The Twenty-Second Week

Sunday 31-7-16

So we were on a small Dutch run campsite in northern Romania and we awoke to sun and fresh cool air due to the height, lovely. At the entrance to the site was a small wooden house.

We asked the owners if we could have a look around it. It was built in the traditional Romanian style that we'd like for the house we plan to build on our plot in Transylvania. Plain wooden boards cladding the outside and an overhanging roof creating a balcony. This one had cedar shingles on the roof but we fancy a small clay tile that a lot of the houses are roofed with here.

After nosing around the wooden house we packed up and headed east in the general direction of Hungary where we planned to end up at the end of the week. On the drive we passed a huge timber building, no sign of what it was built for but now completely empty and slowly disintegrating. Seemed a shame really.

The road today was appallingly surfaced and the poor van rattled and bounced for 120 miles. The upside was the beautiful mountain scenery and forests, northern Romania is a very pretty place.

It was Sunday and in every village we drove through the ladies were togged up in the traditional colourful dresses and either wandering to or wandering back from church. Liz wanted a photo of them and started taking lots of photos out of the window. I've just looked through them, not one actually shows the ladies but we have lots of photos of walls, reflections in the screen of things on the dash and the side of my head. So you'll have to google it if you want to see what they wore. After a long drive we eventually ended up on a small site in the centre of the town of Sighetu Marmatiei. It was empty apart from five Polish lads who'd cycled to Moldova and were now on the way home via the Ukraine. The Ukraine border was only 2 miles away and for a while we contemplated heading there. But we didn't have insurance and the van was making some strange noises, the Ukraine didn't seem a great place to breakdown.

Camping Iza Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania. N47.93354 E023.90508

Monday 1-8-16

From here the roads straightened out and flattened, we started to get a taste of what would be waiting for us on the huge plains in Hungary. Boredom and tedious miles. Today we saw nothing that we wanted to photo and the high spot was a visit to Lidl. The grinding wheel bearing ground a bit louder and the radiator slowly emptied its contents as we drove. By mid afternoon I'd had enough and we ended up at a basic campsite next to a very big water-park.  It was 4 quid a night with ehu.

They had small garden sheds, painted in bright colours that Romanians stopped in overnight while spending their days in the water-park. I spent a while drinking a beer and watching them cooking pork on the communal BBQ. The whole family poked and prodded the coals and had a go at burning the meat.

After they'd done I jumped in and slapped my pork on their grill.

Camping Thermal Carei, Romania. N47.67198 E022.45483

Tuesday 2-8-16

This morning we consulted our maps and decided it was time to bite the bullet and leave Romania and get the boring flat bit of Hungary out of the way. The border wasn't far and the road we chose to cross was a small one. The border crossing appeared quite suddenly around a bend of what was no more than a little country lane.

There was no queue and we drove up to two armed policemen and a border official. They asked for our passports, driving licence and vehicle documents. They searched the van, looking under the bed and in the bathroom.. More security than any other border we've crossed this trip. But after ten minutes they were happy and let us into Hungary. We drove for endless miles down straight roads with only corn fields and the odd boring village to look at. No hills or bends or scenery. At a big town I spotted a bank and Liz got us 100,000 Forints out of the ATM. They really need to sort their decimal place out here, this only added up to 270 quid. Then after more boring miles the satnav directed us down an unpaved road. 

We knew the campsite we'd chosen for our first night here was down an unpaved road so this didn't worry us. But it turned out this was the wrong one. It got smaller and ended up as two tyre tracks in sand with a big grassy mound in the middle.  It did get us there but if we'd have stayed on the main road to the town we'd have found a shorter flatter one. What this road did was drag my spare wheel off, it hangs under the van in a cage. So I crawled under the van in the sandy road and strapped the cage up and dumped the spare wheel inside the van. At the campsite we were greeted by Fred the owner, a nice Dutchman, who laughed when I told him how we got there. The site was our kind of place, simple and small with friendly owners.

That night they invited us for drinks on their balcony along with a German friend of theirs and three other Dutch couples staying there. It was a pleasant and multilingual evening.

