Done and Dusted

So that's it, trip done and dusted! I arrived home at about 8.30pm yesterday feeling a little worn out, mainly due to that nice Mr Traveldri, Les taking me on a rather long walk around Dartmoor before breakfast and then spending all morning helping him load up his van ready to head off to Peterborough for the BMF Tailend Rally! The weather was fairly kind to me in that whilst quite chill, the rain which kept threatening to dump on be big time, held off right through to Abergavenny where I had a light shower which continued on and off for the last 50 miles home; so no complaints there. A good nights sleep and I'm feeling in the finest of fettles and ready to start all over again with hardly the need to catch my breath…..

I then walk head on into a nice fresh controversy with my comment on the proposed new Horizons meeting being censored by Mr Harper. It’s a sad day when one cannot express one’s very reasonable (in my view!) concerns about dramatic changes in an event that I have supported whole heartedly for the last six or seven years.





With Taz and Joel at Villa San Rocco, Italy





Anyway, so what of The Trip?
For those of a nerdy disposition…..

Total milage covered 13,247 sorry but I didn’t keep a record of the amount of fuel used but my old girl was averaging about 45mpg

Countries visited: France, Spain, Switzerland (briefly), Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czech, Germany, Belgium, so all in all a bit of a tour of the EU !

In some ways I’m disappointed not to have made it to Turkey and Georgia but on the other hand I feel that I have seen far more, met more fantastic people and generally experienced more that on any other trip I have ever undertaken, so it certainly wasn’t a failure in any sense. I guess it’s just part of my psyche that I am always looking to do more, part of my restless spirit!

The fantastic Location for HU Greece Meeting

Best country: Without a doubt Greece, which was a complete revelation. From the ruins of Delphi to the Monasteries of Meteora; From the beaches of the Ionian, and Adriatic to the Mountain ranges right across the country, and just the overall friendliness of the people I met everywhere.



Joel getting painted by

Suzzane and Simon



Biggest Disappointment: Must be Romania, a country that I have long wanted to visit. Whilst there were some fantastic sites and moments in the country, overall, for me, it was just too “developed”. I still cannot believe or understand the amount of building going on there, but more surprising as I wrote some days ago is the sheer scale of the houses! It appears that every space along every road has been filled with a gigantic new home. So unless you take to the unmade gravel tracks, there is not a lot of countryside to be seen It is just mile after mile of urban chaos! I guess it is a salutary reminder not to take guide books too seriously; Lonely Planet says of the Maremures region that you are more likely to find a traffic jam made up of horse carts than of cars…. Well certainly there are still a lot of horse drawn carts on the roads although we never encountered a traffic jam of them, but there are also now so many cars that we did certainly encounter quite a few traffic jams of these !

Meteora, one of the many Highlights of Greece

What would I do differently next time? Mainly review the contents of my panniers and bags a little more closely. I certainly have at least 2/3rds of a pannier of kit that I took “just in case” but have never used. Some of this is of course tools, although many did get used on silly little thing that sort of drop off or break as you go along, but others will certainly get left in the cupboard next trip. Other than that I guess the only thing extra would be my pillion passenger who always enhances a trip beyond measure!



The house I so very bought in Bulgaria!



So I’ve now got about 6 to 8 weeks to sort myself and my life out before I hopefully, head off again! Where too? Uncertain at this moment, but there is a whole world out there to be explored and I’m going to do my best to see a lot more off it in the coming months and years.

To all those that have been following this blogspot, thanks for your support and occasional comments, it’s nice to know that there are one or two people out there who do actually read this rubbish!

Till the next Trip….Goodbye!





Rural Romania... When you can find it!



Barsana Monastery, undisputed highlight of Romania for me!



From my little forest wild camp, I pushed on across Germany to Wuppertal and friend Hanno’s place. I met Hanno at the Greek Horizon meeting, in fact he was the first person that I met there, in that as I stopped in the village of Pramanta he came bounding around the corner and invited me to join him and Dimitris for a beer, which of course turned in to two beers and hence part of the reason that I dropped the bike on the track up to the Refuge! Anyway, as I had to pass reasonably close to Wuppertal, it seemed silly not to pop in and say hello.

The ride was the antithesis of the previous days ride, not least, the sun was shinning again and inspite of the temperature hovering just above freezing as I hit the road, I was soon stripping off first my fleece and a little later my thermal vest. The roads were superb, nice and twisty with not too much traffic and the scenery wonderful, real picture postcard stuff. I stopped for a few supplies at a Lidl store and later enjoyed a lunch of Salami and cucumber croissants followed by a nice ripe nectarine. I finally arrive at Hanno’s door at around 4.30pm after a run of nearly 400km which left me feeling quite exhausted! I really am getting old, I used to do double that and still be looking for more!  For dinner we went down to the local pizza joint hoping that they would have WiFi, but no luck, so afterward we went around the corner to The Golden Arches restaurant (otherwise known as McD’s. They always advertise free WiFi in all their outlets… not in Germany though apparently, they are too afraid of someone hacking into their server after a bad Big Mac!!! So giving up on the WiFi quest we grabbed a couple of bottles of beer at the local petrol station before heading back to Hanno’s to talk the night away!

