We were very close to the Ukrainian border and were tempted to cross over on foot as the west of the country is quiet, but we didn’t.
In Sapanta we visited the Merry Cemetery, so called because the grave stones celebrate the deceased’s life in a humouristic way.
That night we camped at our first Romanian camp site, just south of the Merry Cemetery. It was clean, the facilities were ok and at around £6 for the night it was good value for money.
The next day we headed out onto a great track. It passed through a forested valley with a stream running through it and after some 20km’s opened out into meadows. The track had a few interesting technical sections in it.
We then came to a wet patch with deep and gloopy mud and deep ruts. The approach was a step down of some 14-15 inches into the ruts. Bog stretched out on either side of the track – you can see reed beds ahead - and water was flowing down the hill across the track. The rain of the previous days / weeks only made things worse.
Beyond, the land was described as ‘wet land’ in the road book. With the risk of getting grounded, and with nowhere to winch off, with 30C+ heat and not wanting to have to break out ground anchor, we decided to retracing our tracks back to the asphalt to rejoin the route further south. Pity as we had only covered half the track. Maybe if we were not a single vehicle, maybe with the waffle boards, maybe if …. This one will haunt me until I return!
Anyway, we looped round ...
... and rejoined our route and another interesting track further south. The track was a sandy forest track which was quite scratchy in places.
Camping spot
Next day we continued south and stopped in Targu Lapus for lunch – more Mici of course, and a beer. More tracks led us through a Gypsy village. We had passed through a few of these before. These villages are very different to the small farming community villages. They tend to be rather run down and quite dirty with ramshackle buildings and give the impression of poverty usually associated with places outside of Europe. Lots of locals seemed to be just hanging around with nothing to do other than gawk at us as we drove through. Now they might have been a friendly bunch, but I must admit that we did stop to find out.
We headed for our last track and a great spot for out last wild camp. The site was a large meadow on a hillside with views of the surrounding area. In the distance we could hear thunder and see lightening, but the storms never came near us.
The next morning we set the GPS to take us to Budapest. We picked up the DN1 a fairly big road. It was here that we narrowly missed Bambi as he skipped across the road just in front of us. Couple of seconds later and we would have had venison steak for supper.
We passed through the border formalities just past Oradea – we were re-entering the Schengen area. Once in Hungary a few miles of secondary road took us to a fast motorway – M35 and M3 - to Budapest. Hungary seems to be more prosperous compared to some other East European countries. We headed for Heller Camping in Budapest. The campsite is a 10 minute walk and 10 minute train ride away from the city centre. Budapest is a nice city. Also straddling the Danube, it has a mix of Austro-Hungarian Empire palaces and buildings, art deco buildings and lots of bars and restaurants serving good beer.
Wandering the streets of the city we came across these wise words ...
and spotted this cruiser
From here we headed for the German city of Nurnberg. This stop wasn’t really planned in advance and we found the campsite using the Garmin. Again it was a short walk and train ride out of the centre.
From Nurnberg we headed for Europoort in Holland, some 7 hours away, to board the ferry bound for Hull.
On our return we had some difficulty getting into the house. Not sure why ...
We had a great trip and would recommend it. Romania is a beautiful country with amazing landscapes, great accessible tracks and culture. The book recommends a minimum of 4 weeks for the Carpathian loop. We squeezed it into 3 weeks, including travel there and back and one day stops in Vienna, Budapest and Nurnberg. We dropped a few bits and added our own diversions to the route – but, hey, that’s what makes it our trip. Maybe one day we’ll be back to explore the country at a more leisurely pace, and get to meet Clive
Looking back on the trip, everything worked – the truck, the plan, the location, with a small exception – the monitor mount got unstuck, so we ended up having to hold the monitor. An inconvenience more than anything else. And the side steps rattle more.
If there was one thing that I can say was missing from the trip, it would be a GoPro. Taking static photos is fine, but I am liking the idea of being able to show moving images and the whole trip in as 5 minute clip. I’ll get one for the next trip.