After saying goodbye to Geoff and Hayley this morning we drove a short distance to have a look at Corvinilor Castle. We’ve just discovered that it was rebuilt in the 19th century- so not as old as we thought, but what a stunning place. All gothic towers and turrets. Too hot to hang around though, so back in the van for some air con!
Spent all day travelling towards and heading across the beautiful Transfãgãrãsan highway which cuts across the southern part of the Carpathian mountains. It’s the second highest paved road in the country and was built in the 1970’s as a strategic military connection.
This steep winding road with many hairpin bends was nothing new to the trusty driver, but boy was it busy today. Loads of families out and about; cars parked/abandoned all over the place, especially on the bends. At the top, where we’d planned to stay for the night, it was utter chaos. People and cars all over the road, stalls selling everything from plastic flamingoes to cheese!
We carried on down the other side, all the time looking for the wild bears that are supposed to hang around this famous road and our main reason for coming through Romania. Saw a few donkeys – one even stuck his head through the window.
Then, as we got lower down, there were a few cars pulled over on the side of the road, so we stopped to have a look…and there he was! Just wondering if there was any food going! It was so amazing for us to see this creature, but they are only coming to the roadside because people are feeding them. This is obviously dangerous for them as there is a lot of traffic.
After he ambled back into the woods, we were left in shock that we’d actually seen a wild bear even though he seemed completely used to humans.
Parked further down the road now and it’s throwing it down with rain. All bears are hopefully safely tucked up in bed eating marmalade sandwiches.
