I finally found some time to write about our trip to Romania.
There were five of us: my Wife, three friends, and Your's Truely
We drove Svietlana, since that would reduce the cost, time and emissions of the trip (amoung the other options were flying and renting a van). The car was PACKED: 5 people, each had a huge backpack, plus extra food, clothes, etc. The car weighed more than 2000kg, which probably killed any gains the aeromods gave.
We left Warsaw on August 15, ate lunch at the Polish-Slovakian border and switched drivers. Unfortunely, the Wife's driver's license hadn't come yet, so a friend took the wheel, and she had fun going 130-140 km/h on the highways in Slovakia and Hungary. When the highways were over, I got the wheel back and crossed the Romanian border to Oradea. On the next day we drove through western Transsilvania to the vicinity of the city of Fagaras. There we slept at a hotel, repacked, left the car and took the train to the western end of the Fagaras Mountain Range. We started our hike in Turnu Rosu at elevation 380m, the first camp was at around 1800m. We hauled our 25-30kg packs up a 1400m elevation gain.
The next days weren't much easier: lots of ups and downs, and the packs weren't getting noticeably lighter
The third day was the toughest with less hiking and more climbing, but we reached the summit of Negoiu (2535m), the third peak of Romania, but the hardest to climb.
The decent was through Dracula's Canyon, a narrow and dangerous 100m elevation drop with rusted chains for help.
The next days were easier, on the sixth day we climbed the highest summit, Moldoveanu (2544m). There, on the monument with an elevation plaque and the Romanian flag was... Micheal Jackson's picture! So he didn't really die, he only went back home, just like Elvis (who supposedly returned to Mars). The last day was a decent from 2100m down to the hotel at 500m, but now our backpacks were at least 5kg lighter
What do I think about these mountains? Breathtaking. Beautiful. Very similar to the Tatras. Lots of donkeys and even more sheep. Watch out for dogs, bears and other furry critters!! And trash. Everywhere
Especially next to lodges and refuges. Someone left their trash and everyone else thinks they can just add to the pile. I don't understand people who can't carry their trash with them. If they brought it, they should take it. Even the lodge tosses their trash into a pit. Unfortunately, the Fagaras Range isn't a national park, so it is less protected. Hopefully Romanians will get their act cleaned up sooner than later.
We were lucky with the weather, as we never saw any real rain or dangerous winds. We didn't always have full sun, some days were spent inside of clouds, but that helped the sunburn we got on the first two days. As we decended on the last day we saw that the weather is changing quickly. The upper portions of the mountains were in dark clouds, and the thunderstorm caught up with us just as we got into the hotel.