door-room (romantic!) or you can just stand and ask for attention (or you can jump):

The bike on the parking, I just had to:


The coffee was in the building where an "enforcement agent" had his offices. 

The route: I lost the tracking-tablet on the way (Stupid!)



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