Belgrade – Romania

Today another country was the target. This time it was Romania. In order to get there you don’t have that many options. I had chosen a border crossing alongside a river but before getting there I first passed Golubac fortress. It is a nice fortress that is still fairly intact. You can just park your car on the side of the road and explore the fortress on foot. No entrance fee or anything. Actually the main road runs through the fortress.

The panorama function on my camera does not work very well with water, just look at the fortress 😉

So accross the river lies Romania and actually my first track in Romania would be approximately oppsite of the fortress. Great, but there is a catch. There is no bridge at this spot. In fact there are hardly any bridges around. In order to get into Romania I had to drive along the rivershore for about 70 km until you reach a bridge/dam and the obligatory border checkpoint. But this also meant that I had to come back along the river but on the Romanian side for the same amount of km’s. I was not really to keen to do this so I double checked at a tourist office to see if there was a crossing closer by. Nope, this was the closest/easiest solution according to the lady behind the desk. Ah well, on I went. The road on the serbian side is perfect pavement and lots of short tunnels.

The view alongside the river, on the left Serbia, on the right Romania

There were only a few towns and only one of them with petrol so I filled up. After what seemed forever I finally made it to the border. Serbian official was quick and painless. On the romanian side I got special vip treatment as I could use the Cd lane, reserved for politicians and diplomats (i was being instructed to do so). Passport was checked, now only customs to go. They were seriously searching through a car in another lane. A lady came and asked if I had anything to declare. I don’t try to be a smartass so I say no. She then asks how much money I have on me. Since I always try to get rid of any notes before crossing a border I had almost nothing on me except for a 5 euro note (which is useless in Romania since it has its own currency).
“only 5 euro and no Romanian money…how are you thinking to buy your road vignette”. I simply replied that I had no idea that one is necessary. I asked where I could buy one and she pointed to a little container in one of the other inspection lanes. I asked if I could park my bike and walk up there. I could but only after she angrily instructed me to continue past the gate…NOW.
She was powertripping. I parked the bike, went to the loo before bringing up my “i’m an idiot tourist” face. One of the other border guards noticed me and asked what my intentions were. Just trying to get a vignette. He pointed at my bike. “Yours?” Yes indeed… “No vignette needed”
Sweet, my powertripping customs lady does not even know that bikes don’t require the vignette. Thanks, I wanted to rub it in her face but again, smartass mode should always be disabled at border crossings.
Now backtracking another 70km along the Romanian side. It was very noticable that the Romanians thought this river was a tourist attraction. They had restaurants and hotels and the occasional souvenir shop along the shoreline. Of course I did not stop at the petrol station I passed, I still had plenty of fuel from filling up on the serbian side.
After a while the tourism stops and the potholes and bad road starts and the houses dissapear. There is one stone carved head along the way of Decebal, an ancient figure that played an important role in Romanian history.

After many potholes I finally reached my turnoff point but I was now running on my reserve fuel.
Immediately I saw some real rural Romania. Unpaved streets, many kids playing on the street and waving at me. The houses were all nicely decorated and very colourful. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this. The road became remoter and remoter (and not paved at all). My fuel level was sinking fast as well. But the area was really nice. And of course at a certain point I ran out of fuel. No problem, i have some spare in my fuel container, except this time it was not a full gallon. It was about 2 liters since I had used some during a thunderstorm in Bulgaria and forgot to top up my fuel cannister again.
This could become interesting. I began trying to ride as economically as possible. Staying in neutral when going downhill etc. It took me a while before I finally got to what appeared to be a bigger town and I was put out of my misery after a man reassured me a petrol station was only 2 km away.
Also a good opportunity to get some cash in case I end up in the middle of nowhere and need to buy my way out of a sticky situation.
I continued and the road was very nice and took me through the mountains before ending in a grim looking city. Not a place I wanted to stay at. Not that it was dangerous or anything, it was just a very industrial city with big factories. I checked my gps where I could sleep. There was a nice guesthouse a bit out of town but they were full. In the town they had a Best Western but they were charging 54euros a room. Way out of my daily budget so…no deal.
I then decided to look for a wild campspot and not long after following the road out of town I found a pretty good spot down a dirt road that was used to get to some powerline towers. I had bought some sausage and beans in a can from the local carrefour together with some bread. That would cover dinner.
First wild camp in Romania, I made sure my garlic was fresh and my wooden stakes sharp. I’m in dracula country now.
It was along day! There was definitely a lack of pictures today as stressful moments don’t invite you to take pictures. I will try to make it up to my true fans.