It’s been quite a sobering experience receiving all these kind wishes from many of you I’ve never even met as well as those I have, and folks who barely knew the man as well as those that met him.
He was a man of presence, his hard-headed approach to everything he did ensured that nothing would stand in the way.
A prime example was his idea to build the Transfagarasan as a tourist road for the benefit of Romanians to see close up the beauty of the Carpathian Mountains. His expertise of building forest roads as Minister of Forestry and Agriculture (at that time) meant that he was the main man for the job, but Ceausescu couldn't sanction the idea unless the proposal could be supported by some other means, so he said no.
Aurel then put it to the military, and lobbied that such a road could have some strategic benefits. At that time in the late 60s, the Russians had made clear their intentions in the former Czechoslovakia, and such countries, and in the face of a possible Russian invasion into Romania, the military rubber-stamped their support for an alternative means of getting troops across the mountains.
So Ceausescu approved the idea, and Aurel walked the route he had in mind, on foot and on horseback, mapping the sheep and goat trails that could eventually be graded to form a roadway. The biggest problem was the highest point which try as he did, could not be navigated other than by an alpinist. The decision was taken for the upper part of the road to pass through a tunnel at something like 2,200m above sea level.
The rest is history to those that have driven it. I took him back there about 3 years ago, and he was so excited and enthusiastic to see it again in the flesh, so to speak. At every turn of the road (and there are many) he described to us how they got the bulldozer (they only had one) into position with ropes, chains and hand winching with turfurs and pulleys. The majority of materials were hauled up the sheep tracks by donkey ‘caravans’ can you imagine. Bags of cement, sand and aggregates slung over the backs of over 100 donkeys. Amazing. I think some 12,000 kg of dynamite was used to blast rock on the route, and the tunnel section at the top was hand dug and blasted.