Romania – Carpathians, July 2016

One day we got an email request if we wanted to go on a road trip to the Balkans. Romania and Albania were the main targets. Albania is known as the last place for real offroad in Europe, with an abundance of wild nature and bad roads. We were enthusiastic, and half an hour later we were a member of the SWES-Swedish Expedition Society. They are a gang of Swedes who have been in most corners of the world.

Two cars from Norway headed for Karlskrona where we met the three Swedish cars to take a ferry over to Gdynia in Poland. In the other Norwegian car our friends had joined us, and in the 3 Swedish there were 3 couples and two children.

The ferry was like all ferries boring, but they had a nice and reasonably priced buffet with free wine bar. This makes the heavy burden of the ferry trip easier to carry.

The trip through Poland was undramatic, although we ended up on not too good roads. A warning? Two nights at campsites, the latter of which offered 80’s disco all night. I’m glad I brought ear plugs.

In Hungary, the trip was on small roads that just seemed to diminish in size. The map reader in the first car had an unconditional belief in his GPS which had to be set in the absolute shortest way, even when these were walkways in a condo. As easy as happens when drivers with different understanding of reality and temperament are going to run together we finally became divided in two groups. But after a while yelling over the VHF and telephony we were eventually unified on a newly harvested field somewhere in Hungary, behind some trees, and well hidden for the road traffic. You’ll get a bit of paranoid when you’re free-camping so far from home. So the surprise was great when a small train set of two wagons passed 50 meters from us, at a leisurely pace, in the middle of the field.

But we did not get visitors at night.

In Săpânţa, close to the Ukrainian border, we took off the ta tarmac and headed into the Carpathians. There we camped at a stream, just where the forest ends and the big grasslands take over. This part of the Carpathians is largely endless, rolling grasslands with scattered forest here and there. Truly beautiful it is. For us who have terrain vehicles, it also has the advantage that one can largely drive on a compass course, but in practice we followed mostly old tracks. Roads is not the right term.

It is not difficult to find wood, it is partly chipped already, and soon we had a big bonfire. This is in many ways the highlight of the day, gathering around the fire, grilling and eating and telling stories, preferably from other tours. The Swedes prove to be good trip mates, and also animal lovers. One of the Swedes got acquainted with one of the wild dogs. A long-haired dog of an indefinite breed. Because of lack of care, the fur had become extremely tangled, but a few hours after it appeared, it became trustful. A treat or two seems to work well. The dog settled down and took the role of a watchdog. That was fine since Romania has Europe’s largest stock of wolves. Bear is also common, but we saw none on the whole trip.

The following day we continue on a compass course. One of the Swedes have been here before and thinks that “that direction” will lead us wherever we want, down in a valley on the other side of the mountain. We have maps and GPS alright, but since there are no roads, they are not very useful. So compass and Swedish intuition leads our way. It’s going well, it’s not been raining for a while so there is no deep mud that can be problematic. But once, a couple of cars must be winched. The biggest problems we get into is when we are going down a steep hill, and the “road” we follow has been washed out. Eventually there was a vertical wall on one side, and a deep hole in the middle that the overturning was a risk Withdrawal and search for alternative ways down. In the end, we found the route by following a small stream down.

Rolling is something you fear. It is seldom injuries occur as the speed is so low, and the car is usually drive-able after a roll. But windows will be shattered and posts bent, so in most cases the car has to be wrecked. Pack heavy items low, and by all means avoid heavier things on the roof.

The next couple of days we continued on the same course without further drama. We became familiar with a few goat-herds, one of which made a big number out of trying to explain to us that the police could shoot our tires. Romanian is a Latin language, in fact, the closest to classical Latin, but we did not manage to understand why they would do such a thing. When we later met a car of uniformed men with shotguns, we went a little nervous for a moment, but they just looked at us and drove on.
Later, we realized that this was border police who were looking for smugglers from Ukraine. We were also offered smuggling cigarettes by one of the shepherds.

When you are on such a trip with more cars, it’s not to be avoided that you have different wishes about what you want to get out of the trip. So, it’s about finding a smallest common multiple, or dividing up and doing different things. So also on this trip. Someone wanted to swim in the Black Sea, others wanted to take it easy. The solution was that 2 cars set the course for the sea, while the rest remained in the mountains one day before we went to Brasov where we spent two nights in a hotel. Always nice with a shower.

Afterwards we met again and set the course for Transfagarasan, a mountain crossing that is described as “the best road in the world” by Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gir. The road is a serpentine road built by Nicolae Ceausescu in the case of the Soviet invasion. The view was impeccable, although the weather was not top. That the road has a certain reputation among motorists, we realized when we were frequently overtaken by insane Porches and Ferraris with wealthy 40-year-olds behind the wheel.

After Transfarasan, Transalpina was on the program, and then the course would be set for Albania. But for our part, the holiday ended, so we did not want to go through Albania in two days and then drive Germany in a stretch to reach home on time. So we said goodbye and tstarted on our trip home. 2 cars continued through Serbia, Montenegro and Albania.