Busik Po Bezdrożach - part II

Part one - click: Busik Po Bezdrożach - Balkans 2015 part I

All we had to do was wait for the silicone to dry, and as the evening was approaching, we decided to sleep through the day and night filled with excitement and set off in the morning. We spent the evening talking by the fire. At night we were woken up by noise, or rather Gypsy revelers shouting at the top of their lungs, singing some songs drunkenly, who were heading to that restaurant for a party. We were a little worried that they would decide to check who we are and what we are doing here. Fortunately, they either didn't notice us or didn't want to make new friends. In the morning, well rested and washed in a nearby stream, we ate breakfast, and right after that we fed Tripciak with fresh engine oil. We waited for half an hour, folding the tents and repacking the bus... To get to the oil filler, we have to throw all our luggage outside every time. There are no leaks in the welds, the silicone holds, and we had no choice but to go to Sapanta.

The next point of our trip was the Transfagarasan route. There was practically one road leading there from Sapanta, which at one point was being renovated and a detour was made through local villages... The signs leading the detour disappeared at some point, as did the signposts, which made us a bit lost. GPS wasn't able to help us either, so we had to keep driving. The road led through the picturesque Marmaroska Mountains, the views were wonderful... It was as if the route were to go through Połonina Wetlińska. The road led sometimes on gravel, sometimes on asphalt, along serpentines. We lost a few hours, but who would care about that when driving through such areas, at least we had a warm-up before Fagaraše. We finally managed to reach the main road. We spent the rest of the day on the road to make up for lost time. As planned, we wanted to be right at the beginning of the Transfagarasan route, which we managed to do. We found a place to stay overnight almost in the dark on the Olt River. In the morning, however, the owner of the land chased us away. Without breakfast, we continued our journey. We didn't have far to go, so after less than an hour's drive we managed to find a place for breakfast and an icy shower on the Cartisoara River, near the foot of the Fagara Mountains. The view was impressive, but the garbage lying everywhere spoiled the atmosphere.

We are slowly approaching the mountains that we saw from the river in the morning, they are becoming more and more powerful. The moment comes when you climb their slopes, winding along the serpentines while admiring the views. Tripciak was doing great despite the heavy load, he was climbing like crazy :) Along the way, we stopped at a few bays, of which there are plenty here, we took a few photos, and the views were getting better and better. The famous serpentines, known to everyone from the photos, slowly begin to appear. We got a little excited and after a while we found ourselves at the highest point of the route, right above the Balea glacial lake. The huge number of people and cars effectively disorganized the traffic, and the magic of this place disappeared after a while, mainly due to the stalls everywhere, through which a swarm of tourists dressed from head to toe, with iPhones and tablets in hand, flowed through. That's probably why the prices at the stands are PLN 40 for 100g of meat or salami... Business must be going well, but it's hard, there's obviously demand. The guarded parking lot in front of the shelter is prohibitively expensive, so we come back a little earlier and leave the car at a bend just above a huge escarpment in one of the bays. I was a little afraid of this, after all, Tripciak was supposed to stay there alone for two days with all our belongings. We finished repacking, sleeping mats and tents were attached, and there was nothing left to do but put our heavy backpacks on our backs and set off on foot into the mountains to conquer the highest peak in Romania - Moldoveanu (2,544 m above sea level). More about our mountain adventures will be in the next part of the report: )