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Romania 2015
- Thread starter ratrace
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2013
- Messages
- 16,267
Just a note to say we arrived home in Wales safe and well my phone died on the ferry and i still can't find the charger so apologies if you called or text and are still waiting for a reply but you will just have to wait a while longer because i think i'm on a promise leastways i've never seen her so insistent i get to bed 
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- Joined
- Feb 2, 2013
- Messages
- 16,267
No sign of Ram and us in this one because we were stuck behind a Landrover that had to use low range first gear to get up
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2013
- Messages
- 16,267
Cheers Gary the lord works in mysterious ways as they say and truth is i have found an immense pride in my truck as a result , just short of 5000 miles in a fortnight and she never missed a beat , it was interesting to note that even with a trailer on i had to slow down on climbing sections of motorways to let Rams standard 80 catch up 
Shayne's 90 must be good, it did all that and more with the front wheels pointing in opposite directions! Before the spannerin' it looked like Marty Feldman.
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2013
- Messages
- 16,267
I delayed sorting the tracking out to give you fella's a chance
Thinking about what pics we got and non do justice to the places we went , we could have fitted a camera to the bonnet and set it to take a photo every 5 seconds and it still wouldn't give a fair impression of the place . I will cherish the memory (though its one among many) of driving home up the lane to Clive's house (which is a bit of a 4x4 track all on its own) only to meet a blushing bride in her white lace wedding dress and all the guests in suits and dresses fit for Buckingham Palace walking down the lane to the church avoiding the muddiest patches where possible , we crawled through on tickover returning the smiles and waves we got from complete strangers only to find they were followed by a herd of horned cows a great country to visit without a doubt the beauty of it is everywhere but to really see what it has to offer local knowledge is a must and i can't thank Aura and Clive enough for giving us just a glimpse of it . A week wasn't long enough and a month would only leave you wanting more of which there is , much much more 
Thinking about what pics we got and non do justice to the places we went , we could have fitted a camera to the bonnet and set it to take a photo every 5 seconds and it still wouldn't give a fair impression of the place . I will cherish the memory (though its one among many) of driving home up the lane to Clive's house (which is a bit of a 4x4 track all on its own) only to meet a blushing bride in her white lace wedding dress and all the guests in suits and dresses fit for Buckingham Palace walking down the lane to the church avoiding the muddiest patches where possible , we crawled through on tickover returning the smiles and waves we got from complete strangers only to find they were followed by a herd of horned cows
a great country to visit without a doubt the beauty of it is everywhere but to really see what it has to offer local knowledge is a must and i can't thank Aura and Clive enough for giving us just a glimpse of it . A week wasn't long enough and a month would only leave you wanting more of which there is , much much more
Day 6 - Raznov Castle and the Transfagarasan
OK boys and girls, this is photo heavy and it was the longest day by far, in time and kilometers, too much of both, but on the plus side, we were all together and we saw a lot.
I've learned my lesson on posting full-sized photos, so these are much smaller, maybe up to 600kb and should behave better
Took me ages with a pair of scissors, getting all these photos, so even if you don't like them, please consider the blister I've got on my thumb joint and the ache in my jaw mimicking the scissors (do you do that sort of chewing motion when using scissors?...) ...I digress...
There'll be a few of these line-ups, this one was at Raznov Castle (car park) the first scheduled stop on this run...
Left to right, my Truck...
Then Chas' mighty Phoenix...
Third in row was Ram's majestic standard 80, and proud of it too...
Next in line was Shayne's (shorter) short wheelbase 90 (maybe about 86
) but still running with a "V" shaped A/C rad and a bonnet that none of us dared open 'cos we'd never get it closed again. It really did take a hammering, but true to Land Cruisers, never dripped anything and certainly didn't miss a beat 
Last in the line was ratrace's (Mike's) Landrover, well prepared for off-roading and doing everything asked of it (Mike did well with all the teasing, he never once punched anybody)
Raznov castle is... well, a castle of sorts, more a fortified place where the village was laid siege in a year that was a long time ago. (History has never been one of my strongest subjects). Anyway, this is looking back after stepping through the front door, the sort of view you'd have if you suddenly realized you'd left the camera in the truck (but I hadn't)...
