En-route to the Bear Cave

We entered Romania at Oradea with a plan to head to a campsite that was listed in our book. We eventually found the campsite and our hearts sank. It was on the edge of a main road and was rammed full ...we made a snap decision to head on to our next target and see what we could see on the way. So, we set the GPS for a cave that we wanted to see and let it do its worst....oh dear! Needless to say, we ended up on a road that got progressively worse until we ended up driving out onto what looked like common land and moor land. We looked around to see a local shepherd leaning on a staff and laughing at us and his family sat around an outside table looking on with bemused faces as we waved, turned around and made a sharp exit.

Eventually we made our way back on to the main road and tarmac and were glad, however it wasn't long lived! As we turned off towards the cave the roads became interesting and we became even more interesting! It was early evening by this point and most people were hanging out outside their houses, chatting with neighbours and the like...when they saw us coming they either waved a friendly greeting or their jaws dropped and they grinned at us..all good fun!

We got to the bear cave quite late and couldn't find the campsite so resigned ourselves to staying in a motel. Only once we had handed the money over did we see 2 whopping great motor homes pull up on the park area and set up free camp for the night - d'oh! We were told that we could get into our room in 1 hour, then the guy that took our money got on a moped and disappeared... we had a slight sinking feeling that we may just have been 2 of the most gullible tourists known to man! Maybe he had nothing to do with the motel and had just seized the opportunity for a quick scam?! But it was alll ok, after some frantic "key" like miming to the restaurant waitress and the random inclusion of the phrase for "already paid" in our guide book we managed to get the key to our room. Phew!

The next day we went to visit the cave which was a good little tour - and very popular with Romanian tourists - as was the tat that was sold on the many stalls leading up to the cave! The story is that several bears were trapped in the cave when a rockfall blocked the entrance, but the cave itself is absolutely stunning with many tites and mites and pillars and all the rest... finally some piccies...!

 

Lake Lesu

The rest of that day was spent driving - but oh what a drive! We looked on our main European road atlas and decided to follow a numbered road up to a Dutch campsite that we were certain existed. It all looked good - we saw the road sign saying 48km to our destination and duly turned off thinking we would make it with plenty of time to kick back and relax.. hahahahah! The road was a classic mix of steep drops, hair-pin bends, no passing points and ruts the size of a small lake. Add fearless truck drivers to the mix and you've got the picture - it was great fun! After a few hours we decided that we really didn't want to be driving this road in the dark and so looked out for a place to wild camp. It didn't take long until we were stopped in an amazing location right next to a lake with a fire going (it seems that all Romanians light a fire when they have a picnic!) and BBQ in preparation...

We couldn't let the opportunity of using the canoe go by, so the next morning we woke up early and dragged out the boat onto the crystal clear waters of the lake....

For those in NZ - Jenny did not have to drag Sultan Ollie out this time!!!

All that frantic paddling meant that we had to have a hearty breakfast and so lit another fire for a quick fry-up!

 

We finally decided we had to move on and took to the non-road-road once more. We made it to our Dutch campsite and were very glad that we had found our idyll the night before - the campsite was fine but nothing special. The best thing to come out of it was a recommendation for another Dutch owned site further east. Oh and a Romanian girl who was so besotted with Dino, the tent and the dream that she raced over to take some photos!

Our next stay was at a fantastic little campsite with a very arty and homely feel. We chilled here for a couple of days and it was here that we finally started chatting (aka drinking with) other people! I think this was triggered by the fact that the campsite owners (lovely Romanian/Dutch couple) give all their guests a little caraf of home brew as a welcome... so it's not a huge leap to continue the theme! First up was Seph, a German bloke travelling with his rather travel-reluctant wife. He brought over his chair and bottle of wine and plonked himself down for a chat. The rest is rather hazy! Next up were another German couple who spoke very little English (but considerably more than our German!) but felt sorry for us in the cold in our tent so invited us in to their camper van for some wine. Somehow we managed to converse for a couple of hours and found out that the husband had done a similar journey to us to Pakistan on a charity mission and that their daugher was also doing a similar thing.

