Cycling Via Transilvanica – Kladovo To Prisăcina. Bikepacking Romania Part 1

Crossing the border from Serbia into Romania to do Via Transilvanica.

#cycling #bikepacking #Transilvanica #Romania #viatransilvanica

Guys, I would officially declare that the journey starts today. We’re in Cla now. So, we’re going to cross the Iron Gate today. It’s like towards that direction. It’s not far away. Um, we’re going around 10 kilometers up to the Iron Gate, which is the border to Romania. And it’s on a dam, which is pretty cool. I don’t know how big the queue will be to cross today, but I’ve sacrificed a lot of day today just for the crossing. So, it will be 10 km up to the gate and then 10 km back to the other side of the river to Jordeta. Um, anyways, this is the rig so far. I’m far from happy mostly because uh my quad lock um got destroyed yesterday in Bgrade. It was my own fault. Um, it’s a long story. It’s a long boring story. So, we have slept in here last night. €20, three bed uh threeman bedroom, which is quite good. You can tell we’re on the countryside now. It’s so quiet here. It’s very nice. So, anyways, it’s not going to be that hot today. Around 28°, so it will be perfect. So guys, this is Cloudivo um Serbia and this is uh Droetta, Romania. So it’s not far. I think there used to be a ferry which would be save me some time because I want to the road today is probably the most the road with the most traffic on this route. Uh, however, it’s a part of the Velus 6 race, so it’s it’s suitable for bicycles, but I’m not comfortable. Anyways, here’s a Wii Fortress. Had some mixed reviews online with restoration and stuff, but looks quite nice. I don’t have the time to go inside, though. [Music] I think it’s back on the main road now. Quite a lot of cars, but there is al asphalt, so it’s okay, [Applause] guys. It’s only been 15 minutes and I can see the iron gate to heaven. Stairway to heaven. Uh I thought there would be more traffic. Definitely see a lot of trucks on the other side of the river. So guys, look how beautiful it is. We just crossed. It was easy on the Serbian side. They only asked where I’m going. No more questions asked. And there was no queue, which is fantastic. And oh my god, you guys should have seen the view on the left there, but I’m not going to stop. I don’t even think I can film here. So guys, we made it. No issue at all. They also asked me where I’m going. No queue. Now we’re going to cross or not cross. We’re going to enter the worst [ __ ] road on this route. It’s so much traffic on this route, man. It’s not fun at all. People drive like crazy here. Now I just got to find an entrance. They keep coming all the [ __ ] time. All right, [Applause] on the road again, guys. What the [ __ ] Bicycle lane. Holy [ __ ] This is heaven. So guys, let me take you around the town center. I think this is the town center. All right, guys. So, we have just arrived at the accommodation. I haven’t even seen my room first. I told her because she was working in the kitchen when I came in. I was like, “Take your time. If you if you are able to make me some lunch, go ahead.” So, she’s going to make me or she made me lunch. It seemed pretty affordable. I don’t remember. This nistle was 18 lelay, which is like how much is that? Like Oh, is it €4? It can’t pay. That’s too cheap. Oh, let’s say it’s €4. Anyways, it’s cheap. That’s what I’m trying to say. I’m missing some tartar sauce here. Some side of sauce. Maybe it’s like something you got to add like my salad. I added it. It’s so nice with a beer here. And I’m going to explore the city later, guys. Second ATM I’ve been to. And there is another beggar. But he was quite cool about it when I started talking English. Then he wouldn’t then he didn’t want that my money at all. Uh but anyways, we’re heading to this tower now. I think it’s a water tower, water reserve of some sort. So, we’ll go check it out, guys. How cool is this? The entire tower is a is a roundabout. Let’s go check out the sides. And as you can see, we got some wind gusty winds. So, still some rain. [ __ ] What is this? I’m wondering what this is. They were so nice in there. Like they were really nice. Uh but I didn’t feel like I’m a museum now. And it’s crazy how it’s open till like 9:00 p.m. Uh, but apparently they have many floors. The entire tower is a museum. And then you probably get a good view