Camping Fantazia Tanya, Hungary. N46.94258 E019.93027

Wednesday 3-8-16

We decided to have another night here. Fred and Vera invited us to a meal of goulash cooked over an open fire that evening and we quite fancied having a bash at that. The night before I'd asked how far the town was and Fred said it was better to go on a pushbike. When we woke up we found a pushbike lent against a tree next to the van, a nice gesture we thought. But we walked in, a long way in the heat but the town was nice and we bought bread and cheesy pastry things which we ate in an immaculately kept park. Fred called us over later to sit around the goulash with a drink. Two of the other Dutch campervans had left leaving just us and a couple in a Landrover with a tent. So there were six of us for dinner.

We chatted around the fire then sat down for dinner, Nora made us wear Hungarian goulash safety equipment. Much to my amusement.

We had a good night, the other Dutch couple called Edwin and Jeanette had traveled all over the world, including China and Tibet. They had some great tales about their travels. Fred supplied us with his home-made wine and Jeanette produced a bottle of port out of their Landrover.

Camping Fantazia Tanya, Hungary. N46.94258 E019.93027

Thursday 4-8-16, Friday 5-8-16 and Saturday 6-8-16

Before we left we bought wine, honey and a walnut and beeswax hand cream that Vera makes. I also nipped in the toilet block and took a photo of the tiling job Fred had done. It was an original concept and made visiting the toilet a pleasure.

And then after using the right unpaved road we once again found ourselves back on the boring roads of Hungary. Only after around a hundred miles did we start to see a change. The north west of Hungary has hills and forests which were a pleasure to see. We were heading for a site owned by an English couple called Andrew and Sharon. I'd already messaged Andrew and he'd sorted us out with a garage to look at our noisy wheel bearing and leaky radiator. We arrived and pitched camp, then Andrew drove me to the Fiat dealer so I could get the van booked in. This round trip took us two hours. Andrew said it was no trouble but it was beyond the call of duty in my mind. We popped into a Hungarian B&Q while in the big town and I spotted stills for sale. Not something you'd find in our big DIY stores back in the UK.

We had a nice shady pitch at the top of the site and Andrew also lent me a BBQ to burn my pork on.

On Friday we went with Sharon, taking time out of her day to help us, to pick up a hire car up. The garage couldn't fit us in until Monday so a car would give us some independence to get out and about and also help when the van goes in on Monday. There was a tractor rally in another town and I fancied seeing what they did at one of these. It was great. They had an arena set up with straw bails to sit on where we watched formation tractor driving, tractor slalom racing and tractor and trailer reversing against the clock. Mad stuff but fun. And everywhere the smell of goulash cooking over open fires, they're mad for the stuff here.

On Saturday night we went to the local bar with Andrew and Sharon. It was a proper local joint, selling washing powder and envelopes as well as beer at 60p a pint.

And that's us, waylaid for 6 days while we sort out Van Brian's wear and tear. But we have a nice place to stay and plenty to do. Next week we should be done with Hungary and seeing what delights Austria has to offer.

Tranquil Pines Camping, Hungary.  N46.59027 E018.10344

Below are the numbers so far for 150 days away.

Cheers, the Van Brian Crew.

The Twenty-First Week

Sunday 24-7-16

So today we decided we'd seen enough of grey Bulgaria. We grabbed one last fried breakfast at the campsite ran by Brits at Veliko Tarnovo and headed North. We crossed the Danube at a town called Ruse, leaving Bulgaria on one side of the bridge and entering Romania on the other.

The border wasn't that busy and after showing our passports we were through. At the first petrol station we saw we bought a vignette for 7 days which cost us 6 euro. The difference in house styles and the tidiness was immediately noticeable. It seems the Romanians take a bit more pride in where they live than the Bulgarians. We had a long drive north over flat boring countryside then just after a town called Ploiesti we started to climb into the mountains. The scenery was alpine and the towns had the alpine chalet look you get all over Europe. Along one road we came across lots of cabins selling plastic tat. We later asked a Romanian about this and she sighed and said yes, Romanians like plastic, the brighter the colour the better.

At Tre Brazi we found a campsite with a very energetic owner who ran around sorting us out and then showing us the river and all the facilities. It was a nice site with great views of the hills. They'd even built a beach at the side of a pond.

That evening we had a lovely sunset to watch. We decided we liked Romania.

Camping Cheile Rasnoavei, Romania. N45.54705 E025.50713

Monday 25-7-16 and Tuesday 26-7-16

The next morning we drove back down the 5km gravel road from the campsite to the main road.

There was an info board all about the bears who live in Transylvania. Unfortunately it was all in Romanian so we were none the wiser.