On the way in to Hanno’s I ran through Wuppertal and one cannot help but notice the rather unique overhead tramway with the carriages suspended below an overhead track which is held up by huge gantry arches over the center of the road (and it turned out, the river in some places) It seems some forward think person way back in the Kaisers day sanctioned it’s building and it has run as reliable as clockwork ever since. It also apparently has the record of being the safest passenger transport in the world, at least according to Hanno… note to self; must check up on that !!! So over breakfast, as we were discussing the day ahead, I asked if we could go into town so I could get some pictures of it. However first there were a couple of little issues on the old girl to sort out. For some time there had been a loose wire somewhere on the main beam/spotlight circuit causing them to work erratically and often, not at all; and I was also still suffering with the intermittent misfire that had plagued the entire trip. I was now fairly certain that it too was an electrical problem but just to satisfy myself before I start throwing new parts (and hence money) at it, I wanted to take off the tank and drain it completely just in case there was something in the bottom causing fuel starvation. Hanno produced a 10 litre container, funnel and one of his famous “tea stockings” to filter the fuel to see if there was anything in it…there wasn’t, so that one was back to square one! Next we tackled the light problem, getting at the wiring isn’t easy on the GSPD as you have to remove the entire crash bar/headlight fairing assembly to see what’s what. With parts from an old wiring loom that Hanno happened to have, we fitted a new headlight bulb socket and neatly soldered all the joints, made sure that the other plugs and sockets from the handlebar switches were properly seated and lo and behold, it now all works as it should…except for the misfire of course but that will now have to wait until I get home.

Time then for a quick bite to eat before chasing Hanno and his flying KTM around Wuppertal. I’m sure he kept forgetting that I was riding a fully loaded (well, less a few clothes) Airhead, as we bounced up kerbs, did u-turns across central reservations, rode along pavements… well, I’m sure you get the picture. I just hope the Wuppertal Police didn’t get all out antics on their CCTV cameras. I certainly took a very deep breath at one point when I saw flashing blue lights and heard sirens coming our way rather rapidly. Thankfully it turned out to be an ambulance which I was quite relieved to see making rapid progress through the city traffic as I had a notion that I might well be in need of one before I left Wuppertal if I continued to try to follow Hanno! Fortunately however, that was not to be, so photos taken we headed off first to see Neanderthal man , which it seems was discovered just up the road and then to gawp at a few bike in the local park. Altogether a great day(if a little stressy at times). That took us nicely to tea time and time for one of Hanno’s special currys and a couple more beers!

Which brings me nicely around to today and a 300km ride across Germany, a small corner of Holland and into Belgium to Ypre or Ieper as the Belgiums like to spell it just to cause confusion! Courtesy of Mr GPS I easily found a camp site about 8km from town, Ypra Camp Site, which has the huge honour of being the only place during my 3 month, 9 country trip to charge me for WiFi ! Everywhere else I have enjoyed free access (except for McD’s of course) but here it cost 2 euro; OK it’s not a fortune but given that I’ve just paid 10 Euros to put my tent on their overcrowded  site, I still think it’s a damn cheek, and have had the pleasure of posting it all over Facebook, just because I can!

It’s getting on for 6pm now so time to get myself together and head back into town to the Mennin Gate for the nightly ceremony at 8pm, where I will pay honour to our Sam killed in Afghanistan just over 2 years ago. For us, his family the passing days make little difference to the grief we all bear daily. The pain for us all is just as raw today as it was the moment we first heard the tragic news.

The Mennin Gate, Ypres

 

Sleep Well Proud Welsh Warrior, Your battle is over, Your War is Won.

Monday 10^th September.

Last night’s ceremony was as very moving and emotional, made all the more so as a Dutch choir was in attendance to sing two hymns during the service. I made up my mind that before I left Ypes for home I would return and lay a wreath at the memorial in memory of our Sam. So first thing thing this morning I headed back to town, where having purchased a poppy wreath at the tourist information office I quietly laid it at the Mennin Gate memorial arch. I could have stayed and laid it during the evening ceremony, but preferred the peace of the early morning for my solitary, quiet, short vigil.

