Kemping Comarnic Dragos / Transfagarason

Up early to get to the Transfagarason - we were off the campsite well before 9am which must be our earliest start.

Then a quick stop off at Lidl before heading up the road.

We have been looking forward to driving this road since we first heard about it from a Dutch couple early on in the trip

Everything was going well. Then I started to get a stomach ache. Within about 20 minutes, I was in agony, sweating and feeling sick. No idea what I had or where it came from but I felt terrible. We stopped the van in a lay-by and spent the next couple of hours with me either throwing up or sleeping and Sara looking out for bears (which we had already seen at the side of the road).

Eventually, I felt well enough to move on but couldn’t drive so Sara had to do it - she wasn’t keen as she had not driven the van before, never mind in a different country! We set off in search of a campsite or hotel but didn't find either. By this time I was well enough to drive again so we decided to try and drive up the road to where it closed.

We didn't get anywhere near it unfortunately. The weather changed for the worse and it started to rain heavily which then turned to hail, so we turned round and headed back down.

A shame, but probably the sensible thing to do after yesterday's extreme weather warning.

We did see quite a few bears on the route. There were signs saying that there were fines for giving food to the bears but we suspect people were ignoring them as the bears seemed to be waiting on the side of the road for someone to feed them.

Seeing the one bear in the wild yesterday actually felt much more thrilling than the multiple bears we saw today, which almost seemed like they were part of a circus act.

Overall, we think we only saw about 25% off the Transfagarason today 🙁. But I did leave my mark. I'd had raspberries, cherries and blueberries for breakfast so there is now a lay-by on the Transfagarason that is stained forever purple!

This campsite is a bit weird. We have seen a lot of roadworks being undertaken over the last 100k and most of the campsite/restaurant is taken by the local workmen. Romanian roadworks use a lot of manpower! (Yes, all men).Read more