on the top, too. But now it’s time to look for food. You can hear the clockwork. This weather doesn’t do the town justice, though. It looks like a really sad Romanian town. Here you can see the church. Oh, you can go inside. International. [Music] Austin. I’m really happy I got to experience that. However, I don’t feel comfortable filming in there when they got a service or whatever is going on when people are praying because I’m not religious. I don’t know the rules uh in there. So, the floor I was sitting in wasn’t even the main restaurant. That’s why I was so confused cuz the food was quite cold when I was served it. And it’s a Friday night, so I’m wondering what’s going on here. But the city seems quite dead. I don’t know if there’s a event going on or I’m just very confused. Look at the sunset. Look at the sun touching the buildings. So beautiful. Day two via Trans Silvanica. Guys, I didn’t want to start in the morning filming that early with my puncture. I woke up with a puncture. You can clearly tell it was natural. It was like a small penetration, small hole, weehole. It went straight through my tire. It’s probably from yesterday from the highway. Um cuz I might have actually heard it yesterday, too happening. So, I woke up with that. It was an easy fix. I hopefully I did fix it because this is the first time I fixed a puncture. All right, guys. We’re off to day two. We get to see some more of the city. It’s still pretty dead in the main street here. I don’t know what’s going on. So, we’re going to be cycling in the city here and and leave the city and go up to the mountains. Guys, even in the suburbs, they have bicycle lanes. This is crazy. So far, I love this country. All right, guys. So, I had a handful of punctures there in one of the tubes. I haven’t even left the city yet and it’s 2:00 p.m. But I’m not going far today as I said. But this is concerning, guys. So, it seems like I’ll be on this dirt road for a while. It is quite bad. Um especially if it’s been raining. I think it can be very bad. Now we talking. This looks like fun. I need to check if I’m on the wrong right path. Never mind. I have to keep my eyes on the path here. Oh, it’s going fast. Woohoo. The camera is probably shaking a lot now. Now, this is the Oh, [ __ ] No, I wasn’t supposed to go in there surely. Oh, this is great, guys. I deserve this up to that hill. All right, guys. We started down there and then up on the hill over there and now we’re here basically going in circles. Oh well. You know what? This reminds me of uh the gladiator. I think you all know what scene I’m referring to. N no no no no. [Music] I don’t know how steep you think this is, but it’s steeper than what it looks. [ __ ] hell. Jesus. Oh no. Oh my god. I didn’t know today would be so suitable for bicycles that I’ve been able to bicycle most of the route, which is great. So, I haven’t really checked on the map how much progress we’ve done, but I feel like we’ve done already 75%. I feel like this is the last hill and then we’ll start going down towards Loi Balsti Baloi or something. Um, but I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone on the route today. As I’ve said before, I don’t know how popular this is yet, but uh it’s a Saturday, so I thought maybe people would try to be in Dubet on a Saturday. Maybe I’ll see them later cuz the last day is quite far. Oh, look at the patterns in that. Look how cool that is. That’s amazing. So, uh, guys, we’re in for a blast now. These dogs are much like me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that scared me a lot. That’s true. Oh, this is fun. Oh, she she’s getting a grip on her dogs. Okay, I think they’re done chasing me, sir. [ __ ] hell. No, they’re not. Oh my god. Go, go, go. Where do I go? [Music] Oh my god. [ __ ] me. Um, okay. Well, let’s go. Can I go through this? Oh, [ __ ] dogs. [ __ ] you. Oh, they got fishes in the pond, too. Ah, so much trash in this river. Oh, that’s Oh, that’s refreshing. Oh, wow. Oh, that’s good. Oh, I needed that. So, I want to check on the map before I like the tracking does not work and I think I went the wrong way here, but I still think I can go left. And they seem more scared than aggressive. It’s okay. It’s okay. All right. Oh, no. Now they’re they’re more cocky when I’m riding my bicycle. [ __ ] you guys. I think I’m supposed to go left there. Look how