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For a bit of an ignoramus regarding Romania, I didn’t know much about the country at all until we decided to volunteer over there. Yeah, we all know about the gypsies, Nadia the gymnast and Dracula – but I think for most of us, that’s about it.
Well it was, until Top Gear, the most watched car show in the world, visited Romania and introduced us to a few more special places and experiences Romania has to offer. And when a car show such as this boasts that Romania also has the best road in the world – it’s safe to say that if you’re a car enthusiast and in the area, you’d want to see for yourself.
Haven’t seen the episode? I’d highly suggest watching it…
That’s exactly what happened to me. I’ve watched that episode at least 4 times, each time blown away by the sheer lunacy of the road. Who would build a road like that? Why would you build a road like that? How can I get to that stretch of tarmac?
Volunteering in Romania provided the perfect opportunity. Being only 1-2hrs away, I had to do it. A brief background first which answers a few of the questions above. The road was built by the military as a quick way to get through the mountain range of Fagaras, hence Trans (transport) and Fagaras (name of the range). The actual road serves no real purpose as it doesn’t link any 2 destinations; it’s extremely slow going with nowhere to overtake if you’re caught behind a slow mover. Going slow isnt a problem though even if you’re out on your own. Unless you trust yourself and your car to the hilt – a sheer cliff face with little to no guard rail awaits you. Add in the fact the road is barely maintained and a high chance of black ice in anything but summer months – you’re likely to take it slower than Jeremy Clarkson and crew did.
As I mentioned, the road is mainly a tourist destination these days, and just like most Romanian tourist adventures, it’s not well known, explained or easy to find. Perfect though – less crowds and a better experience. Even the locals know very little of it. Jeremy mentioned in the episode that it’s spoken about in hush tones. He’s right. I couldn’t get a straight answer from about 10 different Romanians I asked on whether it’d be even open. “It closes the 1st of October” says the Lonely Planet. “It closes mid October” said a couple of locals. “Start of November” one car hire place said with another saying he thought it was semi-permanently closed. Others had either no idea or didn’t know of it. Not looking good!
I didn’t care – I was going to risk it. If it was closed, I’d get to see more of the beautiful Romanian countryside. “No lose situation” I told myself, but it was a lie – I’d be devastated if it wasn’t open. It’s not often you visit eastern Europe when you’re an Australian so it’s a one-time chance. Please be open!
The next task was to rent a car. Best road in the world deserves something pretty special, so I wasn’t going to limit myself price-wise (within reason). I was hoping for maybe a Golf GTI or similar hot hatch, I’d be content with a larger car, Ford Mondeo size at a stretch, even a locally made Dacia Sandero, James May’s favorite (but not the Logan, definitely not the Logan) would be a bit of fun. Imagine my surprise that after 7 enquiries, I had only 3 options. A Chevrolet Spark, a one litre micro-hatch; a Mitsubishi Triton 4×4 or a 6 year old VW Passat diesel wagon complete with missing hubcaps, broken windscreen in 2 spots, no rear wiper and a measly 230,000kms on the clock. Sold! 40€ per day due to its rather poor appearance and we were off!
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We headed in the direction of Sibiu, a major centre in Romania after leaving Brasov. For the geography fans out there, Brasov is about 130km north west of Bucharest, the nation’s capital. Sibiu is another 130kms west or so from Brasov. The Transfagarasan is about 2 thirds of the way there, so probably 100km west of Brasov.
Forget signs, forget landmarks. They don’t exist. It’s almost like the Government want to keep it a secret & don’t want people to drive it. Using 3G and Google Maps, we came across a side road leading up to the mountains on our left. We were told to look for a sign saying if it was open or not. A short drive down the road and we come across it… Make or break time!
“Transfagarasan deschis”. Shit! What does that mean? It’s green, green is always good… Shit! ummm Google knows all… we quickly jump onto Google Translate and… OPEN! It means Open!
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Wooooooohoooooooo!!
Giddy as a school girl doesn’t come close. I was ecstatic. I was nervous. I just couldn’t wait. So much so that I didn’t take notice of our fuel situation. After a false start and backtracking for 10minutes quickly realizing there wasn’t going to be much ahead, we were off! Hot tip – you’ll want plenty of petrol – there’s no petrol station in sight and you use a *lot* of fuel doing all that climbing.
You don’t just come across the Transfagarasan. It’s like a movie, there’s an introduction & setting of the stage, forming of the plot, introduction to the main characters (in this case, the turns and climb), the action sequence and the bringing it all together at the end with time to reflect and enjoy.
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The “introduction”, particularly in late October, was staggeringly beautiful. Untouched forests with shades of green, yellow, orange and red were unrelenting apart from the occasional break where a lookout was where you could see just how high you’ve climbed. Each bend became sharper and closer and closer to 180 degrees as we criss-crossed the mountain.
Near the top, the mini waterfalls are partly frozen, there’s ice hanging off any overhanging ledge or rock and then from nowhere – the trees just stop. In front of you is a wide open space with road that goes from left to right, sharp bend, back right to left – rinse and repeat. Oh. My. God.
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The road is magnificent. The corners sharp and unforgiving. On the straights, you get a quick chance to view the wide-open view of the valley to the side before braking for the next hairpin bend. There’s various small waterfalls which you fly past, and in late October, they’re partly frozen just adding to the beauty of the area.
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It continues like this all the way to the top. As with the movie analogy, this is definitely the action part. We have a short intermission by having a hot chocolate at the restaurant right at the very top sitting beside a picturesque lake and log cabin with snow capped mountains surrounding us.
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We set off again, happy with what we’ve done… but the movie is only half over we soon discover. A near kilometre long unlit tunnel awaits taking us through to the other side of the mountain where it all starts again! What goes up must come down!
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It’s essentially the same as the way up! I couldn’t believe our luck. I was content, no, more than content with the drive up, but I hasn’t considered the decent. We get to do this all over again but going downhill? Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!
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The drive down had nowhere near as much ice which made for a great driving experience. Being that you’re going down, it provided more opportunity to see for miles and miles of what’s to come.
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Eventually we made it to the valley floor. The Transfagarasan was complete. We had no idea how close we were to civilisation but there was but one way out, so on we went.
The way out was quite flat driving, but you’d be pressed to find a 400m stretch of straight road for the 50-odd kilometres we travelled. The road winds in and around a huge lake/reservoir culminating in an enormous dam wall. Those familiar with the Top Gear episode will remember that the boys slept in their cars at the base of the wall.
After dodging a huge number of slow-moving horse & carts, most with no lights which isn’t too clever given they share the road with fast moving cars & trucks – we finally made it to the city of Pitesti.
To sum up – it’s one hell of a drive. The car doesn’t matter, the speed doesn’t matter – the only thing that does is that you’ve conquered it and remember the sheer joy of doing it. The photos & video don’t do it justice – but we know how good it was and will remain a very fond memory forever more.
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Faaaaaaaaaaaark. Nice post!