Sam's wreath bottow row 3rd from left

So as I now leave Dunkirk aboard the DFDS ferry, I sit in contemplation of my first (but not last!) extended trip.

Did I achieve everything I set out to do…No, not by a long way! Did everything run to plan? No, nothing like! Would I do it all over again? Hell yes, tomorrow in a flash! Most of the trip has been a piece of cake mainly thanks to my two travelling companions Taz and Joel. Inspite of having travelled many thousands of miles on motorbike over many, many years, they taught me so much and gave of their knowledge so willingly. Hopefully I was able to return the favour with a few little gems from the way I travel. One thing I do know for sure is that Taz will never again be worried about wild camping and the joys of an open air, cold shower; to say nothing of digging a hole in the woods!

Has three months on the road satisfied my lust for travel? Once again I must answer, Hell no, I’ve hardly started! It’s taken me three months to see just a tiny bit of France and Italy, and a goodly portion of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, so at this rate I guess I’m going to be struggling to get round the rest of the world before I shuffle off this mortal coil, but one thing I do know is that I’m going to give it a damn good try! Hopefully I’ll not be travelling solo next time, but either way, there will definitely be a next time and it won’t be long acoming!

I cannot believe just how little one can live on whilst travelling. Fuel is by far and away the biggest expense, but by travelling slowly, as Joel has taught me, you travel for twice as long (at least !) on the same amount of money, with the added benefit that you see an awful lot more, meet more fantastic people and avoid reality for longer.

Hmm, reality, a word that keeps cropping up but what does it actually mean? To some it means a huge house with a correspondingly huge mortgage; to others it’s a career that keeps them away from their loved ones for far more of their lives than they would really like. It may also mean scrapping a living and just about managing to cover the bills (or not!) each month, with, in this day and age the ever present threat of redundancy. However there are a few, an increasing few, who manage to live their dreams every minute of every day, who never know the anguish of being made redundant or of kissing their loved ones goodbye on Monday morning and not saying hello until Friday night. These people aren’t “lucky”, they have just made different life choices to the norm; to them “reality” is kicking off almost every day with a smile and the knowledge that anything might happen, good or bad, although generally the good outweighs the bad by about 100 to 1! It means never knowing quite where they are going to be sleeping that night, or indeed where they are going to be eating their next meal. Anyone can do it, all it takes is the desire and the courage to try something completely different, something radical: To live YOUR dream!

And remember as I posted in an earlier post, you don’t have to be complete homeless, there are numerous web sites where people are looking for folk to housesit for a few weeks or even a few months.., in one case recently , for up to 2 ½ years! So if you wish, as Taz puts it, to “nest” for a while the opportunity is there, in more or less any country you fancy! So stop saying “if only” or “maybe next year”, if you want to see the world there is no better time than right now; yes ,the thought is scary, however the “reality” is that it is an awful lot easier than you might imagine.

One thing I do know for sure; Life will never be the same again! 

Later this afternoon I begin what is really the final episode of this trip as I land back in the UK at Dover. Next stop is Climping in West Sussex to stay with niece Helen and her hubby Terry which effectively closes the loop, as I stayed with them on the way out. Then probably a couple more stops before I arrive back at my little cottage in wales, to find no doubt that the weeds and spiders have just about taken it over… Am I glad to be back! I’m afraid you’ll have to wait just a little longer for the answer to that one as at the moment I honestly don’t know! 

 

 

Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometime you’re the bug !!!

It’s been a strange day today, I awoke to grey skies that gave a sense of foreboding which has stayed with me all day. The skies lightened but my spirits just wouldn’t lift! It’s not that it’s been a bad day, indeed, I’ve covered quite a few miles, far more than I had intended

I left my little cabin at about 8am heading west towards Benesov at the suggestion of friend Jez, who had suggested that whilst I was in the general area a visit to the Jawa/CZ Motocycle Museum was worthwhile and also the Konopiste Castle alongside it. I checked it out on the GPS and  as I was only about 45 km away off I went. It was a pleasant ride, if rather colder that I was used to of late, in fact the Thermal Vest was dug out from the bottom of my clothes bag along with my heavy, waterproof gloves; I guess the days of jeans and t-shirt are at an end for this trip at least!

Arriving at the museum at 9.50am I was the fist customer so the young receptionist unlocked the doors and left me to it. Although fairly small, it was a fascinating collection, especially the gold plated Harley look alike ordered by a fraudster in no less a place than the Vatican! To any speedway fanatic, of which I am one, the name Jawa is synonymous with the sport, winning countless trophies and grand prix over the decades. Indeed right up to today many of speedways top stars still use Jawa engines. It was interesting to see Greg Hancock’s picture on the wall of fame looking somewhat younger than he does today, a mark of the man’s talent that he is still riding and winning on the World Speedway Grand Prix series.