I think Mike thought I had a gun, but really mate, it was only a camera...
And he was quite a long way off up at the top of the observation hill, so I would have missed him anyway. Mike's in centre view, without the zoomy thingy (photography is not one of my strongest subjects either) ...
There's a sort of cobbled roadway running all over the place inside the castle walls, so looking down the road northwards, to part of the communal living quarters...
From inside, quite an impressive view of Raznov Village...
That zoomy thing came in handy again for a few close-ups of some of the buildings in the village...
Dunno what the first buildings were, but this one I recognize as a church, it's got that tell-tale pointy thing one end and the Romanian Orthodox style roundy other end. You will have guessed by now that I'm actually quite an expert on churches...
Wandering around a bit, this was looking backwards going up the hill towards the well. Poor buggers got so thirsty during the siege, they had to dig a well from the top of a hill made of solid rock. I didn't take a photo of it, but it took them 20 years to dig it and it's over 150 metres deep... (bet they were thirsty after all that digging)..
Then we saw these slices of tree trunk targetty things...
Chas couldn't resist having a go at throwing axes... (I think he's a bit of a closet mad axeman)... He said "get a shot of me throwing them" but as we were in quite a confined space and my camera doesn't have the opposite of a zoomy thing, I stood as far away from him as possible (well so would you when he had 6 sharp hardened steel axes in his hands)... Still too close...
But he got one in... I was quite impressed, several "younger" guys had a go, and didn't... Top right hand target, trust me, that's an axe buried in the wood...
As we left the place, Chas saw an archery place being set-up. "Gotta have a go at that" said he, as he strode off to the tent thing where you take hold of a sort of Robin Hood type bow (Chas said it was quite a light one of about 25lbs, 'cos he knows all about these things, but I picked it up and I'm sure it didn't weigh 25lbs...)
Anyway he rented some arrows and whacked them at the target...
The first one missed completely, going low, under the target and burying itself into the straw bales
. Chas wasn't embarrassed (as I was) and off went the second. Ooooh, well high, missed again, but skimmed the top edge of the target and buried itself into the straw bales.
I was starting to think of ways of denying I was with him by this time, soooo embarrassing... Then I realized that this is what these archery types are supposed to do, it's called "sighting up" or "ranging" or some other kind of lame excuse for missing the bloody target.
The next one hit home, blue I think, and it just got better, have a look at this...
Zoomy thing...
See? two yellows, Chas said they're called "Gold" but they looked yellow to me, three in the red and a blue... can't be bad (as long as the first two weren't supposed to count). I recon these archery types make the rules up as they go along, anyway, I was impressed...
And the guy making the money was happy too, when he realized Chas had run out of ammo and was brave enough to stand next to the target...
So as we left, looking back at the place, in fact it sounds like I was walking backwards all the time, on this visit...
Now, you'd think that all the violence and sieging stuff was a thing of the past, but actually, there were still some pretty fearful looking aggressive types up there, so watch-out...
So, we'd escaped from the castle and I caught this passing shot of the New Dino Park entrance as we raced by at a pace, in a trailer towed by a tractor giving it all he had in low-second...
Still walking backwards it seems, (well driving this time) catching the castle at a distance in all its glory on the top of a big hill, Hollywood stylie...
Then the real driving began. From Raznov, heading west-ish, towards Sibiu, passing Fagaras, then taking the left turn southwards, driving straight for a range of mountains (the Fagaras Mountains, part of the Carpathian horse-shoe) that obviously couldn't be driven over in anything less than a helicopter...
These were supposed to show the mountains getting bigger as we got closer, but they don't. Mmmm, maybe it was a good idea not to post the ten other shots I took between the first and the last posted below...
