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Go East

May - November 2020
A 175-day adventure by Herbert & Meike Read more
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  • Go East
    Day 48

    A very long downhill ride

    July 16, 2020 in Romania ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    15km of consistent climbing followed by a 50km downhill - that's how we like it! In general, it was pretty cold today. We are really surprised by our European summer. However, for cycling, it's actually not too bad as we don't sweat as much as in Central America 😉
    Overall, the day was uneventful. After the downhill, we climbed another smaller pass followed by another downhill. As roads were smooth, we arrived early in the village where we wanted to stay the night. We looked for some backyard camping again. But as we couldn't find any, we stayed in a guesthouse. Actually a lucky move, as shortly after we were in the house, there was a huge storm outside and it looked like the world's end. At least we stayed dry.
    In this region, the houses look different again. After the mosaic ornaments in the West and wood carvings in the Theiß valley, the houses now have some kind of mosaic stripes and flowers pictures on them.    Read more

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    Day 49

    Trans-Rarau

    July 17, 2020 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    A new day, a new climb. This time, a bit steeper than yesterday. The road we took is called "Trans-Rarau" and the views are stunning! We cycled 600m uphill in under 1h30m and as there was a little coffee shop, we decided we deserved a coffee and a pastry at the top.
    The downhill was great fun! In less than 15min on a steep, tiny, curvy road we were back at the elevation where we started.
    The next 70km or so were very scenic. The road took us along a river with high foresty mountains on both sides. We saw many houses that are only reachable via small wooden bridges. People were also very friendly. Kids ran towards us to give us a "high 5", an elderly lady sent us some air kisses and people shouted "Drum bun" (= safe trip).
    We stopped on one of those bridges for lunch and really had to hurry afterwards, in order to avoid getting drowned. We always saw the dark clouds around us, but managed to escape until the very end. 2 minutes before we reached the campground it started raining. Luckily, the campground had some kind of an indoor space. So we could cook dinner while waiting out the heavy rain. Later, it even cleared up, so we could see the nearby mountains and go for a little walk before going to sleep.    Read more

  • Go East
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    Day 50

    4000km through Europe

    July 18, 2020 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    As expected, we were surrounded by fog in the morning. So we packed up our wet tent, had breakfast and hit the road. Soon, we arrived at the National Park entrance as we had taken a wrong turn. A ranger stopped us and told us we had to go back down again to get on the main road as it wouldn't be possible to cycle the trails by bike. Herbert convinced him that we can do those few hundred meters with our bikes, so the ranger let us pass with a smile on his face. Of course, this led into us pushing the bike through mud. At one section, we even had to push each bike with the two of us. But hey - we made it to the main road again without having to go back down first 😁
    The main road was actually a dirt road, so climbing was exhausting and slow. But soon, we reached an altitude above the clouds which looked awesome. Plus, there were only few cars on it, so the ride was very enjoyable.
    After some 20km, we started the descent until we reached the town of Biscaz. From here, we had to go on a busy main road before turning into a smaller valley. This was pretty cool again. Almost no cars, great landscape and a river next to the road. We had to climb on gravel again, so hard work, but the view from the top was well worth it. We decided to stop to eat something and dry our tent.
    After the climb, we could descent again. We also looked for a wild camping spot for the night. There were a few, but as it was still relatively early, we always decided to go on. When it was actually getting later and we did need a campspot, there was none anymore. Neither a campground nor a guesthouse. We checked some apps and found an indicated place about 25km and 400m of elevation gain away from us. As we didn't have much other options, we went for it and ended up on a ridge with a 360 degree view in the middle of colorful wild flowers. It could definitely be worse! 😉
    We also realized that we have already cycled more than 4000km since being back in Europe.    Read more

