Past the passes

We said our good byes to the Welsh Guards advance party as we left at 6:00am and turned the bikes to the south.  Our first stop was in Bran, made famous by Bram Stokers Dracula there we had a look at the castle from the roadside before we continued to the legendary Transfagarasan pass. 

As we cut a trail through the countryside we came across some partly unpaved roads and surfaces that make Britons worst roads look great.  For me on the Tiger it was simply a question of standing on the foot pegs and letting the bike do the work, after all this is what she was made for.  James suffered, his bike is a great touring machine but it was out of its comfort zone on the unmade surface and soon a gap opened between us.  At the end of this stretch we turned onto the Transfagarasan but before we could get stuck in we needed to go shopping.  With a Lidl just a stone’s throw away and no other option we parked under the shelter by the door and collected a few choice items before heading into the hills.

At the southern end of the pass we saw the “real” Draculas castle then started the climb towards a lake surrounded by a beautiful forest. 

The temperature was perfect (but dropping), the bikes were on top form and the road was challenging.  We hit it hard and made good progress stopping for the odd photo before climbing ever higher into the hills. 

At our last photo stop before the top I turned into a handy little layby and as I put my foot down to support the bike I misjudged the distance to the rough surface and the bikes full weight came over onto my supporting leg which was already struggling given the drop.  The briefest of fights ensued and gravity emerged the inevitable winner.  I was off and the Tiger was down, resting on a pannier.  Quick as a flash James ran over to help me took a photo and posted it on Instagram before offering to help.

We got the bike back up and took some more pictures before heading up and over the top of the pass where snow was still on the ground and dropped onto the valley on the north side.  The road continued in the same vein and after over 100km of fantastic riding we emerged in the far side in glorious 25°c sunshine.

It was time to switch our aim to the Transalpina Pass to the West.  We set off towards Sibiu and collected some gas for our cooker then pushed on towards the pass.  The intent was to find a spot to camp at the start of the pass but once we were on it that proved difficult.  I went ahead up one dirt track to look for a suitable place only to find that it got pretty bad and James’s Special K (his bike) wouldn’t be able to get up there.  I turned back and we hit the road again.  We ended up riding most of the pass before we finally struck gold in the form of an abandoned hut.  We managed to get both bikes off the road and behind the hut before we set up camp, cooked, eat and checked tomorrows route then got our heads down for an early night.  We’ve now worked out that an early night and early start is the way forwards so there’s another 5:00am alarm set ready to crack on in the morning.