Day 17, Craiova to Sibiu

A day of emotions I think it's fair to say and lots of them. Joy, sorrow, anger probably being the main ones.

Forgot to mention the beer count yesterday. 3 more with dinner. 37 now? And something I forgot days ago, Ginny clocked up 39,000. That was back in Greece!

Was glad to see the back of Craiova, mainly because of the hotel. We got split up again for a while. Grizzly has a habit of stopping at crossings, which drops him back. Next he'll miss a set of lights because the gap between us is too big. In cities I can't just pull over and wait for him, so it can be a while before he catches up. He's been the same ever since we started touring. I don't bother saying anything now. His stock answer is, I don't give a f*ck, so there's little point.

Anyway, we got out of Craiova and were on the open road, good roads in the main, bowling along nicely. I think it's fair to say Romania is quite fertile. There are roadside stalls everywhere, selling anything from potatoes and strawberries, to massive football sized cabbages. Also, I think a lot of them must have log burners and it appears a lorry drops off a couple of tree trunks and the homeowners get to work making their winter stash of logs. We saw a lot of that. A different world.

We'd been going well, when the traffic came to a standstill. It looked from a distance as if there may be a market on, lots of people milling about, We rode down the outside of the queue and were confronted with a group of people surrounding a young girl/woman on her back on the crossing. Clearly she'd been knocked down. What was unclear, was whether she was alive. Quite shocking to witness. A little up the road, an ambulance crew were bringing someone out of a house in a hammock type carrier. Another possible death. That's the sorrow for you.

We had a fuel stop before we headed for the Transfagarasan Highway. I'm not sure Grizzly knew what to expect. We were heading into the Fagarasan mountains, part of the Carpathian range, so it was obviously going to be twisty and uphill. He soon dropped back, so I just concentrated and making it to the viewpoint in one piece.

We came to a piece of water, Tomtom said left. Left I went. There was a tunnel. I flipped my sun shield up but the intense light to dark meant I couldn;t see what was in the tunnel. If I had, I would have stopped. Too late, I was on a dirt surface that wouldn't have been out of place on a motocross circuit, bumps, rutted, damp. If I had a GS I'd have been smiling probably but just had to concentrate on getting to the end of the tunnel, as there was no stopping once in. It's the worst place we've ever been. Grizzly had followed!!!

On reaching the other side, I could see this road was just an unmade track. Continue for 2,2km she said. F*ck that!, We'd have to turn round. I was so angry at Tomtom. She is set up to avoid unmade roads! Grizzly arrived and I was on the end of a massive tirade of abuse. I think he thought I taken the road knowing what lay ahead. I was already furious, so there was a heated exchange between us. I then turned around and ventured back into the bloody tunnel. Waiting for Grizzly, it was ages before he appeared. I was actually walking back as he did. He was even more angry now, as he'd damaged his number plate whilst turning round. To say it was frosty between us, would be an understatement. So I set off, on the correct road this time. There's anger for you.

As I got into the mountain section of the road, there was a sign saying there are bears in the woods, not to feed or approach them. A few corners later, I come out of a hairpin to see a bear hopping over the armco barrier in to trees. Wow! I never thought I'd actually see one. A bit further on, cars are stopped, another bear at the side of the road. And this went on. People were leaning out of their cars to photo them. Not prudent maybe on a bike to stop. Around one corner, 2 bears were sitting on the armco, about a metre apart. You could just imagine them having a conversation about all these people! Which shall we eat first? I had to laugh. They were totally unfazed. I saw 11 in all, well 10.5, the last 2 were mum and baby. Definitely not a place to be stopping. It was fantastic. So there's the joy for you. One question has now been answered though. Do bears shit in the woods? No, they do it on the road! Beside the bears, 2 deer ran across me and there were 2 donkeys in a tunnel! No idea why.

I made it to the summit, enveloped in cloud and 13 degrees. a short way on the downside is the viewpoint, it was sunny and I could see the twisty road I would be going on. Grizzly caught up, probably 5 minutes later, maybe more. His temper had calmed a bit but he knew he'd not keep up on the twisty, so said he'd see me at the hotel. He actually pulled up behind me as we entered Sibiu.

The hotel is very boutique. There's a code to open the gate and one for the room. Very high tech and finished to an extremely high standard. Plus here too, it's bikes that are allowed to park on site, not cars!

Dinner was had in the town at a micro brewery. A nice chicken schnitzel and chips and 3 of their home made B13 lagers makes 40 now,

Pics of the day. No bears though. Didn't want to be brown bear dinner!