Walking up the hill to the castle was more of a chore than it should have been, it was certainly picturesque but I just didn’t fancy trolling around the hundreds of rooms, so instead went for a walk around the park, took a few photographs, although not of the long eared bear that was supposed to be in residence!. Walked back to the bike and headed for Prague. One of the many things that Joel and I always agreed upon whilst travelling was that we don’t really “do” cities. We both also agree that we miss out on a lot by not doing them. So it was that I came to be in Prague. However, whether it was my state of mind or the weather (which was still rather grey!) I don’t know, but I got there, rode through it and, well, just sort of kept going. I simply couldn’t face it today, maybe on the next trip I’ll feel differently but my head certainly wasn’t in the right place for it today, so on I went…

Now people who know me well and have ridden with me know that I have a “thing” about daytime use of headlights and running lights. Put simply my belief is that firstly they diminish a drivers ability to judge the speed of the oncoming vehicle and in the case of a bike, to see if it is a slow moving moped or scooter, or a fast moving bigger bike. More importantly however, I believe that most accident of the “sorry mate I didn’t see you” type are due to the driver simply not looking. Today I had a perfect illustration of that belief! Unusually for me I actually had my head light on as the day was rather gray and dismal with visibility not too brilliant. Today also, I came as close as I ever want to come to being squashed by a bloody great tractor towing an even bigger trailer! The side road came out at an angle to the main road and the driver didn’t even glance in my direction, didn’t slow by one single kph, didn’t even know if there was an eighteen wheeler bearing down on him! Yes, I missed him, but only because I was travelling at a sensible speed and was concentrating on my riding and yes, I like to thing that 46 years of experience and various advanced riding courses may also have added to the luck that was mine today. I could have had a flashing light on top of my head, he still wouldn’t have seen me… I rest my case m’lud!

So here I am tonight, all thankfully In one piece, in a cold and dark German forest, not hidden well enough from the road really, but it is only a small road and the rush hour of 6 cars seems to have passed, however I’m glad to be back to wild camping once more. Tomorrow I have another long day, as I would like to get to Hanno’s, as I don’t really want to be riding on Saturday, Sam’s birthday, particularly after today as I don’t think my mind or my heart will quite be in it.   

The Church of Bones

Another 1959 Butlins look-alike

As I forecast, it was a little on the noisy side last night! Even with my earplugs stuffed in as hard as they would go, the rumbling of the trains was, to say the least, very audible. However, before I went to bed I had a near disaster with my little Primus petrol stove when the fuel bottle suffered a catastrophic failure of the threaded top. Thank God the stove wasn’t actually alight at the time as I dread to think what the consequences might have been with a litre of petrol under pressure spraying from the top of the bottle!. I’ve never heard of such a failure before, in that the entire threaded section just popped of the top of the bottle. I had never realised that they were two separate pieces… I think I’ll go back to an MSR bottle when I get home! Fortunately I use a similar bottle for engine oil so I’ve now swapped then over so I can still brew a cup of tea, but I think I’ll try to source a gas canister for my other little stove rather than risk the oil bottle too much.

The Church of Bones

Anyway, the noisy night meant I was up and showered by about 6.30am, although I couldn’t go anywhere as the main gate was locked until 8. So a leisurely breakfast of sultana pancakes and a couple of cups of tea passed the time until I saw the gate open. Unusually for me I just set the GPS to shortest distance for Kunta Hora and let it go! First though it was a quick trip to the supermarket for some lunch bits and then just follow the GPS, easy peasy. Initially the road was fairly straight and far to “main” for my liking but then the fun started. When you set shortest distance, that’s exactly what you get; back road, housing estates, tiny little lanes, the lot! Things soon settled down a bit and I found myself on some really nice roads, over the hills and through lots of forests, just my sort of journey. From Hraniche it routed me to Olomouc then dropped a little south through  Konice and Jevicko, a small town with a rather beautiful town square as many Czech towns seem to have. Then it seems to miss most of the town until I got to Hlinsko, then once again though the back doubles all the way to Kutna Hora. Altogether one of the best autorouted GPS rides I think I’ve ever had.

Even without the Church of Bones, Kutna Hora is a really nice place to be, in fact as is so often the case the reality doesn’t quite live up to hype. Yes, it is very different to anything you’ll generally find in a church (or anywhere else for that matter) but whether it’s down to the hoards of tourists or something else I simple don’t know , but I didn’t find it to be quite as jaw-dropping a sight as I expected it to be. Macabre? certainly; spooky? Hardly with a couple of hundred tourists popping camera flashes every second or so. Stick me in there alone at night with just a candle or two for illumination and I guess the old imagination might run amok. Anyway it’s another box ticked on that great long list of things to do before I die!

