Greece is the word

We managed to get off our pitch without further incident this morning. Phew!

Then off to Dâmbovicioara for a canyon hike.

Not being completely sure where the hike started, we called in at the Tourist Information Center and spoke to a very helpful woman. Her opening remark was, "the canyon walk is completely safe but don't go into the mountains because of the bears". We had no intention of going into the mountains anyway but she repeated about 3 times that we shouldn't go beyond the end of the canyon hike, which was about 3k along a tarmac road and 3k back.

Ok, so not the most exciting of walks but we decided to do it anyway, mainly on the basis that it was the only walk on offer! By the time we parked the car it was pissing down. Undeterred, we carried on, picking up a stray dog to keep us company.

About 0.5k into the walk Sara said, "Look, there's a bear". I initially thought she was joking but sure enough, up in one of the fields above the village, just below the tree line, was a big bear. We stopped and watched for a while... as did a man in the garden of one of the nearby houses. His chickens and dogs were going ballistic - we assume because of the bear, rather than because of us. He certainly watched it very closely until it disappeared.

He didn't speak any English, but he made it pretty clear that we should go back to the van, which we did. Quite exciting, but probably the shortest walk ever! Unfortunately, neither of us took a photo.

After driving for what seemed like hours (actually about 2 hours) on the worst road ever - non-stop roadworks for the first half, followed by a really lumpy bumpy surface for the second - we are now at Camping Arges, located at the southern end of the Transfăgărășan, ranked as one of the best roads in the world, at least according to Jeremy Clarkson. Unfortunately, we learned today that the tunnel section (at around 800m) is not yet open so we can't do it all. But we'll drive as far as we can and see what happens. The road itself gets to just over 2000m but we're not sure if that is on the section we are doing.

Worst case, we'll be back at this campsite tomorrow night! But we are hoping to see a lot of bears en route.Lue lisää

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).Lue lisää