Through mountains in Romania - September (by Polka)

After two weeks of sunny, summer weather, the rain came. And it came on the day when Aaron planned what should have been a the highlight of our Romanian trip, going through some lovely mountains. The winding road took us up to a pass by a church, where we then left the road and followed  a mountain track. We were supposed to have spectacular views but we were shrouded in clouds much of the way.

Getting to our starting point

We saw many similar shelters in Carpathians, often near logging sites, however, there was no sign of logging there. People of different age, including children seemed to live there. You would wonder how they survive winter, though they may have had a wood stove inside and the forest provides plenty of wood.  The structure is basically a wooden frame covered in PVC sheet for waterproofing.

It has been many times during our touring in Romania that we have been wondering whether people do actually live in the house we drove past. Here's one of them.  More than a few houses that at first glance you'd assume were abandoned were actually being lived in.

Nearly at the starting point. The beginning of the mountain track was opposite the church, next to yet another cabana.

Here's the few photos that we took when crossing the mountains. Not as many as we normally take, as we it was only worthwhile taking photos where visibility allowed.  On a clear day I think the views from this track would have been stunning.

 Aaron’s hearing seems to be very sensitive when it comes to car as he noticed very quickly that there was something wrong with one of the wheels. We were coming down a hill along a river when a tyre got sliced.  It was beyond what you'd call a puncture.  The tyre was cut in a clean straight line for 15 cm from tread to rim.  No idea what we hit but it destroyed a relatively new tyre. Fortunately, Aaron was able to change it pretty quickly and we continued to our destination.

 The kids were having lunch whilst Aaron was changing the tyre in the rain.

And off we go again!

Past an old mine...

...and some abandoned, dilapidating buildings.  Some of the buildings on the coming photos may have house miners working at the mine.

Next through a dirty, depressing but populated town where Beany counted over a hundred broken windows as we were going through.

As we drove lower we left the clouds behind and had much better view of our surroundings.

Last night of wild camping in Romania. We found a perfect spot, secluded behind trees, cut off the main track by a mountain stream. Although Aaron claimed he got used to wild camping, I still found it difficult to sleep well. Every little noise would wake me up. That night I could swear I’d heard an animal sniffing around the tent. Obviously in the morning I didn’t find any signs of animals walking around our tent. Aaron apparently didn’t hear anything at all.

This is a photo from our camping spot.  The very old trailer in the photo is typical of the area and although no one was at this one while we were here, people working in the forest live in these.

Our secluded camping spot.