  • Go East
    Day 51

    Rainy ride

    July 19, 2020 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    When we woke up, it was raining. So we stayed a bit longer in the tent. Once it stopped, we quickly packed up and descended to Miercurea Ciuc where we had our breakfast in the town center.
    As soon as we finished our breakfast, it started raining again. So we had to continue our ride with full rain gear on. Our destination was Santa Ana Lake, the only crater lake in Romania. We could already see the volcano from the valley when we had a short bright moment.
    After we passed the tourist village of Tusnad, the climb to the rim of the Crater started. As well as the really bad rain. We had to stop twice in order to hide under our tarp as the rain was too heavy to continue cycling. Finally, we reached the crater lake, a beautiful spot even in the rain. Unfortunately, we didn't see any bears. They probably hide in the rain as well.
    There was a campground at the rim of the lake. The weather wasn't really inviting to camp, but it was late already and more cycling in heavy rain didn't appeal to us either. Plus, the guard was really nice, gave us a discount and promised to fire the oven so we could have a hot shower (I think he felt pity for us soaked cyclists).
    We bought some Langos at the food stall and cooked dinner before we had a short window to pitch the tent. After the best hot shower ever, we directly went into our sleeping bags to hide from the nasty rain again.    Read more

  • Go East
    Day 52

    Missing gene

    July 20, 2020 in Romania ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    It rained all night, so we woke up quite often from the noise of the rain on the tent. In the morning, we had a short dry window to pack the tent, have breakfast and leave the campground.
    Then it started raining again. Today, we didn't even try to find shelter as we knew it would rain most of the day anyways, so no point trying to avoid it. It seems like we are missing a gene that keeps people and animals from leaving their warm shelter when the weather outside is bad 😂
    However, we wouldn't get to see this much if we had that gene. We first descended down the volcano on a nice and curvy valley road. After about 40km, we stopped for a coffee and a second breakfast. It didn't rain at this moment and we didn't want to be hungry when we had to climb up a mountain in the rain again (which we already saw ahead of us).
    Going uphill was quite tough, heavy rain and all rain clothes on with an elevation gain of 9-10%. We felt like in a glasshouse. At the top, it had cleared up a little, but it was still raining during the descent. So we were really cold.
    BUT good we don't have the "stay-at-home-gene", as we saw a mother bear with her cub walking right next to the road. She disappeared quickly into the woods when she saw us, so unfortunately, we couldn't take a photo. The downhill was fun and we easily rolled into the next valley.
    As we were cold, we decided to stay in a guesthouse instead of camping tonight and also found one after a bit of searching. We must have looked pretty miserable. The receptionist brought us a hot tea and one of the other guests invited us for a beer afterwards. When the sun finally came out, we warmed up and could also dry our clothes.    Read more

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    Day 53

    Little detour

    July 21, 2020 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    As the Republic of Moldova is still closed for tourism, we decided to do a little detour to the Danube delta at the Black Sea. Furthermore, the weather at the sea is usually better 😉
    But this morning, we couldn't complain as the day welcomed us with sunshine. What a difference! Our route was really scenic, lots of short climbs followed by downhills. We stopped at a waterfall, cycled on a beautiful remote dirt road, followed a couple of rivers and canyons.
    And after about 50km, everything was suddenly flat and we were in the plains of Moldova, the Romanian province that has the same name as the country. This part appears to be very poor with lots of rundown houses along the road.
    As it was pretty hot (we are almost at sea level again), we decided to have a long afternoon stop at a river. We cooked dinner and went for a bath until it was about 6pm. Then we wanted to continue cycling for 2 more hours and look for a wild campspot. But first, we had to fill up water. In Romania, many people cannot drink the water from the tab. That's why they have fountains in the villages. Good for us as we can fill up our water bottles there as well. The locals were really friendly and helped us pulling up the bucket with the wheel. Cycling in this area was fun. People shouted and kids cheered.
    Then we had to go on a main road for a few kilometers which was terrible due to the traffic. When we finally reached our turn, we were totally surprised. The street we took was full of castle-like houses and heaps of families in traditional dresses sitting in front. We have to spend some time finding out what that was... A few kilometers later, we found a spot to camp. Not as scenic as the last one, but hopefully quiet to catch some sleep.    Read more