Today we were heading to a friends house who lives just south of Brasov. But first we needed to do a big shop. We found a huge Auchan supermarket on the outskirts of Brasov. Inside it had the largest bag and weigh section I'd ever seen.

My friend lived in a small town called Cristian . When we got there he was out and so we found a nice shady spot by the fortified church for lunch.

After lunch we caught up with him and he installed us in this yard. He also gave us the use of a granny flat attached to his house with a balcony. We'd be sleeping in a house for the first time in 5 months.

That night he and his Romanian wife organised a BBQ and invited some friends around. We got to meet some more Romanians and another Englishman who had a house in the town. He invited us to a BBQ at his house the next night. We couldn't fault the hospitality. The next day I took the opportunity of having access to some axle stands to rotate the front wheels with the back. The rear ones have a deal more tread on them and would do a better job on the front. As ever I had expert supervision from my co-pilot.

We had a walk around the town and it felt friendly and like a nice place to live. In the evening we all went to the BBQ. He had also invited 11 Irish people he'd met in Brasov who were touring Romania. He had a huge house where at one time he and his wife had run a children's home. The Romanians, like the Bulgarians love to cook pork over charcoal. His Romanian mate took charge of the cooking and didn't stop supplying us with food for two hours.

The Irish got drunk and danced and we got drunk and watched them. We had a great night.

Cristian, Romania.

Wednesday 27-7-16 and Thursday 28-7-16

We said our goodbyes and left Cristian. Thirteen years ago I got the chance to buy a plot of land in the mountains of Transylvania that had permission to build a house on it. We'd never visited it, just seen photos, so it seemed like a good idea to go visit it and camp on it. It was 30km north of Brasov and we found the turn off to it on the road then drove 3km up a gravel track. When we got there to say we were pleased with our purchase would be an understatement.

Our neighbour in the house on the left introduced himself as Gabriel. He invited us on to his balcony and we told him why we were there and he told us lots of stuff about the area and building a house here. He gave us his phone number and said we should keep in touch. We pitched up in a shady corner and sat and looked at our 900 square metres of Transylvania. 

That night I carried on with the pork over charcoal habit we'd formed and burnt some ribs.

The next day Gabriel took us up into the woods blackberry picking and we got to know about the bears, wolves and Lynx that live here. I felt a bit uneasy about wafting my meat odours around last night, we decided on pasta tonight. We had a good look at Gabriel's house. He had a 12m bore hole for water, solar panels and a wind turbine to charge a big bank of batteries that fed a 240v inverter and a log stove that heated his water. He said we could build a house twice the size of his for 20k euro. We sat outside the van that night and made plans.

Wild camping on our plot of land, Persani, Romania. N45.76465 E025.29696

Friday 29-7-16

We said our goodbyes to our new best friend in Romania, Gabriel, and drove back down the track to the road. We'll hopefully be driving back up it in April next year with a caravan to leave on the plot while we erect some fences and start to build a house, lets see what happens. We drove on north through some lovely countryside. I had some coordinates for a small camping in the mountains and after a steep climb we found it. From what we could gather it was just called Camping. That's all the hand painted sign said, we gave a young lad five euros and we got a pitch next to a big covered table.

It had a brand new toilet block and a river. It was our kind of place. Being Friday lots of Romanians turned up with tents, dived into the forest and dragged wood out for fires, then proceeded to light them. I made do with a crappy foil BBQ which needed some encouragement to light.

That night it was like a scene from Apocalypse Now with fires and smoke rising above the trees. You wouldn't get this on a Caravan Club site in the UK. This place was far better.

Camping Camping, Romania. N46.77943 E025.75345

Saturday 30-7-16

And then today, we headed further north. Driving through a gorge that was as spectacular as the Verdun Gorge in France and over mountains with hairpins and switchbacks.

The Romanians had also installed some more little wooden tat shops to make the experience complete.

We drove over a dam and then followed a lake for 40km, the views were great. The only problem was the roads, so far we'd had good roads but here the surface was appalling and then did 100km of potholes and bumps.

The churches here are something special too. They have domes and spires and they cover them in gold and silver tiles.

We found a camping ran by a Dutch couple, small and tidy, the site that is not the couple. We planned to have a week in Romania, but today we stopped and bought another 7 day vignette. It's a great country and we want to see more.

Camping Vuurplats, Romania. N47.53493 E025.415871

Below are the numbers so far for 144 days away.

Cheers, the Van Brian Crew.