diverse this path has been within one day. I love how green it becomes now. Cuz today has been hot, sandy. But this color makes me want to keep coming, keep going. Some change of view. Guess what, guys? I wanted to take a break. And hopefully a friend of ours is coming to greet me. He better [ __ ] greet me, not bark. Okay. He probably would have barked already if he was protecting some area here. Hello. Salute. He hiku. So now it’s this road up to the camp. So we’re basically done for. So guys, I’m in the right town, but I went into the wrong the wrong way. So I went into someone’s private like yard and it smelled barbecue. They were barbecuing there. So I thought this is a great camping spot and he came up to me like, “What do you want?” And I was like, “This where the camp is?” “No, no, no.” And eventually he was like, “But feel free to camp here if you want and join the party. Uh, this is the type of hospital hospitality that I think Romania has. All right, guys. The camp is up. Shower right there. Outdoor shower. Toilet over there. And then you can see the hills surrounding this village now. So, I’ll start my ascent tomorrow. I think it will be quite tough, but I think I’ll wake up early because I’m sleeping in a tent and the sun. It will be quite hot with the sun. Hopefully, it won’t rain though. I just want to use the inner layer for ventilation. Anyways, I thought there would be some food in town. Unfortunately, not. But there is a small market, a we market. Maybe they serve food. I’ll go check it out now, guys. So, the small shopping town actually had quite a lot of food. It was so funny because I forgot to bring cash. I have it in my backpack, but not in my pocket. So she laughed because I picked beers and like these sausages and bread and this mustard. And then I was like, “Shit, I only got this cash. What can I afford with it?” So I had to get rid of the beer. And she laughed because I could tell she was saying in Romanian that the guy sitting outside would pick the beer instead of the food. But I haven’t had anything since breakfast today. One of it. Okay, that actually hit really good. Guys, this should this bread should still be good today. And it got some type of mold. I don’t know if you can see it very well here, but it’s definitely not my mustard. [ __ ] This is very bad. I’ll never eat. I think I will be fine. And it was Oh, [ __ ] I think it was only on the slices I ate. Yeah, you see it growing there. That’s not mustard. [ __ ] Oh, that’s annoying. Hopefully I don’t get sick. So guys, this was the damage on one of the tires today. Tubes. This came out easy. The other one got even more punctures. I hope this does one doesn’t have one more. But so far so good. All right, guys. I have put on my camp. It’s quarter past 11 p.m. and uh I was the only one putting up my tent here today until I met these uh Romanian people, Gabriel from uh Gabriel from Timisara and they’ve been so kind sharing local rockia. They even got me gave me half a liter here for my journey here. So I will uh be able to handle the pain. They also shared beer and some beautiful food. Look at this food. All the meat. You got some different pork here. Got some fries and some beautiful mustard and uh garlic. And then they also shared some other liquor. This is like um homemade liquor made of blueberry. So it’s very sweet. But you can see the color here is like the what do you call it? Uh the color from the blueberry. It’s very dark and it’s very sweet and you also get the blueberry taste. It was amazing. It’s now 9:30 a.m. New day, new opportunities. I had a lovely night last night with um Romanian people who were here on holiday and unfortunately or I can’t say unfortunately they added some more luggage for me. Yep. They gave me this and this is not Rakia. No, this is not water. This is Rakia. It’s distilled twice. It’s plum and it’s from the northern region. So, this is what they had left and they gave it to me. Oh, yeah. The dogs was barking a wee bit last night, but it was okay. And when I went out to go to the toilet to try to get into my tent, but the the dogs here with the host, it’s they’re so lovely. But, um, today will be tough. I think I did fix one tube. I hope it won’t be any more issue. I didn’t think it would be this bad in the beginning today. And I started quite late today, 11:00 a.m. I blame the alcohol. time ever.