And so to sleep, perchance to dream… well hopefully not of the church of bones… Yes, once again I’m in a cabin, but this one is far more modern and fresh looking! And yet again I have six beds to choose from, but with a bit more room to walk between then and even a kettle for my morning tea… Sheer luxury and all for £8 just £2 more than putting up the tent; no contest really. Not with the sky clouding over and starting to look a little ominous anyway! Gone soft? Me? Ok, perhaps just a little, although I must confess I do miss the wild camping and the freedom and peace it gives. Tomorrow Prague, so I guess it may be another camp site, cabin or even dare I say, hotel! Then it will be back to basics as I head off to Germany to stay a night or so with Hanno that I met in Greece at the Horizons meeting.

Three countries in a day!

After my early start this morning, there was little doubt that I would make it across Hungary and into Slovakia by tonight, but in fact I also got right across Slovakia and well in Czech Republic as well, stopping tonight at another GPS found campsite at Hranich. That leaves me just under 300km tomorrow to Kuna Hora and the Church of Bones. I’ve taken the softies choice once again and opted for a cabin, as the prices are so silly it’s not worth putting up the tent. Once more the cabins look a little like a post war holiday camp although there are no Redcoats about!  

It could be an interesting night, as from the sound of it there is a shooting range at the back of the site, a railway line runs right across the front and at the moment a light plane is doing acrobatics directly overhead… plus of course there is the usual assortment of dogs large and small, barking everywhere.

Last night it was the sound of countless crutch rockets flying past the site entrance; an incredible amount of them. Then when I left this morning and continued up the mountain I realized why… the road was simply fantastic, custom made for knee down action. Forget the Tranfargassen Pass and any other pass for that matter, the countless 180 degree bends were not really hairpins at all, they were more akin to Gerrads  at Mallory Park than the Melbourne loop at Donnington! I even had the pegs on the old airhead scrapping the tarmac; the right road doth make hooligans of us all! Once that was out of the way, sanity was resumed, as were the boring straight roads, for a while at least

 I left Hungary  across a little but fairly new bridge almost before I knew it, and was soon into the Slovakian hills and more great roads although ridden at a somewhat more sedate pace as befits an old man on a classic bike! Slovakia also came and went almost unnoticed other than the scenery had improved somewhat. And so to Czech and this funny little autocamp (at least that what they call it). So far tonight there is one Motorhome, one car and my bike, although that’s triple lasts night’s tally when I believe I was the only customer on site!

Whether I’ll get to Kuna Hora early enough tomorrow to visit the church before I camp (or cabin!) is anybody’s guess. I’ve set the GPS to shortest route and I’ll just have to see where it takes me. I do at least have a map of the area, unlike Slovakia, so I can see if it’s taking me by a silly route which it seems to do occasionally. I guess it just like to keep me on my toes.

Monday 3^rd September



Just one of the many huge houses

we saw in Romania

A sad day today in many ways as I say goodbye to Taz & Joel, at least until they arrive for their house sit near Haverfordwest at the end of the month. Sad also as I turn for home after 3 fantastic months on the road and head back to what passes for reality, who knows just what awaits me on my return to my little cottage in Pumpsaint. Hopefully it’s still standing and hasn’t been completely taken over by spiders… I’m sure the grass will be knee high and the drive will be it’s usual muddy, slippery self!

It’s quite strange the way I’ve been able to shut myself off from such potential disasters whilst on the road, in fact if it wasn’t for a few texts and the odd Skype call, I would be completely unaware of what has transpired in my absence. I’ve managed not to see any news whatsoever; I missed the Olympics; I avoided what sounds to have been one of the worst summers ever! Yes, I certainly picked a good time to be away. However, it’s not over yet as I have something like 2000 miles to cover before I get home to Wales, and I’m going to make sure I enjoy every one of them. I’ve got nearly two weeks of travelling left, in which time I’m hoping to see the Church of Bones at Kutna Gora, stop off at Prague, call in to see friends in Germany, Kent and Northampton plus whatever else comes my way on the journey. As Jack London wrote “ I shall not waste my days try to prolong them; I will use my time”

After parting with Taz and Joel yesterday at Valea Lui Mihai in Romania, I crossed the border into Hungary. The crossing was straight forward enough although the border police breathalize every driver entering the country in accordance with their zero tolerance policy to alcohol ; thankfully I passed!

It never fails to amaze me just how different everything becomes as soon as one enters a new country. The housing density was much less, there was a more open feeling to the landscape and, well, everything just looked that little bit different to the other side of the borderline! The roads, although not major category roads were straight and well surfaced, so with less traffic to contend with than in Romania, I made fairly good progress whilst still keeping my speed to around 80-90kph.

