Cycling Drobeta-Turnu Severin to Corabia, Romania: Slow Horse-Carts and Fast Cars
3-7 October 2019
Drobeta-Turnu Severin to Gruia (3 October 2019, 86.8 km, 54 mi)
The bike ride out of Drobeta-Turnu Severin was just as hair-raising as the ride in had been. We rode on the shoulder of a high-speed, four-lane highway for about 17 km. After turning onto the next road, traffic was still moving fast although it was lighter, giving us some breathing room. But the second road had no shoulder, so it was still not very pleasant. We didn’t get onto the quiet Romanian backroads that we’ve read so much about, until 25 km into the ride.
But then it was like a different world. It was very quiet, with hardly any cars at all. We found ourselves riding through expansive agricultural fields as the route climbed onto the terrace that borders the Danube floodplain. For the most part, the route stayed up on the terrace, only dipping down to the water’s edge a couple of times.
As the roads became more rural, we started to see the some of the famed Romanian horse carts. We probably passed eight or more horse-drawn wagons today. And passing them was easy - they don’t move along very quickly most of the time. Many of them were empty except for the driver. But at least one was full of people, and another was piled high with straw. It really was striking how suddenly, as we entered southern Romania, the horse-drawn carts became a such a major feature. We hadn’t seen any others across the rest of Europe.
Wooden wagons drawn by a single horse are a common sight on Romania’s roads. They’re the local version of pickup trucks. Crivina, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The other thing we encountered were many roaming dogs. Most of the loose dogs are just wandering around and don’t present a problem, and often barely notice you are there. But, occasionally, they bark and chase bikes. In one surprising encounter today, we approached a bridge over a small branch of the Danube that had a security guard. There were also two dogs with him. When they ran at us, barking and growling, he yelled at them to stop, but they didn’t listen and tried to encircle us. It was very disconcerting, and I almost fell off my bike trying to stop and get my bike positioned between myself and the dogs. It was weird that the guard didn’t have better control of the dogs. He finally came out of his guard house and shooed them away.
We’ve enjoyed seeing the new style of churches here in Romania. The orthodox churches and chapels are often decorated on the outside with medieval-style paintings of religious figures. The bigger ones have shiny, metal-plated domes atop their towers.
A small, local church with typically medieval-looking paintings on its walls. Burila Mare, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
At about 60 km we stopped for lunch. We pulled off on a dirt, side road, set up our camp chairs, and had a picnic lunch. It was very windy so we used the bikes as a wind break. We had a very delicious lunch of salmon, fresh bread, bananas and Oreos (double stuff). It was perfect.
A delicious picnic lunch, somewhere in Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
We had decided that we’d stay in the only guest house in Gruia tonight, rather than wild camp. The two biggest reasons were that the guest house seemed like it would be a nice place, and the forecast calls for a stormy night with a cold front moving through.
When we arrived in Gruia, we weren’t sure how to get to the guest house. And, yikes! None of our phones picked up a signal here. We don’t carry paper maps, so when our phones don’t work we have to rely on getting directions from the locals, or just hunting around. A woman came over to see if we needed help. She didn’t speak a lick of English, and we were up to about three words in Romanian, but somehow she was able to confirm that the lodge was down a side road just up ahead. Good.
After that, though, she kept going. She talked and talked, and asked me questions, and I didn’t have the slightest idea what she was saying. I also couldn’t really get her to stop, even though I was able to tell her that I didn’t understand (in Romanian). Normally it’s a good thing when people talk a lot, since the more words that are thrown out, the more likely you are to understand something. Unfortunately, in this case that didn’t work, despite the fact that she was going on, and on, and on. Eventually, since it was getting late and we needed to find a place to stay, we just got on our bikes, thanked her, and rode away. She didn’t stop talking until we were on our bikes and riding off. I really do wonder what she was trying to tell us.
The guest house was nearly 2 km off route, down a steep hill, on the river floodplain. Pretty soon the road narrowed, became dirt with pot holes, and was surrounded by fields and forest. It didn’t really look like the kind of place you’d find a guest house or lodge. Then we saw a “Do not enter, private” sign, on a tree next to the road. In America this would not be unusual. But in Eastern Europe, no trespassing signs are extremely rare. We paused to consider whether we should proceed or not, when a guy on a tractor came along. He stopped and we asked him for directions. He pointed straight down the road we were on past the do not enter sign. Okay, we kept going.
When we arrived at the end of the dirt road, we were greeted by another bunch of noisy dogs, protecting a neighboring property. There were 4-5 dogs all barking and encouraging each other to be more bold than they would be otherwise. Dogs aren’t usually a problem unless they’r protecting a territory, which these obviously were.
