Christmas Sunrise

[clivehorridge]

View attachment 110944 Well, the log burner is burning well,
Got Nat King Cole's Ultimate Collection on the CD player and all is good in this part of the world. Got some nice prezzies from Lynn including Nat, a Ward Thomas CD and these…
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I shall enjoy today.

I would hope you'll enjoy tomorrow too Rich, with that little lot

 

[clivehorridge]

As it's Christmas Day, the quest was to find some snow.

Sinaia mountain has some, we knew that, but it's high and Christmas Day is very busy on the main slopes. It's also been blowing a gale and although it's not particularly cold, the high of -2C today wasn't very tempting at 2,000m in a 40-50 kph howling wind.

So we headed for Predeal. The village and lower slopes are at about 1600m and being sub-zero, we knew there'd be snow even if it was home blown from the cannons.

Sure enough, the queue on the main road entering Predeal suggested it would be busy. It was for this reason we didn't take skis, we just wanted to see snow and have a bit of a play for a couple of hours as it went dark. We managed to park the truck on the grass verge (instead of queuing to get to the car park up higher that we knew would be full) and made our way on foot to collect a couple of rented sledges. That done we hauled ourselves up one of the sledge slopes and the kids had a whale of a time, so did we!

Crappy photos I'm afraid... Aura & Ana caught in the flash, approaching the catch-fence at a rather suicidal speed...

Ana desperately hanging on to the lead with her friend Alex in hot pursuit...

The lead was short-lived though, he's a boy that Alex...!

By this time it was snowing quite nicely, and the more sensible members of the crew decided it was time for hot chocolate and/or mulled wine ...

A last go just before we left...

And a "moody" shot of the truck (meaning it's all out of focus and I dunno what)... but it was hand held in the pitch dark.

And still with the video camera mounted on the bull-bar (I forgot to remove it 2 hours previous).

That was our bit of fun this afternoon, I love it when we find snow on Christmas afternoon

 

[clivehorridge]

A full day out today, up early and on the road by 09:00.

Sadly, due to all the seasonal traffic, it took us 2 hours to do the 40 minute ride to Azuga ski resort.

They had snow even if we didn't!

This is the car part Shayne had a short go at driving my 80

And noticed this as we pulled up...

Missed it by 3km...

Only 20 cm, but plenty of snow for skiing...

The view from the top (it's only a training slope)

Occasional blue skies...

And the customary hot chocolate and hot-dog, mid-way through...

And a good day had by all.... same again tomorrow.

 

[fbnss]

How they do that? My zim zimmer now worky in the snow!

 

[StarCruiser]

A full day out today, up early and on the road by 09:00.

Sadly, due to all the seasonal traffic, it took us 2 hours to do the 40 minute ride to Azuga ski resort.

They had snow even if we didn't!

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This is the car part Shayne had a short go at driving my 80

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And noticed this as we pulled up...

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Missed it by 3km...

Only 20 cm, but plenty of snow for skiing...

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The view from the top (it's only a training slope)

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Occasional blue skies...

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And the customary hot chocolate and hot-dog, mid-way through...

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And a good day had by all.... same again tomorrow.

Nice one Clive. I'm definitely envious now. Never been skiing but would love to try.
Ana looks like she means business in the first photo.
Shame about the traffic, probably the same here.

 

[clivehorridge]

How they do that? My zim zimmer now worky in the snow!

Nice one Clive. I'm definitely envious now. Never been skiing but would love to try.
Ana looks like she means business in the first photo.
Shame about the traffic, probably the same here.

TBH, it's a PITA Rich. Holiday times like Christmas are terrible, everyone's going everywhere in the same 3-5 day period.

But it's also bad summer and winter weekends, we chose the location because it's close to the mountains, but it can still take us 2 hours when they're 30 minutes away

Never mind, there was a motorway planned to replace the national road. Last year there was a contract signed so we all imagined that in 3-5 years, the queues would be a thing of the past. 2 months later the contract was cancelled and the project shelved indefinitely. That's how it is here I'm afraid. It will happen one day.

Skiing's great. You don't have to be good at it, just a few lessons to get you started, and just take it from there.

If you get hooked then you can progress to something more 'professional', but I'm quite happy with my 'leisure' skiing level. I can get from top to bottom without falling, and I've even survived some powder runs.

Ana enjoys it too so it's something we can do all together as a family.

 

[StarCruiser]

We've only just had the bypass constructed that was first tabled in the 60s Clive. Sounds like Romania is better. They were widening the road into Worthing and compulsorily purchased all the houses. They were boarded up for years cos the last lot cancelled all road building when they got in back end of the nineties. All the houses are sold now, no new road.

Anyway, looks like great fun.

 

[Shayne]

Sun in the summer and snow in the winter makes me wish Helen was Romanian !

 

[clivehorridge]

How they do that? My zim zimmer now worky in the snow!

I think you just need to work on your technique Nick...