Mid afternoon I stopped for a Coke by a huge fishing lake, I was glad of the rest as I never seem to stop as much when riding alone. By the time I started to look for a camp site I was about 200km into Hungary, making a total of around 300km for the day, and approaching the Matra mountains. My GPS suggested a few camp sites in the area and I choose the closest at a littler place called Matrafured. Approaching the campsite I had a bit of a sinking feeling; I had become used to the freedom and peace of wild camps but this place looked huge and rather run down. It was part of a holiday complex Urgh! Not my cup of tea at all, but it would suffice for one night. Enquiring at reception as to the cost, there was a bit of a discussion between the young thing at the desk and what I took to be owner; my heat sank when a price of 2000 Florints was given. I beat a hasty retreat to the bike to retrieve my iphone and the XE currency convertor app; Ah!, not so bad it worked out at just £5.55 or for another 55p I could have the use of a 6 bed cabin and save the trouble of even getting my tent out; bargain!

The cabins looked like Butlins Circa 1959!

The cabin looked rather run down as I approached, in fact the whole pack of them looked ready for demolition. However, inside it was spotless with the six beds all made up with fresh white linen and whilst not ensuite, the toilets and showers , only a short walk away, were brand new and once again spotless; and all for £6.00. I slept well inspite of the very warm night air even up here at about 500m, but then this had been the most mileage I had covered in weeks!

But at least the facilities were new and clean!

My only problem was that I had gained an hour as I crossed to Hungary from Romania so my body clock chose to wake me at 5am!!! Oh well, a nice early start for me today, destination hopefully somewhere in Slovakia by nightfall.

Goodbye Romania !

Our last full day in Romainia and what a day of contrasts! From last nights wild camp in a farmers field (with his kind permission) we headed into the nearby town of Botiza where, as it was Sunday everybody was heading to church in tradition costumes, and virtually all were very happy to photographed. Unfortunately the road we wanted turned out to be unsurfaced so we did a quick about turn for the road we had arrived on yesterday.  The road on which we were now riding appeared on the map to be quite a minor one, but it was incredibly built up all the way along it, with both new build and renovation projects. Other than the odd traditional old house and wooden church it was pretty awful. Yet again I was left wondering where all the money was coming from as there didn’t appear to be much in the way of industry in the area; EU?

Then we found Barsana Monastery, oh my god!, what a fabulous place, being Sunday of course helped as a service was in progress as we arrived, but the setting, the place, the incredible workmanship, all combined to make this one emotional visit. Lots of Romanians in traditional costumes, the open air service in the autumn sunshine, and the general ambiance of he place, it’s something I’ll always remember. Out of all the monasteries and churches we have seen in Romania, this one sure take the biscuit! Strangely, it hardly seems to feature in the guide books and yet Voronet and Sucevita can’y hold a candle to it. Perhaps it was the service which inspite of the language was just so emotional. As a confirmed heathen, I must confess to shedding a few tears.

Barsana Monatery

It was time to move on, heading loosely for the Hungarian border we continued westward through Sighetu Marmatiei, where we stopped for a coffee and WiFi, and on, very close to the Ukrainian border, over another mountain towards Camarzaine, and what a strange ride it was! As we dropped from the mountain to Huta-Certeze the building development became quite surreal. It was as though we had entered millionaires row, or the last hand out of Romanian mafia… take your pick, but the houses became ever more outlandish till we spotted this!

The new development of huge houses continued right along the road which our maps showed as a dead end, and we were starting to despair of ever finding a bit of rural, open space on which to camp, when at last the houses stopped and we were able to pull off along a track into a field. Hidden from the road by a dense thickets of trees we were happy, against the odds we had found a suitable place to camp once more. Tents were soon erected and dinner of Salad and fried sprats with Taz’s special dressing prepared and eaten. All in all a most interesting and emotional last full day in Romania!

Barsana Monastery

 

 



Laku Rosu

Northern Romania has come in as a huge (and very pleasant ) shock although with a few reservations! As planned, we left Gheorgheni on Wednesday morning, my 64th birthday, and headed for Laku Rosu, the Red lake, but not before Taz and Joel presented me with a Romanian birthday  card and a huge slice of cream cake complete with two candles. Setting of from the Hotel Rubin we had only ridden a couple of hundred yards when low and behold we pulled to the side of the town square and stopped. Taz immediately disappeared into the local tourist information office and re-emerged carrying a 1lt mineral water bottle, which much to my astonishment she presented to me with a huge grin. It seems that the previous day she and Joel had spoken to the guy in the office about “acquiring”  some home made Palinqua, the local hooch distilled from plums in almost every backyard, which they knew I had a taste for. How thoughtful is that?