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    Day 54

    On the Eurovelo 6 again

    July 22, 2020 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Did I say everything is flat here in this region? Today, we had to climb a total of 1150m. And the highest "peak" was only 160m above sea level. So you can imagine how many hills we had to climb in order to reach the total... In sum, it was a pretty exhausting, rolling section today.
    As we expected this, we were on the road by 5:45am and could even admire the sunrise. Morning hours are the best as they are still cool and the colours are beautiful. After almost 60km, we arrived at the Danube river and the Eurovelo 6 again which we left about a month ago. As there's no bridges at this part of the river anymore, we had to cross by ferry.
    On the way, we met a French couple who were also biketouring. On the picture below you can see the guy pushing both loaded bikes up a hill while the woman is walking behind. (I'm doing something wrong, Herbert nevers pushes my bike...)
    We checked out a lake for some wild camping option. But it didn't look inviting for a swim, so we decided to continue. A day like today without a shower or bath in fresh water was no option. We followed the road along the Danube river which, in this part, forms the border between Ukraine and Romania.
    We arrived in Tulcea, a pretty ugly city in general. It's a tourist base for tours in the Danube delta, so at least the harbour is quite busy and kind of pretty. Here, we found a campground with a shower and a washing machine.    Read more

  • Go East
    Day 55

    Arrival at the Danube Delta

    July 23, 2020 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    After two long days, we had a short one today. We cycled to Murighiol from where we want to take a boat trip in the delta area. It was a little cloudy, so the temperature was ok. The landscape here is relatively flat, some small hills and few villages. Nothing too special.
    We found a nice private campground for the night, relaxed and went for a ride around the village and to the harbour. Herbert also did some bike maintenance.    Read more

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    Day 56

    Exploring the Danube Delta

    July 24, 2020 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Our boat trip in the Danube delta started at 6am. It's definitely the best time to see the animals. We had booked a 3 hour tour around some lakes with our campground hosts and it was absolutely fantastic! Apart from white pelicans, cormorants, a couple of eagles and kingfisher, we saw thousands of other birds. It was very impressive. Furthermore, we could observe frogs and snakes and the local fishermen. Our captain knows the area very well, so he took all the shortcuts through the high reeds which was fun. What a great experience altogether, the detour was definitely worth it!
    After we got back to the campground, we had a second breakfast and took off. We had a lunch break in a small village and as it was still early, we continued to a campground in Jurilovca. Here, we had a look at the harbour where the boats leave to bring the tourists across the lake to the Black Sea. Afterwards, we decided to give ourselves a treat and went to a restaurant for dinner. We ordered fish for the taste and pizza for the calories and tried the local wine. Before going to bed, we cycled to a nearby cape to see the sunset and had a beer with our camp neighbours, a Belgium couple with 3 kids.    Read more

  • Go East
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    Day 57

    Flat spinning

    July 25, 2020 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Enough time spent in the coastal area, it's time to get back to the mountains! Looking forward to a mosquito - free time again 😉
    We knew we had a long day ahead of us, so we left at 6:30am without breakfast. In Romania, almost every village, no matter how small, has a minimarket. They usually have tables, chairs and an umbrella for sun or rain protection. As the Romanians can't live without coffee, any store has a coffee machine where you can get pretty decent coffee for less than 1€. So that's where we had our breakfast stop after 25km.
    The next 80km were easy as the wind was in favor of us blowing strongly from Eastern directions. And as we could take mainly back roads, we didn't see many cars at all.
    At about 2pm, we arrived at the Danube River again. We went to a wild campspot indicated in one of our apps. The place was nice - theoretically - right at the Danube, shade from the trees and a hot spring for a bath. However, the Romanians love camping and it's Saturday, so the place was totally overcrowded and dirty. Too many people sadly leave their rubbish behind 😢
    We decided to go a bit further along the shore and found a quieter spot where we cooked lunch, went for a swim and relaxed for a while. There was a group of families camping next to us and they had a karaoke machine, so we were entertained.
    We could have camped here, but felt fresh after the bath and the food. Plus, the wind was still good for our direction. That's why we decided to go further and look for another wild campspot. In one of the villages, we saw people coming to the bar by horse cart. We've seen this before and could finally take a picture of the parked "car".
    Finding a place to camp was difficult, as everything is dead flat in this area and there's only very few trees or bushes. At some stage, we saw some grass and bushes and decided to pitch the tent there. 5 minutes later, the farmer and his 2 sons came with a tractor to work on the fields. We were worried, we had to find another campsite, but the farmers were super friendly and told us that it was no problem at all camping on their field. They were even interested in our trip and we had a fun conversation in sign language.    Read more

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