acrossRomania

June - July 2018

Cycling from Timișoara in the West of Romania, to Constanța, on the cost of the Black Sea Read more

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Journeys of a voyager acrossRomania
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- Jun 20, 2018
- ⛅ 27 °C
- Altitude: 96 m
- Romania Judeţul Timiş Municipiul Timişoara Girocului 45.74185, 21.2383645°44’31” N 21°14’18” E
Day 0
June 20, 2018 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
The bike is finally washed
The front track mounted
Front mudguard lowered
Light attached to the bike
An old school ringer bell attached to the handlebars
Extended the rear mudguard
Packed the bags, ready for tomorrowRead more
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- Jun 21, 2018, 4:26 PM
- ⛅ 25 °C
- Altitude: 127 m
- Romania Judeţul Timiş Pişchia 45.91833, 21.3566745°55’6” N 21°21’24” E
Day 1
Exiting the city
June 21, 2018 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
Leaving Timișoara was a bit of every cyclist's nightmare, narrow road with heavy truck traffic and steep "shoulder", remained after they kept layering new asphalt on top of the old one. Once you slide off the road you cannot get immediately back up on the road.
Luckily, most traffic ended up taking the highway so I could continue #acrossRomania and have my first baptism by rain 😅Read more
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- Jun 21, 2018, 8:20 PM
- ⛅ 23 °C
- Altitude: 137 m
- Romania Arad Oraş Lipova Băile Lipova 46.07, 21.66546°4’12” N 21°39’54” E
Day 1
Fields of gold
June 21, 2018 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Past by fields of wheat, wildflowers and semi-abandoned villages with eclectic architecture.
Leaving Timiș county and entering Arad county, one couldn't tell the difference.
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- Jun 21, 2018, 9:02 PM
- ⛅ 21 °C
- Altitude: 133 m
- Romania Arad Oraş Lipova Șoimoș 46.10333, 21.7216746°6’12” N 21°43’18” E
Day 1
Room with an 800-years old view
June 21, 2018 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
After 70km of cycling reached Șoimoș fortress and the town of Lipova.

I swayed off the main road just a bit and decided to camp and have a view of the fortress from my tent.

It's an 800-year old fortress, used to guard Mureș river valley back in the day.Read more
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- Jun 22, 2018, 9:30 AM
- ⛅ 21 °C
- Altitude: 138 m
- Romania Arad Comuna Conop Belotinț 46.08333, 21.9583346°4’60” N 21°57’30” E
Day 2
How to fight village dogs chasing you
June 22, 2018 in Romania ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
Country roads, take me home...or just away from the village dogs.

So, how do you fight them? You DON'T. They are just following you and warning about your presence.

If you have to react, then I usually advise to dismount and scare it away by pretending you're grabbing a stone from the ground. Oh, they get the message clearly. Generally, they stop barking as soon as they see your legs on the ground.

An alternative approach is to spray them with water from your water bottle, ie. If you can spare it. It confuses them.Read more
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- Jun 22, 2018, 10:27 AM
- 🌧 21 °C
- Altitude: 153 m
- Romania Arad Comuna Bârzava Lalașinț 46.06667, 22.0216746°4’0” N 22°1’18” E
Day 2
When you're thirsty - milk a camel
June 22, 2018 in Romania ⋅ 🌧 21 °C
Bear Grylls milking a dromedary the other day. He was walking across Kenya and he was thirsty. Coincidentally, I cycled 100 km #acrossRomania today, and I too was thirsty, so I decided I'll milk a camel...camel bag. I milked it twice. Take that Mr. Grylls!Read more
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- Jun 22, 2018, 1:47 PM
- 🌧 20 °C
- Altitude: 160 m
- Romania Arad Comuna Petriş Ilteu 45.99667, 22.3645°59’48” N 22°21’36” E
Day 2
You saw it on Discovery channel first!
June 22, 2018 in Romania ⋅ 🌧 20 °C
These two decided to copulate on my saddlebags. Gently blowing AT them did not distract them at all. So, I waited. I always liked flies, but after 15 minutes of waiting for the gentleman on top to wrap it up, it's a whole new level of respect for them.

And just 30m from the exhibitionist couple, there was this mess. The area is rich with bees and beehives, but this here is a telephone pole, it looks nothing like a flower. One of them though I'm a threat, but my bike was faster in the end.Read more
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- Jun 22, 2018, 2:56 PM
- 🌧 20 °C
- Altitude: 226 m
- Romania Hunedoara Comuna Burjuc Glodghilești 45.96833, 22.44545°58’6” N 22°26’42” E
Day 2
Drinking water from the ground
June 22, 2018 in Romania ⋅ 🌧 20 °C
I was used to finding water fountains and clean streams #acrossRomania, but for the last 2 days and 150 km, this was the first one, almost hidden. Right next to it, there's most likely a grave with XC (could be HC in Cyrillic) and what looks like a WW1 medal.

And only once before have I seen this type of sheltered spring. There are 2 chalices next to it used for scooping water from the well. The spring is covered with a wooden door that protects it from the elements, although the surplus of water is flowing away anyway, making what's inside always clean.

The chance to drink clean water directly from the ground seems like such a luxury in this century.Read more
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- Jun 22, 2018, 5:52 PM
- Altitude: 170 m
- Romania Hunedoara Comuna Lãpugiu De Jos Lăsău 45.92333, 22.5033345°55’24” N 22°30’12” E
Day 2
Bad weather helps making bad decisions
June 22, 2018 in Romania
I managed to run away from the rain and avoid it for the most part of yesterday. At the very end of the track for the day, just a couple of kilometers away from the place I wanted to reach the rain caught up with me and I made a mistake in choosing which way to go.

Let's play with maps: Follow the blue track #acrossRomania
1) turn left, the wrong way, go back
2) go straight on... The sign says that it's a dead-end towards #5
3) This is not a way, this is a swamp!
4) and this is a cornfield, let me go around it, how big can it be...
It was a big cornfield and not in squarish shape, so I ended up going wide
5) still no sign of the path that matches the track.

Even worse, the new unopened highway cut whatever path was there
6) oh, look if I continued straight I could have gone this way in the first place!Read more
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- Jun 22, 2018, 6:15 PM
- 🌧 20 °C
- Altitude: 169 m
- Romania Hunedoara Comuna Lãpugiu De Jos Grind 45.92333, 22.5116745°55’24” N 22°30’42” E
Day 2
Marshes, bogs, swamps and lack of canoes
June 22, 2018 in Romania ⋅ 🌧 20 °C
The little path on the right was the third time the charm #acrossRomania. The charm that quickly turned into a bog.

As I stopped in hesitation the lady on the navigation says "go straight". Sure, let me just unpack my canoe!

Water to the left, I'll skip it. Water to the right, I'll skip it. The middle looks clear! Nope. It's turning into a swamp after 20m, just when I thought I can rush through.

The lukewarm water reminded me of marshes in Latvia. Only, in those, I entered because I wanted to.

So, the idea of me going on dry and the bike in water didn't work. Mostly because I ran out of dry land. Let's think out of the box. What if I go in and the bike stays out as much as possible?

The plan worked, kinda. At least my shoes were clean. But the bike had kilos of mud all over itself. The tires would lift it up, the fenders and the frame would scrape it off, then the mud falls into the brakes, panniers, chain, derailer. You name the part, it had mud on it :)Read more
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