Transfăgărășan, or, I'm taking a detour.

Last night it actually rained a little, I should have taken off my seat bench sheepskin better😬. But luckily, the motorcycle pants are waterproof, so no problem.

On today's schedule was the Transfăgărășan and the Transalpina, two beautiful mountain passes over the Făgărăș Mountains.

I missed the Transalpina, out of clumsiness. But no big deal, I already rode it last year with Hartmut, a friend.

So back to the Transfăgărășan. First, you go through beautiful villages, then they become less and less until you only have forest around you. The first signs appeared, a warning that you are in the bear area. You could also clearly see it, many of the trash containers on the roadside were knocked over and the contents spread out. What they would attribute to us juvenile troublemakers, here were the bears, who easily found food from the containers at night, and many a container went over. I'm talking about the four-wheeled 1 m3 metal containers, which are not easily knocked over.

As I said, the road led through bear forest, but this year without bear sightings. Past a large reservoir. The trees became fewer and finally the tree line was reached, and there was only bare rock and some snow fields that tried to defy the temperatures.

The pass season always starts in June, until then it is usually blocked by snow. Even now, not all restaurants and sales stands were open.

4 weeks ago in Bosnia, I met a motorcyclist who tried to ride this mountain pass, but it was still closed.

Almost arrived at the top, I realized that my tank was almost empty, I simply forgot to refuel. When I arrived at the top, my remaining range showed 15 km. But now it was only downhill, and if necessary, I still had three quarters of a liter of petrol from my petrol cooker, so no 😱 panic.

The route up the pass was more appealing than the descent, at least that's how I felt.

Thank goodness there was a gas station right at the end of the road, my tank holds exactly 20 liters, I refueled 19.5 liters, so still had enough reserve😬🤗

I immediately combined refueling with a slightly longer break, had breakfast, drank coffee, and had a little chat with a British motorcyclist, which worked relatively well despite my poor English skills🤗.

Enough chattering, let's continue, the Transalpina is still on the schedule. But unfortunately, I turned off too early, also a nice route that winds through valleys along a river to the other side of the mountain, the only annoying thing was the heavy traffic, especially the trucks.

Actually, it was too early to look for accommodation, but the dark clouds and the rising wind didn't bode well. So I found a cheap accommodation in Horezu, shortly after checking in, the rain, lightning, and thunder started. Did everything right🤗

Tomorrow, the Iron Gate is on the program, so stay tuned.

PS. The bear photo is from last year