 

It was also here that we started our chess championship, albeit slightly onesided as several pieces were missing and several others had had so much homebrew their feet were missing! That said, Jenny still won a resounding victory ;)

And for Julia... the cat of the day is Thomasz the crisp eating cat who befriended us and our food for the duration of our stay... and "protected" us from the many other cats that threatened our peace!

 

Now then, this was all the prelude to the main event of Romania and the reason why we decided to come through Romania at all - to spend some time off-roading and bear spotting with Paul and co. from Transylvania 4x4. We had a great 4 days with Paul, his cousin Dave and lovely girlfriend Laura, which he has also written up on his blog, check it out here. Paul and Dave have kicked off a business running 4x4 tours in the Transylvanian mountains - whether it be touristy tracks, greenlanes, scary lanes or wildlife spotting. Dave is also a mechanic and did a great job of servicing Dino whilst we lazed in the sunshine! This really was an action packed few days, but some of the highlights for us were....

1) Meeting the village cows (most households own a cow) that the cowherds bring back to the village outskirts in the evening, but from here on in, each cow finds her own way home. (Except for the young calf that got lost and had to be hunted down by Mr. Pista Bachi (sp?!)'s wife on her bike whilst we all sat getting very drunk with Mr. Pista Bachi...see below)

2) Looking around Mr P's small holding as a prelude to getting verrrry verrry drunk on his home grown Polinka (sp again?!) (very strong plum based alcohol) and home made wine. The tradition seems to be that there can't be any more than a 1mm gap at the top of your Polinka glass, if there is it will immediately be topped up. At any point in time Mr. P could command us all to down in one - at which point it would be rude not to!!! Ollie, always the conciencous one, started to struggle with the tradition after about 6 glasses, Jenny started going cross-eyed at 3 glasses and Laura rescued Paul's honour by downing his last glass before moving on to the wine. Boy did the wine taste good after that!!!

3) Taking Dino along some great green lanes in the Transylvanian mountains and reminding ourselves how to winch!

4) Spending the night in a bear-hide with Strider the Ranger (ok, his name was Andres but he was Strider to us!!!). This really was an incredible experience. We got the go-ahead from the ranger at the very last minute so after some crazy rushing around we were collecting Strider from his house and on our way back up the mountain to the bear hide with sleeping bags, flasks and wide eyes It was going to be a full moon.....wooooooo!.

Paul tried to limit our expectations by saying that it's the wrong time to be seeing bears and there had been some heavy logging in the area so we were unlikely to have too much luck. A few hours later we were sat silently in the hide watching wild boar chase each other in circles right in front of us. A few hours later we saw our first bear - a young one - and then the bear legged it... chased off by the same band of boar ... who'd have thought it. To top it all off, a bigger bear and a fox showed up after this: all in all a very good result! Most of the action happened in the pitch black so this is the only photo we have (it wasn't a dream..honest!).. A huge thanks has to go to Strider for showing us the madness of the Transylvanian forest!

So, that was that. It really was good fun but also time to go. Massive thanks to Laura for looking after us and feeding us so well; even creating a wonderful veggie dish out of no-where, and for being the translator throughout the night of the thousand drinks! Thanks to Paul for re-routing us to Romania for what we are sure will be one of the highlights of our strip. Finally, thanks to Dave for getting Dino back on the straight and narrow and assuring us that he will make it!!!

Our final effort in Romania was to head for a hippie town on the Black Sea - Verme Vecce. We had read that it was a hive of activity, with loads of people camping on the beach. We got there to find one lonesom hippie and a lot of closed restaurants...so we legged it over the border to Bulgaria and steamed through to Turkey. Bye bye Europe!

Next up, Ollie's Delight, Turkey!

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