We left the campsite at Carta shortly after 8am. We couldn’t leave any earlier because of the
fog that had settled in the region. When
I woke at 6am I couldn’t see the end of the camp because of the fog. I should mention that we rode 110kms yesterday. Today would end up being 105kms. Now that’s not bad for an old cyclist of 53
years. Now on with today’s ride.
We rolled back out of town and up to the highway to commence
the trek west to the town of Sibiu.
Sibiu was to be our first real break for the day. No sooner had we hit
the highway and all the fun and games started.
This highway as I mentioned previously is a major highway from Europe
into Eastern Europe, and thousands upon thousands of trucks use this highway each
day. We only had a small shoulder to
ride on and at times this was clearly not enough. I had my mirror attached to my sunglasses and
this must have saved me from being run over at least 5 times. We had to be so careful today and not wonder
from the shoulder in fear of being killed.
The most dangerous section of the highway was crossing over
bridges. It is at this point that the
shoulder disappears and you have to cross over the bridge without the
protection of the shoulder. We had to
judge our ride to perfection to make sure there were no trucks behind us as we
crossed the bridge.
The scenery was similar to other days, lush green rolling
hills, not so many villages and the towns we passed looked like they were
closed. Not much activity goes on during
the day in some of these remote towns.
By 11am we had reached Sibiu and it was time for a
break. We stopped for a nice cappuccino
and a pastry out the front of the shopping mall. No matter where my rides takes me on the
planet, when we stop for coffee people want to check us and our bikes out. This was always the case when Josh and I did
Africa in 2003. With a restock of water,
and some supplies we hit the road for another 1 & ½ hours to our lunch
stop.
I want go on repeat myself, but the road conditions
continued to be horrendous. When I was flying
down the hills and having trucks wiz by at 100kph, it was quite unnerving and
downright dangerous. I had to hold on
tight and made sure I was holding my line on that thin white line, which was
all I had to ride on and keep me from being blown off my bike. Finally lunch came at 30kms to go. We pulled into a truck/bus stop and joined
the rest of the crowd who was doing what we were going to do, having homemade
lunch. We pulled out the bread, which
weighed at least 1kg, bananas, and made my favourite sandwich, banana and
sugar. Absolutely awesome lunch.
The worst section of the ride was the one from lunch to
Sebes. It was perhaps the most dangerous
riding I’ve done in a long time. We had
buses, trucks and cars whizzing past all afternoon. The sooner I got off this highway to hell,
the better it would be. About 10kms from Sebes the traffic came to a grinding
halt. There was a lot of road works
going on with the construction of the
new autobahn that would like the major highways of Europe and Eastern Europe to
each other. We couldn’t go up the inside
of the trucks that were stationary, we just had to wait our time and move up
when the gaps appeared.
The above photo is the entrance to the school grounds.
We eventually
reached the outskirts of Sebes around 4pm.
Peter and I took a deep breath and shook our heads, not believing our
dangerous that ride had been. We were
both physically and mentally exhausted.
Daydreaming today would have had catastrophic consequences. Maurice and Mary arrived shortly after us,
and it was clear Mary was upset about the experience with all the traffic and
terrible road conditions today. All of
us had had enough. It was time to go and find a bed for the night and just
relax.
We checked out a couple of hotels but all were too
expensive. I called into a small bicycle
shop and asked the owner for information on hotels. After a couple of phone calls and with no
luck as all the hotels were booked out because of the workers on the autobahn
project, this fine man offered us a room in his building. The room was used for primary children who
thankfully were on holidays. We made
ourselves at home and spread out all over the place. I can’t get over how kind the Romanian people
are.
Tomorrow Cornelius will open the gates to the building at
7.30am. We’ll be rolling out shortly
thereafter.
Unfortunately we have to ride about 70kms on the highway to
hell before we reach the turnoff to the secondary road which has less traffic.
Until tomorrow, safe riding.
Because I didn't have Wifi last night I've had to do 2 updates for this entry.
After riding from Carta to Sebes a distance of 105kms, today would take us a further 90kms to the town of Ilia. Ilia is a major crossroad we will take to Lugoj. Now for today's report.
After packing up our classroom in Sebes and saying fair well to our kind host it was time to hit the highway to hell and avoid being run over. We rolled out of town 7.45am and hoped to cover some good kms before the traffic woke up. We stopped after 25kms and decided we had to take evasive action and get off this highway. Mary spotted a map at our morning tea stop and it showed a secondary road which basically run parallel to the major highway. Now this was out of the way, but we were out of the way of 40 tonnes of metal bearing down on us every 30 seconds.
We turned of and the No.1 and got onto the DJ107A which would take us to the town of Gelmar. During the next 40kms we passed many villages just like the ones from a couple of days ago. For those who maybe following the tour, we passed the towns of Geoagui, Cigmau, Bobalna Haraui and by passed Deva and onto Vetel.
Travelling on this back road was just what we needed. Once again the traffic had disappeared and we were now riding in rural Romania, waving at the locals with horse and cart and elders sitting down in front of their homes watching the world very slowly go by.
We stopped for lunch just outside of Haraui and met this young man called Tony. Now Tony was into to everything to buying and selling cars and dealing in gold. I had a strange feeling about this chap, but in saying that he was very helpful in giving us directions to Vetel and in the right direction. We had a great lunch, filled the stomach and we were off again. We were aiming for 100kms today, but 90kms isn't too bad.
Once out of Haraui we had to get back on the highway to hell to reach the intersection of Ilia. This was another 20kms of absolute madness. Traffic jams, flying trucks and buses and very little shoulder to ride on. The scenery today was once again, beautiful green fields, lovely old towns, and
Once we hit the highway I pushed hard as the least amount of time I spent on this road the better. I stopped at Ilia and waited for rest to arrive. Once we regrouped we asked the locals about accommodation and we were off again in search of Pensiunea Dorin. The Pension has many rooms for 80 Lei, which is about $12 each person, with Wifi, and a big room with colour TV. Now this is living.
After settling in and making a complete mess of our room and showering of course, it was off for a walk of the town. This consisted of one street, 2 bars, a truck roadhouse where we ate, and some strange people. We did get a nice meal at the truck roadhouse and then headed back to the pension to write up the story and catch up on the sleep I didn't get last night.
Tomorrow we'll be heading to Lugoj and then we'll see how we're going and whether we'll push on to reach the 100km mark. As long as there's no traffic and no rain, I'll be wrapped.
Until tomorrow, safe riding.
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