The tourist Tat shops at the Lake

Then it was time to head east to the much hyped Laku Rosu and Bicaz Gorge. The lake was easily found, as not only was it right by the main road, it was, as usual surrounded by wooded shacks and stalls selling the same old tourist tat! I guess that is what happens when such developments are completely unregulated. We stopped just long enough to get a couple of photos and got the hell out of it. Just up the road we ran into the gorge, and guess what???? Yes, every spare square foot of space at the edge of the road was taken by yet more tourist tat… I just don’t know how all the vendors manage to scrap a living from the few tourists that pass through the gorge! And it certainly wrecks the ambiance of the place in no uncertain way! All in all a huge disappointment.

Bicaz Gorge

We continued in a north easterly direction with a view to getting up to Voronet Monastery, one of the many so called “painted” Monasteries with beautifully preserved frescos covering the outside walls. As we approached a huge reservoir, Joel turned left and then stopped to check the map fairly close to a large 4x4, the Romanian driver of which came over to speak with us and it transpired that he had spent many years working in the USA but had recently retired back to Romania partly to make his pension go somewhat further, a feeling I know only too well! Anyway he confirmed that the road we had turned onto was the scenic route to where we wanted to end up, and ran through one of Romania’s national parks. The road started out well enough but it soon deteriorated with huge pot holes and even some areas with just a gravel surface. However the scenery was superb, climbing steadily through heavily forested area until the it suddenly opened out with magnificent views across the huge reservoir. I stopped on the apex of the bend and parked up to take some photos; Taz and Joel turned around and joined me a couple on minutes later, just as 2 cars full of people also drew up. As the kids played on the mountain side I got chatting to one of the guys who spoke really good English. It transpired that although he was Romanian, his wife was English and they lived in Essex just outside Maldon, a town which I know really well as I used to live just up the road… As we talked an even more amazing coincidence came to light in that the school that there daughter attends in Maldon collects books to ship out to a school in…. yes you’ve guessed it, Bansang; it really is a very small world!

The highest point in the National Park where we met Essex Girl!

We didn’t quite make it to Voronet that night, instead doing another wild camp some miles short, which although fairly hidden from view, was in reality a little too close to the road which had an awful lot of heavy forestry truck crashing up and down it for most of the night. It was also not too flat so Taz and Joel set up their tent between the legs of a large electric pylon, much to my amusement. I did suggest that they wouldn’t need a torch as they could just hold onto the pylon and their eyes would light up. In the morning, just as we were cooking breakfast a car pulled up the track close to us and parked, followed a few minutes later by a huge tractor and another car full of forestry workers. Having carefully checked the track the previous evening when we stopped we were sure that it hadn’t been used for a long time, so just out luck that they had chosen today to start work on that particular bit of forestery. However they were not in the least worried about us as our little camp was well out of their way.

Once packed up and ready to move, unusually, I pulled off first and stopped by the entrance followed by Taz, as we waited for Joel, Taz looked down and to her dismay saw a huge and increasing puddle of oil under her bike! A recurring problem with the little Kawasakis had struck once more. The oil seal behind the front chain sprocket slowly works its way out over a few thousand miles  and unless regularly checked, pops right out causing the oil to pour from the engine. Fortunately Joel had some new seals with him and although it didn’t take long to replace it with a nice new seal, trhe fact remains that this is potentially a very serious fault on the Kawasakis. If Taz hadn’t noticed the leak it could easily have caused a catastrophic engine failure by loosing all the lubricating oil. An hour or so later we were on the way to Voronet once more  However being the kind person that I am, I didn't take any photos of the problem !!!

Voronet Monastery

We found the Monastery easily enough, partly due to the huge number of Tat stalls clustered around the car park. Was it picturesque? Yes, undeniably so. Did it live up to the guide book hype? No, definitely not! In reality it hardly justifies the title of Monastery in my book at all as it doesn’t appear to have any accommodation for monks or nuns so is really just a church; yes, a nice decorated church and again, yes it is remarkable that the frescos are generally in such good condition after all the centuries, but to to this heathen at least, not worth going too far out of your way for. Then it was on to the next! Humor monastery was all but identical in every respect, even the intimidating looking Mother Superior standing by the admission kiosk. One other thing that caused us some agitation was the additional 10 lei (double the entrance fee) demanded if you wanted to take photos of the outside of the Monastery! Photos inside were banned completely, with or without flash. To enforce the charge, Taz and Joel were made to hand in their cameras at the admission kiosk as they were unwilling to pay the extra charge. I on the other hand managed to slip in unnoticed as Taz was buying the 3  tickets and in any case their was no way I would have left my camera at the entrance, I would simply have returned to the bike and missed seeing an almost exact replica of Voronet….  That episode left rather a nasty taste in all our mouths so we decided that we would try just one more so headed even further north to Sucevita.

