Romania: Moldoveanu (9/28)

We paid the toll and crossed the Danube into Romania. We presented our passports at the border control, and then were asked for the vehicle’s documentation. I’d left the V5 at home. We didn’t have any documentation. We we’re asked to park up, just past the gates, and a border guard approached us. He asked us where we we’re going, and ‘what we could do to resolve this?’. I showed some electronic documents on my phone, this wouldn’t get us off the hook. I thought I’d understood some of the subtext of his questions and took €25, and laid them on the driver’s seat; asking if this would resolve matters. He took €20, agreed that it would substitute for the documentation, and told us that we should get out of here.

Stopping just outside border control, to buy our Romanian vignette, we were approached by a stern looking Romanian border guard. We’d only cleared the Bulgarian border, and had failed to clear the Romanian border. Apparently €20 was too little for this type of bribe. He wanted €100. We, truthfully, said we didn’t have the money and he replied that we’d have to go back to Bulgaria then. We followed him back to the border gate; him walking, us crawling behind in first.

He took our passports and shortly returned telling us we really should have the documentation, and that he’d let us off this time, and that at the next border crossing we should just tell them we lost it instead.

And so, relieved, we took to the road towards Moldoveanu — Romania’s highest peak. We stopped overnight overlooking a dam, while looking for the spot we followed another VW Transporter along the gravel road, and so concluded we must be in the right location.

After a visit to the supermarket we headed for the car park at Stâna lui Burnei. When researching the hike here we’d consistently seen trip reports of 4 day hikes to access this peak, however one blog post outlined a route where you could hike up and down in a day. This was logistically much easier for us, and so we opted for this. It did involve driving up a gravel track, which we carefully navigated over 2 hours to cover 35km.

In the car park that evening we met Adam & Iain, in their GB registered car. Adam’s is attempting a similar, but harder challenge to us by climbing the highest peaks in the 48 countries of geographical Europe. We shared some of the interesting tales of our adventures. You can follow his progress on Instagram at @europeanpeaks.

Early the next morning we set off, with a number of other groups, up the steep track signposted to Moldoveanu. Passing a steep waterfall we gained the plateau, and crossed it where some donkeys grazed nearby. We climbed steeply again to gain the ridge, where a red roofed mountain hut perched on the saddle. By this point we’d passed all the other groups, and after passing a final one on the summit ridge we had the peak to ourselves.

For some reason, unknown to us, there was an Irish flag flying alongside the Romanian one. With no one around we struggled to take our summit photo, but after several awkward self-timed shots we got something vaguely acceptable.

We headed off the summit in the opposite direction to the one we’d come from, taking a circular route back to the van. We passed a group of shepherds grazing their sheep on the lush high-altitude grass, before traversing round and descending steeply through pine woods to the car park. With no-one around we took the opportunity to wash in the icy cold mountain stream.

The next morning we headed back down the gravel track, briefly stopping to allow a herd of sheep & donkeys pass us.

We made our way to The Transfagarasan Highway, a winding mountain road across the Fagaras mountains. It was made popular by an episode of Top Gear, and is now one of Romania’s most popular tourist attractions.

At the top of the pass, the Capra tunnel cuts through joining both the roads. When we reached here we had to queue in traffic for 30 minutes, in the tunnel, as people queued for a car parking on the other side. We decided to skip this chaos and drove a bit further down a lay-by, where we could admire the scenery just as well. We ended up staying the evening here before setting of for Cluj-Napoca in the morning.

Anya had a work conference scheduled so caught a flight back to the UK. Meanwhile I holed myself up in an Airbnb in Cluj-Napoca for a few days.

When Anya returned, we set of for Hungary via a salt mine in Turda. We’d expected a low-key historical exhibit but it was actually a bustling tourist attraction. The main chamber was a 42m deep, parallelepipedal chamber which featured a Ferris wheel and bowling alley.

Another 50m down, in an adjoining excavation a lake had formed once the mine workings had been removed. Here you could hire a rowing boat for 20 minutes and row around, which we did.

After overnighting next to a second Romanian dam, we reached the border. With the V5 in hand, which Anya had picked up on her trip back to the UK, we crossed smoothly into Hungary.