We'd covered some kms by this time, so we stopped for some of Ram's biscuitty thingies he was carrying in a bank of plastic containers that were full of an assortment of home-made goodies. Actually, he was under a threat of gruesome things being done to him by his missus if he went home with as much of a crumb left in them, so we ate them just because we felt sorry for him, in his hour of need...
I dunno what the conversation was about but with the zoomy thingy, you can see Ram cramming as much biscuit in his mouth as he could, poor devil, we just had to help him...
No apologies for a gratuitous pic of my Truck (again), well I'm posting, so I can, can't I?
At least the mountain looks closer now (and higher, and steeper...)...
So here we are, on the first few meters of the Transfagarasan proper. It's 40 years old this year, and my father-in-law was the guy that came up with the idea of building it. We had a cake made to celebrate it. He was the Secretary of State for Forestry and Agriculture at the time, and he said "it would be a nice idea to build a tourist road over the Fagaras Mountains so that tourists can drive from one side of the mountains to the other, without having to hire a helicopter". Nice Mr. Ceausescu (he wasn't so nice actually) said "that's a good idea, it will show the whole world that the Republic of Romania is strong and powerful and sooo advanced. Go ahead Mr Ungur, you've got the job of building it". This was at a time in the '70's when they had one TV channel in B&W showing Nice Mr. Ceausescu waving his arms about to crowds of people clapping and all too scared to be the first ones to stop clapping..., I digress....
Anyway, my father-in-law did get the job of building it, and he did build it (well he had some help) but it did get built. And it's still there after 40 years (with some maintenance of course). It's only open for 3 months of the year, 'cos the rest of the time from October through to July, it's covered in about 4 metres of snow.
As you all know, it's a steep road that twists and turns and turns some more and it's cut into rocks and stuff and it's quite dangerous, so I didn't take any photos of the first 5 kms, and we only stopped 'cos my 6 year old daughter was feeling sick (again) from all the twists and turns, even though she's a fully paid-up medieval shield-bearing sword-wielding warrior sort, an' ard...
So we stopped, and this is looking backward (oh no, here we go again with the backward stuff) over the edge of the waterfall (cascade as they say here) which you can't see, unless you stop at the bottom of it with all the bloody tourists and ice-cream and crisps and chocolate and nowhere to park and stuff...
A bit of zoomy...
The little stream that gallantly throws itself over the edge of a very steep place indeed, just to give the tourists a waterfall to photograph, while they're buying pop and ice-cream and ....
Now, imagine if you can, we're a long way up. About 1,800m in fact, a few hundred meters above the tree-line (that's at about 1,400m I think) and if you had to guess what animals are prevalent at that altitude, on a mountain, maybe you'd think of bears, or wolves, or something tough and brave and scary...
What did we see?
Pink, porky pigs, all over the place...
We also met the Dutch lads that (I think) Ram, Shayne and Helen met at the ferry terminal in Calais on the way over, it's a small world really, isn't it?
And then we were off again, just going up, and up, and up...
Looking back (......) at what we'd come up...
Waterfalls crossing the road...
Still all there...
Don't worry, my Truck's a LHD
And for some reason no more photos will upload... nor the screaming icon smiley thingy...
Me bum's gone to sleep anyway so I'll stop and edit some more in tomorrow... It's already tomorrow, OK later ....
OK boys and girls, this is photo heavy and it was the longest day by far, in time and kilometers, too much of both, but on the plus side, we were all together and we saw a lot.
I've learned my lesson on posting full-sized photos, so these are much smaller, maybe up to 600kb and should behave better
Took me ages with a pair of scissors, getting all these photos, so even if you don't like them, please consider the blister I've got on my thumb joint and the ache in my jaw mimicking the scissors (do you do that sort of chewing motion when using scissors?...) ...I digress...There'll be a few of these line-ups, this one was at Raznov Castle (car park) the first scheduled stop on this run...
