Cycling – Transfagarasan Highway

A day of mountains, rain and bears.

The Transfagarasan highway crosses the Carpathian Mountains. It’s not always open due to its susceptibility to weather conditions. In fact, it doesn’t usually open until July. Even when I went up, it only opened in both directions at 11am. Until then, the police would only let traffic through intermittently, and it was closed overnight. Obviously, they’ve had a lot of problems with loss of life here in the past.

As we know, and as I’ve said before, the weather changes quick in the mountains.

Rain

I can’t say I wasn’t expecting rain. Cycling up to my last homestay, I could see the clouds and hear the rumble of thunder from the clouds sitting atop the hills. That rumbling and the clouds rested where it was. Didn’t move onto the plains where I was cycling along.

I expected that, checking the forecast, it was going to be the same deal on the day I was to go over. Localised rain when I got up there, dying off with the altitude on the way back down.

Conditions were nice until about 3/4 the way up, then, as expected, I got wet.

Long climb

At 5,200ft, the climb into the mountains and over the pass represented the highest single ascent I’ve done on my bike.

I approached from the North. It was roughly 18 miles up hill continuously. A steeper ascent than from the South, but a shorter ascent. I’d read online that all the bear sightings were on the south.

Lunch break

At the peak, had a hearty lunch of some local fayre. Grilled chicken, paprika potatoes and fried egg plant, mushrooms and courgette. All in this giant marquee with the sound of the rain outside as a backdrop.

Had my Peter Storm raincoat on, was relatively dry. Not cold or anything. Didn’t hang around to get cold. After I’d finished, jumped on the bike and headed off.

All downhill

Through a short tunnel under the rocky outcrops of the peak.

Then all downhill. Got up to 41mph on the bike on this initial bit, and that was in the pouring rain!

All downhil, or so if looked on the maps. When you’ve got 50 miles of it, this is very rarely the case. But most was… downhill… And, this is when the bears started…

Bears!

I think the video speaks for itself!

I’d be lying if I told you I thought these bears were dangerous. They are a lot bigger than you and a wild animal. You’ve got to respect that. On a road as busy as this one, I’d not worry about it, even as a cyclist.

In the early morning, or the evening, I don’t think you’d be safe at all. This is probably one of the reasons why the highway is closed. Come twilight, wild animals hiding in the trees come out to play. You’re likely to be a good source of protein, but during the day, these bears just seem curious and hoping for the odd bit of food from the windows of cars.

It’s the motorcyclists with their leather gear on that really don’t give a shit. YouTube is full of videos of them being brave and finding out. Again, during the day, it’s ok to look clever with all your friends around recording on their phones, if anything goes wrong there’s plenty of tourists to stop it turning nasty.

In total, I see 10 brown bears in 9 encounters. It takes me about 4 hours to make the descent and to my booked homestay.

Phone insurance dodgy

I dropped and damaged my phone whilst I was in Indonesia.

The insurance company, Nextgen insurance, despite having taken my premium from me claim that I don’t have a policy with them. The rain added to the damaged phone has caused some unexpected errors such as the phone not charging properly, the SIM not being recognised and internet connection problems.

I sent them an email this morning. They’re happy to do nothing. Even though I’ve made a complaint to them, they’re just saying they’re going to wait 8 weeks, their legal requirement, until they reply and actually do anything. This despite the fact my phone is broke and I have paid them.

They renewed without giving me prior notice. The money just went out of my account. No letter, no email, no nothing. When it’s time to claim, the policy doesn’t exist. If this is the kind of company you like, I’ll be writing more about them soon.

Day off

Took yesterday off. All my clothes needed washing and were damp, plus I was tired.

Today, I’m moving on, at a slower pace. Whilst planning I could see there were some considerable inclines and distances involved to my next planned stop. I’m not going to make this too difficult on myself. It is a holiday.

I’ll be doing about 2/3 of what I usually do to break the hills up, make life easier. The weather is less good now, so in the hills, additional distances may mean additional stopping time if you get caught out unprepared.

Until next time.

Pictures

Trip details