 

[clivehorridge]

Sun in the summer and snow in the winter makes me wish Helen was Romanian !

You got it Shayne, real seasons!

Potentially, a 60C or more variance through the year...

 

[fbnss]

I think you just need to work on your technique Nick...

No honestly it's crapper than a really crap thing in snow. It was the reason I bought the surf in the first place!

 

[clivehorridge]

Just to be even more boring, the next day was even better, after another 15 cm of fresh snow overnight.

A grey day and several degrees colder (-3C) but just great!

Just love the way these things climb....

Ana in front...

And aura behind (underarm shot )

The tiny blue figure centre left is Ana, she doesn't stop at all...

Off to Baile Herculane tomorrow for the New Year....

 

[clivehorridge]

OK, Baile Herculane isn't going to be much fun, it's an ex-communist resort, tall ugly hotels, but at least they've been renovated inside.

10 storeys, and the spa pool is down at -2.

No not the temperature, that's the floor number! The water was more like 40C. Hotter than I have a bath!

I did like the journey though, 400 odd km of driving the 80

These pics are the DN6 running alongside the Danube, with Serbia on the other side. Sadly, only iPhone, and hand held while driving...

Interesting road, better than it looks in the photos...

 

[clivehorridge]

After seeing the New Year in, the party went on till 05:00 ish

This meant stumbling out of bed at about 11:00, wondering what we would do with ourselves. After a tip off, we ventured along the small river running through the village of Baile Herculane, the River Cherna, to see if we could find its source.

It took us on the DN 67D a small national road which surprisingly took us in the direction of a small village (Sat) called Cherna.

By means of a forest road (covered in snow) Sat Cherna must be all of 10 houses, but the road from start to finish was through very beautiful and dramatic scenery, rock faces, frozen river, frozen waterfalls and such like...

Some sample photos...

There's plenty more pictures posted in the Media Gallery section under my album called "Rau Cherna" if anyone is interested.

 

[Towpack]

Some great snow scenes there Clive, much more picturesque than a similar scene in Summer IMO but just looking at snowy pics is enough for me these days I'm afraid. I hate the stuff. We've been fortunate so far this Winter over here, just hope we can get away with the rest of it!

 

[clivehorridge]

Some great snow scenes there Clive, much more picturesque than a similar scene in Summer IMO but just looking at snowy pics is enough for me these days I'm afraid. I hate the stuff. We've been fortunate so far this Winter over here, just hope we can get away with the rest of it!

I love the snow, as long as I don't have to be at any place at any particular time, then it really is a pain.

There was 26 km still to do on the run in this post, but it was 1 hr away from sunset, the forest road was climbing steeply and it was ice by this time not snow.

I'm running on BFG MUDS at present, snow is fine with them, but ice is a no-no.

That's when we headed back.

 

[Dave2000]

When we were lads its was our new years rule that we must continue drinking to see the sunrise , of those that were always still going in the morning i'm the only one left and so after a sleepless night i will wait for the sun and crack open a beer.

Yep, that brings back a few memories Shayne!!

Awoke one cold morning under a hedge, I remember watching the sunrise from the last of the N98 night buses back to London, my head still spinning and banging, I caught my reflection in the window....something was not right?

Finally got home and my fumbling to get the key in the front door had my mother open it for me, she looked at me rather odd and smiling said "You might as well go to bed, but give your face a wash before you do".

I glanced in the mirror as the sink started to fill, and again did not recognise the reflection, my 'friends' had given me a 'make over' whilst passed out in the venue garden, lipstick, blusher and other girlie stuff, it was not too bad to wash off however, replacing the shaved off eye brow would not be so quick to sort!

Break out with the Mary Hopkirk song......"Those were the days my friend.......la la la la la "

regards

Dave

 

[Gary820]

Great pics Clive, we had a cold windy day at Whitby.

Didn't get much in the way of views while driving lol

Had a guest for lunch though!

 

[Dave2000]

Funny how such a short distance can make the difference in the weather we get.

I was on the beach by 13.00 with a dozen or so friends, a mixture of sun and cloud, some low calorie burgers on the barbeque made up with fallen rocks from the surrounding hills. We were sitting there rabbiting away and then about 500 metres out to sea, the biggest dolphin any of us had ever seen, it put on a great display leaping high out of the water, and showing off what nature is truly about.......priceless!


regards

Dave

 

[clivehorridge]

Great pics Clive, we had a cold windy day at Whitby.
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Didn't get much in the way of views while driving lol
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Had a guest for lunch though!
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Oooooh, seaside at Christmas, that brings back memories of living within 30 minutes of the Gower!

Can't go to Whitby without being molested by seagulls. First time I took my (Romanian) wife to the U.K. she insisted on having fish & chips. So we did, on the cliff path at Tenby (S. Wales). We had to go for more because they bombed us so much she dropped hers! It was all gone before it hit the grass!