Left to right, my Truck...
Then Chas' mighty Phoenix...
Third in row was Ram's majestic standard 80, and proud of it too...
Next in line was Shayne's (shorter) short wheelbase 90 (maybe about 86
) but still running with a "V" shaped A/C rad and a bonnet that none of us dared open 'cos we'd never get it closed again. It really did take a hammering, but true to Land Cruisers, never dripped anything and certainly didn't miss a beat Last in the line was ratrace's (Mike's) Landrover, well prepared for off-roading and doing everything asked of it (Mike did well with all the teasing, he never once punched anybody
)Raznov castle is... well, a castle of sorts, more a fortified place where the village was laid siege in a year that was a long time ago. (History has never been one of my strongest subjects). Anyway, this is looking back after stepping through the front door, the sort of view you'd have if you suddenly realized you'd left the camera in the truck (but I hadn't)...
I think Mike thought I had a gun, but really mate, it was only a camera...
And he was quite a long way off up at the top of the observation hill, so I would have missed him anyway. Mike's in centre view, without the zoomy thingy (photography is not one of my strongest subjects either) ...
There's a sort of cobbled roadway running all over the place inside the castle walls, so looking down the road northwards, to part of the communal living quarters...
From inside, quite an impressive view of Raznov Village...
That zoomy thing came in handy again for a few close-ups of some of the buildings in the village...
Dunno what the first buildings were, but this one I recognize as a church, it's got that tell-tale pointy thing one end and the Romanian Orthodox style roundy other end. You will have guessed by now that I'm actually quite an expert on churches...
Wandering around a bit, this was looking backwards going up the hill towards the well. Poor buggers got so thirsty during the siege, they had to dig a well from the top of a hill made of solid rock. I didn't take a photo of it, but it took them 20 years to dig it and it's over 150 metres deep... (bet they were thirsty after all that digging)..
Then we saw these slices of tree trunk targetty things...
Chas couldn't resist having a go at throwing axes... (I think he's a bit of a closet mad axeman)... He said "get a shot of me throwing them" but as we were in quite a confined space and my camera doesn't have the opposite of a zoomy thing, I stood as far away from him as possible (well so would you when he had 6 sharp hardened steel axes in his hands)... Still too close...
But he got one in... I was quite impressed, several "younger" guys had a go, and didn't... Top right hand target, trust me, that's an axe buried in the wood...
As we left the place, Chas saw an archery place being set-up. "Gotta have a go at that" said he, as he strode off to the tent thing where you take hold of a sort of Robin Hood type bow (Chas said it was quite a light one of about 25lbs, 'cos he knows all about these things, but I picked it up and I'm sure it didn't weigh 25lbs...
) Anyway he rented some arrows and whacked them at the target...
The first one missed completely, going low, under the target and burying itself into the straw bales
. Chas wasn't embarrassed (as I was) and off went the second. Ooooh, well high, missed again, but skimmed the top edge of the target and buried itself into the straw bales. I was starting to think of ways of denying I was with him by this time, soooo embarrassing... Then I realized that this is what these archery types are supposed to do, it's called "sighting up" or "ranging" or some other kind of lame excuse for missing the bloody target.
The next one hit home, blue I think, and it just got better, have a look at this...
Zoomy thing...
See? two yellows, Chas said they're called "Gold" but they looked yellow to me, three in the red and a blue... can't be bad (as long as the first two weren't supposed to count). I recon these archery types make the rules up as they go along, anyway, I was impressed...
And the guy making the money was happy too, when he realized Chas had run out of ammo and was brave enough to stand next to the target...
So as we left, looking back at the place, in fact it sounds like I was walking backwards all the time, on this visit...
Now, you'd think that all the violence and sieging stuff was a thing of the past, but actually, there were still some pretty fearful looking aggressive types up there, so watch-out
...So, we'd escaped from the castle and I caught this passing shot of the New Dino Park entrance as we raced by at a pace, in a trailer towed by a tractor giving it all he had in low-second...