At least Sucevita was a “proper” monastery with accommodation buildings forming a perimeter wall around the now familiar fresco covered church. It was somewhat more interesting that our previous visits, but still left a feeling of disappointment, I guess after seeing the fantastic Monasteries in Greece at Meteora ! So that was to be out last Monasteries, we were now on the trail of the wooden churches of Maramures a little further to the east. A little further on we spotted a rather picturesque church on the left hand side of the road and stopped for a closer look and to take some photos. Whilst looking around the inside we heard some voices and giggling coming from the balcony but couldn’t see anyone.

Andrew and friends at the door of their church

Then just as we were about to leave, two young lads appeared and we asked if we could see the balcony. Not only did they agree, but went a step further and asked if we would like to see the view from the bell tower and then led us right up to the top of the tower. They both spoke quite good English so we spent a pleasant time chatting to them about their lives. One of them, who was 16 years old was off to Ecclesiastical college to train as a priest  The day ended with one of our most picturesque wild camps. We had struggled a bit to find somewhere suitable due to the amount of houses and farms along the roads, there was just no open space anywhere. Stopping at a well to fill our shower, Joel went off along one track and I another. Walking along a dirt track across a field, the track turned right, dropped fairly steeply and then opened onto a bit of a plateaux which I thought would do us admirably.

The view was outstanding, looking out due south with only one small cabin in sight and plenty of shade and sunshine, cover for our shower, and nice easy access.

Enroute to Maramures we passed through some amazing villages with some of the loveliest little houses I have ever seen, and to cap an already amazing day we suddenly spotted what appeared to be a very small but beautiful church, up a drive, close to a house. Riding up the drive I arrived at a pair of rather large iron gates with a sign warning of a loose guard dog, not exactly an invitation to visit…

 

Taz, Vladirmir and Joel at the small private church

Then just as I walked back to the bike I spotted a man walking across the yard and lifted my arm to wave. He waved back and seemed to give a bit of a smile so I walked back to the gates and he met me there. Asking about the church, he told me that it had been built by his brother and was not yet complete inside. He then asked if we would like to see it and went to put the dog away before opening the gate for us. It realy was magnificent, a real labour of love. Covered in frescos which had been painted by a student from the local art school, it was every bit the equal of the more famous monasteries of Vornet and Sucevita in my eyes. Vladimir, said that he had let us in to see it as we were obviously travellers and not just tourists! A small comment but one that we all took as a huge compliment!

Before we got to Maramures there was yet another wild camp, this time a little further from the road than a couple of nights ago, and separated from it by a river and a couple of hundred yards of field; the only problem was that it was just over 1000m up so we kept ourselves warm by having our second camp fire.

As before there was plenty of wood lying around to burn and although very un Ray Mears like, a good dose of petrol soon had it roaring away nicely!  Yet again we were disturbed whilst making breakfast by a damn great tractor coming up the track close to us, it’s getting to be a habit! Finally we did get to Maramures and it was well worth waiting for. We crossed another mountain pass near Borsa at just over 1400m, stopping at the summit for a coffee then continued on down into the famed Maramures region in search of the wooden churches and unlike the monasteries they didn’t disappoint! The workmanship was simply stunning, the detail incredible and the state of preservation nothing short of miraculous. Yes, they were all fairly similar but each had something special to off by way of detail or location. From whatever angle you look at it Maremures has certainly been the highlight of Romania for all three of us.

Romania troubles me a bit as I see shades of Ireland after it joined the EU. I was expecting a country struggling to get over the legacy of its recent past, somewhat underdeveloped in comparison to most western European countries, but instead I have found a country far more developed than I would have thought possible with a feel of rural France or Italy, shops well stocked, cars…well too damn many of them for my liking! So much building and renovation is going on right across the country that one wonders just where the money is coming from. To say the transformation is miraculous is to understate it by a huge degree. I have no knowledge of the economics of the country other than what I can see with my own eyes, but I fear very strongly that what we are seeing is simply not sustainable. As with Ireland, I feel the bubble has to burst at some point. In Greece we saw many abandoned building projects, in Bulgaria huge volumes of empty houses, yet in Romania it appears to be full steam ahead. My problem is that I have seen precious little in the way of industry other than farming, timber and tourism. And talking of tourism, I would guess that there must be at least 100 hotel rooms for every tourist in the country and that is not counting the hundreds of hotels still under construction… no, something has to give, one just wonders why the politicians can’t see what is so obvious to a simple tourist like me !