so here is our last adventure
we (me+ali&vlud) left bucharest on thursday afternoon
by the time we'd gotten to barajul vidraru at about 9, it was getting pretty dark, and only 15km later vlud had a flat tire. unfortunately, the batteries in my camera died so this is the only picture i managed to get: alistair leaning over to check it out
we managed to get it fixed after midnight, but could not get a room at piscu negru or capra. we pressed on and got to balea lake at around 1am only to find it closed. alistair would not pitch a tent so we went further and got a room in cartzishoara, which the two of them seemed to enjoy.

the next morning we went to sibiu and the most incredible thing happened, we ran into virgil, who had been around europe for the past four months. he'd come home for a short while and picked up the phone just when we where in the same city

after a short but very agreable talk with virgil, we went to paltinish and from there on over the mountains to obarshia lotrului on soft enduro roads sometimes blocked by sheep
the places were quite ok (said vlud)



in obarshia we had a quick snack and went to vidra to try to get a room. as there were none available, we turned back wanting to cross the mountains to ranca, but got into trouble. my back shock absorber went bust and dripped all the oil.


so much for the unstoppable claim of the bmw for its adventure bikes

but i wasn't that bumped as i knew it was going to happen anyway, since ewan and charley had to replace quite a lot of them on their long ways round/down, so it was only a matter of when it was going to happen, not if
but then it was vlud's turn to park his bike in a rather narrow place between two trees on the side of the road


he was lucky and only scraped it a little and broke a lamp

after that we decided not to cross the mountains anymore and find a pension in voineasa. on the way there we ran into a bunch of poles traveling on bikes

they had crossed the same road on rather old bikes


this one in particular, a honda 500cc from 1983 with street tires

on saturday we left for ranca



where vlud ran into and old aquitance

and i met old friends: vali, bebe and doru

and their new bikes

bebe's new gas gas was quite a thing



and everybody wanted to try it

vali took us in his cabin, fed us
and got us prettry drunk really fast, or at least some of us, and this is how vlud started showing his feeling for ali in a rather direct way

although maybe his true feelings were closer to this

or this

the booze even got ali to show us what a good sportsman he was

and although i had cracked my zumo (which garmin romania say they cannot fix, although garmin uk say they can)

ali and vlud were happy
the next morning we went to sibiu and the most incredible thing happened, we ran into virgil, who had been around europe for the past four months. he'd come home for a short while and picked up the phone just when we where in the same city
after a short but very agreable talk with virgil, we went to paltinish and from there on over the mountains to obarshia lotrului on soft enduro roads sometimes blocked by sheep
in obarshia we had a quick snack and went to vidra to try to get a room. as there were none available, we turned back wanting to cross the mountains to ranca, but got into trouble. my back shock absorber went bust and dripped all the oil.
so much for the unstoppable claim of the bmw for its adventure bikes

but i wasn't that bumped as i knew it was going to happen anyway, since ewan and charley had to replace quite a lot of them on their long ways round/down, so it was only a matter of when it was going to happen, not if
but then it was vlud's turn to park his bike in a rather narrow place between two trees on the side of the road
he was lucky and only scraped it a little and broke a lamp
after that we decided not to cross the mountains anymore and find a pension in voineasa. on the way there we ran into a bunch of poles traveling on bikes
they had crossed the same road on rather old bikes
this one in particular, a honda 500cc from 1983 with street tires
on saturday we left for ranca
where vlud ran into and old aquitance
and i met old friends: vali, bebe and doru
and their new bikes
bebe's new gas gas was quite a thing
and everybody wanted to try it
vali took us in his cabin, fed us
and got us prettry drunk really fast, or at least some of us, and this is how vlud started showing his feeling for ali in a rather direct way
although maybe his true feelings were closer to this
or this
the booze even got ali to show us what a good sportsman he was
and although i had cracked my zumo (which garmin romania say they cannot fix, although garmin uk say they can)
ali and vlud were happy