Still walking backwards it seems, (well driving this time) catching the castle at a distance in all its glory on the top of a big hill, Hollywood stylie...
Then the real driving began. From Raznov, heading west-ish, towards Sibiu, passing Fagaras, then taking the left turn southwards, driving straight for a range of mountains (the Fagaras Mountains, part of the Carpathian horse-shoe) that obviously couldn't be driven over in anything less than a helicopter...
These were supposed to show the mountains getting bigger as we got closer, but they don't. Mmmm, maybe it was a good idea not to post the ten other shots I took between the first and the last posted below...
We'd covered some kms by this time, so we stopped for some of Ram's biscuitty thingies he was carrying in a bank of plastic containers that were full of an assortment of home-made goodies. Actually, he was under a threat of gruesome things being done to him by his missus if he went home with as much of a crumb left in them, so we ate them just because we felt sorry for him, in his hour of need...
I dunno what the conversation was about but with the zoomy thingy, you can see Ram cramming as much biscuit in his mouth as he could, poor devil, we just had to help him...
No apologies for a gratuitous pic of my Truck (again), well I'm posting, so I can, can't I?
At least the mountain looks closer now (and higher, and steeper...)...
So here we are, on the first few meters of the Transfagarasan proper. It's 40 years old this year, and my father-in-law was the guy that came up with the idea of building it. We had a cake made to celebrate it. He was the Secretary of State for Forestry and Agriculture at the time, and he said "it would be a nice idea to build a tourist road over the Fagaras Mountains so that tourists can drive from one side of the mountains to the other, without having to hire a helicopter". Nice Mr. Ceausescu (he wasn't so nice actually) said "that's a good idea, it will show the whole world that the Republic of Romania is strong and powerful and sooo advanced. Go ahead Mr Ungur, you've got the job of building it". This was at a time in the '70's when they had one TV channel in B&W showing Nice Mr. Ceausescu waving his arms about to crowds of people clapping and all too scared to be the first ones to stop clapping...
, I digress....Anyway, my father-in-law did get the job of building it, and he did build it (well he had some help) but it did get built. And it's still there after 40 years (with some maintenance of course). It's only open for 3 months of the year, 'cos the rest of the time from October through to July, it's covered in about 4 metres of snow.
As you all know, it's a steep road that twists and turns and turns some more and it's cut into rocks and stuff and it's quite dangerous, so I didn't take any photos of the first 5 kms, and we only stopped 'cos my 6 year old daughter was feeling sick (again) from all the twists and turns, even though she's a fully paid-up medieval shield-bearing sword-wielding warrior sort, an' ard...
So we stopped, and this is looking backward (oh no, here we go again with the backward stuff) over the edge of the waterfall (cascade as they say here) which you can't see, unless you stop at the bottom of it with all the bloody tourists and ice-cream and crisps and chocolate and nowhere to park and stuff...
A bit of zoomy...
The little stream that gallantly throws itself over the edge of a very steep place indeed, just to give the tourists a waterfall to photograph, while they're buying pop and ice-cream and ....
Now, imagine if you can, we're a long way up. About 1,800m in fact, a few hundred meters above the tree-line (that's at about 1,400m I think) and if you had to guess what animals are prevalent at that altitude, on a mountain, maybe you'd think of bears, or wolves, or something tough and brave and scary...
What did we see?
Pink, porky pigs, all over the place...
We also met the Dutch lads that (I think) Ram, Shayne and Helen met at the ferry terminal in Calais on the way over, it's a small world really, isn't it?
And then we were off again, just going up, and up, and up...
Looking back (...
...) at what we'd come up...Waterfalls crossing the road...
Still all there...
Don't worry, my Truck's a LHD
And for some reason no more photos will upload... nor the screaming icon smiley thingy...
Me bum's gone to sleep anyway so I'll stop and edit some more in tomorrow... It's already tomorrow, OK later ....
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