Just after cruising the closed Transalpina, we were about to check out the closed Transfagarasan part the same day.
From Cartisoara to Transfagarasan… ?
Like at Transalpina – at Transfagarasan we also didn’t know how far we can go as the road climbs to 2,042 metres and is sometimes closed up to August!
But I have to admit this was really even making things more interesting :P
If you want to see exactly see how the ride was like from our point of view, check out this video :)
At first the DN7C road is quite straight and turns lazily. Only the mountains in the distance attract the attention in the landscape.
But soon enough, after bypassing Cartisoara, the route gradually starts to twist increasingly wild, while creeping up the Fagaras hills. So even though the forest often shuts out the view on the landscape, there are lots of twisties to enjoy :)
Aside from that, we noticed big traffic there. It turned out that 1st of May is also a public holiday day-off in Romania. So to no surprise we had a quite big company, when we arrived at the Transfagarasan cableway station.
As you can see, if you were about to really hit the Transfagarasan cableway, then you were about to have a bad time, especially while parking the car :P
This, of course, was also a first sign that our road will for sure end soon. Normally I think people would go up the Transfagarasan with their own vehicle than by the cableway. But we were moving further to actually see the barrier. Although we were also wondering, if no one from the crowd will try to stop us from passing the blockade.
You shall not pass!
As we expected after another sharp turn the road ended in a tunnel.
Just there the concrete blocks were occupying the road width.
Before our trip the friend of ours, which have visited the DN7C during the Spring already, told us about those slabs. They passed the barriers without any problems by motorbikes as there was actually enough space between the blocks.
But now it appeared that the only way to bypass the barriers is by the curb on the road side. The vision of moving the big Africa, even without the coffers, was quite unpleasant. The road surface was wet and a little inclined. There also wasn’t much space. We were also taking into account the mountain edge hanging just a half-step on the left side of the curb. Again, is this ok to pass the no entry sign, while so many people are watching?
We had to assess the situation.
Just let it roll
When we were busy discussing the problem, it turned out that the guys from Poland heard us in their camper nearby.
They told us that they saw motorcyclist passing the curb before us, so there is really nothing to worry about. No one will try to make any drama when we will pass the sign.
So we were not thinking anymore if we can go. Now we were just thinking how to actually safely overpass the slabs without anyone falling behind the mountain edge.
Soon enough, when we were about to detach coffers from the Africa, a group of bikers came from the other side of the barrier.
Newly arrived Romanian motorcyclists jointly pushed their motorcycles to our side of the slabs and immediately offered their support to us. Straightaway the Polish camper guys also got off their car and gave their helping hands :)
Just in few minutes we transferred Africa to the other side – safe and sound, ready for the further ride.
One question bothered us, though. How to push the bike back, when we will decide to return and there will be none of such helpful people around?
But the Romanian motorcyclist soothed us with an advice to:
Just let it roll
by the curb :D
As weird it sounded, it seemed reasonable, as on the way back the curb was sloping.
Thanks to the lads, the only thing left to do was attaching the coffers back to the bike and exploring.
Sidenote: If you will ever be reading this, guys, know we will are still grateful for your help :)
Climbing up Transfagarasan
At first the only visible snow was that on the mountains tops. The trees were absolutely green and there were only some small rocks on the road.
But then, after few meters up, it became even more clear that you have to watch the road surface quite carefully. The amounts of stones – smaller and bigger, flaked off from the rocky walls – got greater.
Besides, you also had to be ready to make a slalom between blown down trees.
Maybe the snow was only lying in the sunless spots before… But now it was hard to not notice it.
The closer to the Transfagarsan serpentines, the snow mass was bigger.
Soon we saw the serpentines in all their glory ;)
First problems
The views were awesome and super enjoyable, but soon enough, almost at the serpentines leading up the snowy mountains, we met our first obstacle.
There was no asphalt to hold on with wheels. Just snow or stones mixed with mud on the left.
We chose the second path option, though it wasn’t looking nice too. We decided to detach the baggage for further ride too.
Where did we left it? Well, we hid it behind some rocks :D We don’t carry any fancy expensive stuff, so if someone would like to have our tent or sleeping bags – we wouldn’t cry out our eyes. Also there weren’t many people around, we met just single hikers from time to time.
Dawid considered the track for a while to set up the best way for a little overweight Africa.
And nailed it ;)
To the Transfagarasan top and beyond!
After this great first successful passage we didn’t came back for our stuff, but joyfully geared up for further ride and jumped into the saddle.
We were super excited to see how far we can go. We were sure that we can roll another hundred meter at least!
So we were happily driving, getting close to the first wild road turn and… Wait. What?
Oh.
We dumped all the baggage just to end up the trip a couple of meters further :D None of us, morons, thought about checking out what’s around the road corner ;)
Rather than disappointed I think we were amused :)
Finally we just chilled out, filled ourselves with the landscape.
And had a little fun too ;)
Why not camping?
We also were opting for a camping somewhere near the road.
While we waited for the road to become more desolate with the coming dusk, which would also hide our tent, we had a dinner and a coffee not bothered by anyone.
At first we wanted to camp, where we ate.
But why not try out the small abandoned cottage about two hundred meters further?
We checked it out.
The roof was leaky, so we would have to sleep in the tent anyway in case of rain.
Also because it looked like somebody was there not so long ago (although we found molded onions, which indicated some time has passed since someone evacuated this nice house). This kind of creeped Marta out, like someone would come back in the middle of the night and take our kidneys out :D
So in the end we place our tent near the brook bank, at some distance from the cottage.
Finally we also had some time to have a beer under the starry sky.
Transfagarasan accomodated us really well :) I think we really rested during that day.
Sometimes its really fine to slow down the adventure and not only wind up miles on the wheels.
You can also check out video of our camping:
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