Sunday 25th June 2017
After a few days of chores including oil
changes for the van & bikes, airport collection runs for a very tired Lucy,
(who had spent a whole night sleeping on the floor after being grounded at
Munich airport due to really bad weather and a lot of very angry and loud
Egyptians) and various other time wasting ‘normal’ life things we finally got
out for a ride today.
We’d gone back over the Transfaragasan
Pass on Saturday to find the col had become a tourist circus, 5 Lei or £1.00
for parking, all the little stalls and shops were in full swing to sell
anything they could, (although we did find a couple of sheepskins for saddles
for 70 Lei or £15 each). The southern
side of the pass was much quieter and less windy, the drive down to the dam a
much more pleasant journey too. We stopped in Curtao de Anges for some
shopping, then drove up a dead end valley to Lac Rausor at the head of the
Leresti Valley. At the road end there were loads of folk pitched up for the
weekend, enjoying the sunshine and the river. The forest track continues on
upto the high ridges which separate this valley from it’s neighbour.
After a visit to this part, we retraced
our steps back to the TET trail which ran westerly alongside the reservoir.
Once parked up we prepped kit for the next morning and a planned early start. Lucy decided it was a good time for a bit of skinny dipping, so her and Roxy went for a splash around in the warm sunshine.
Sunday morning dawned bright blue skies,
we got the bikes out, packed the dog into the shade and set off for some
mountains!
What a grand day, one of the best I’ve
had on the Romanian TET so far. We climbed up through the trees on straight
forward piste, (passing an old abandoned forestry hut which would make a good emergency stop!), then came out onto a lovely green and open ridge. With a quick
detour to catch a little viewpoint, we saw the main piste wound it’s way all
the way along the ridge, so we set off, taking a direct line where the piste
zigged and zagged for the trucks that went along here daily.
We ticked off several summits along the
way all around the 2300m mark and came to the junction where the TET veered off
northwards before dropping into the next valley and it’s forest. For us the
higher summits to the north east beckoned and a descent back into the valley to
rejoin the trail we’d seen the previous day at the valley head.
Lucy had a bit of a mare on the descent,
it started out fairly steadily and then became the steep zig zags that were
familiar to me from my first week here. She has an inherent mental block on
down hills so ended up walking her bike down some sections, but also rode others
pretty well, plenty of playtime in these places to come up I think as a
confidence booster and to gain some skills.
We got back to the van for lunch time,
which was perfect as the heat of the day was just warming the inside of the van
up, so we packed everything away and took the dog to the river for the
afternoon, using this as a way to move to the next valley so we can link the
next sections of the TET which will then go upto the highest point on the TET
and what looks like Romania’s third highest summit too, (Dara 2500m).