The nearby building, which we assumed was the guest house, was surrounded by a tall wooden fence with a gate. There were no signs saying that it was a guest house, no parking lots, nothing other than a building that looked like it might be possibly be able to take guests. We opened the gate, not knowing for sure whether or not we were entering a public place or someone’s private yard. At least we would be able to get away from all the barking dogs.
Once PedalingGuy opened the gate he had a sinking feeling, as another large dog came running toward him from inside the gate. As anyone who knows dogs will tell you, dogs inside fenced yards get protective, and as a result can be very aggressive. At this point we had a small pack of worked-up dogs behind us, and a dog running toward us from inside the gate we just opened. In a split second, we decided to take our chances and hope that we were in the right place. If it was the lodge, the dog running toward us would have to be friendly, since a guest house and mean dogs don’t mix (if you want guests). The next thing that went through PedalingGuy’s mind was all the ways in which that logic could be wrong. Did we mention it was a big dog running toward us? Anyway, when the dog got close we saw that it was wagging it’s stubby tail. We proceeded into the fenced compound and closed the gate behind us.
At least the volume of dog barking decreased as we closed the gate. The large dog inside the gate still seemed friendly enough, and was circling us and checking us out. We walked up to the building in front of us and knocked. No one home. We walked around and tried to find someone. No luck. Finally we entered the unlocked building and called out to see if anyone was there. No response. Now we were stumped. We walked around and tried a different part of the building, still not sure if this was a guest house. Finally, we heard a voice from the back of the building and someone came out. She even greeted us like she was glad to see us. You know, like someone who was a host at a guest house. Yeah, we found our lodging for the night.
The building was a pretty interesting place - all wood, with lots of decorations that you’d expect in a hunting/fishing lodge. Things like antler racks, mounted deer heads, and carved wooden images of forest animals. We were the only ones staying there that evening.
The big dog who greeted us when we opened the gate was a friendly Shar-pei, named Baby. She came by every so often to check out how we were doing. But she wasn’t affectionate, and didn’t want to be petted (or photographed). PedalingGuy had to give it a couple of tries before he got a good photo.
The proprietor is a very sweet lady. She showed us three rooms to choose from, and we picked one on the river side, looking out over the Danube. But by now the wind was really howling, and the weather was turning cold and damp. So we didn’t spend any time outside. That was too bad, because it seemed like the lodge was in a lovely location near the water.
Given the remote spot, we decided to have both dinner and breakfast provided by the lodge. The proprietor made us an awesome dinner of cabbage salad, pan-fried chicken and home-made fries. Dessert was a tasty, sweet-bread with chocolate swirls and big chunks of candied fruit.
Gruia to Bistret (4 October 2019, 122.3 km, 76 mi)
Our ride started with the big climb up from the Danube floodplain, and back onto the river terrace. Halfway up the face of the escarpment, at a hairpin turn in the road, we passed a unique, wooden shelter where travelers could stop and rest on their way up the hill. The shelter was decorated with images of deer and fish, continuing the wildlife theme. A carved, wooden boat served as the basin for a public, water fountain.
Roadside shelter, Gruia, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Looking back towards the Danube from the roadside shelter, on our way back up onto the river terrace. We could see the lodge where we stayed last night, just beyond the line of trees. Gruia, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
All of the riding today was on black-top, and for part of the day we had a very strong tail-wind, so we made great time. Around 30 km into the ride, we left the quiet back-roads, and got back onto a highway. The shoulder was adequate, so it was safe enough. But there was a lot of traffic, including many big trucks, passing us at high speeds.
At one point we hit a traffic jam. Cars and trucks were backed up, and the police were trying vainly to maintain some semblance of control. Traffic was only able to move using a single lane for both directions. When we got to the front of the line, we saw the problem: a truck had run off the road, and was stuck in the roadside ditch. They had brought in a couple of giant tow trucks to try to pull it out. But with all the chaos caused by drivers only partially heeding the signals from the policemen, it looked like it was going to take a while for things to get sorted out.
We were worried there wouldn’t be a good place to have lunch, given the limited options we’ve seen over the last few days. But we were in for a very, pleasant surprise. We stopped to buy some supplies at a small store on the far side of of the town of Hunia. When the cashier realized we were buying food for our lunch, she ushered us into an enclosed patio where there were a couple of tables, set back a little bit from the road. It was a real treat to have a quiet, relatively private place to eat. For dessert, we had some fabulous rum cakes that we bought in the store. The whole experience was way better than expected.
After passing through the city of Calafat, we were back on more quiet roads. We cycled through wide, open fields, interspersed with very long, thin towns that line the highway. The towns might be 3-5 km long, but only a couple of blocks wide. To our surprise, we also passed a second traffic accident. It looked like one car had rear-ended another, causing a fair amount of damage. That meant we passed two traffic accidents in a single day - double the number of accidents we had seen on the entire trip up to this point. We’ll need to be extra-careful on these roads.
Every town we passed through had at least one public well, and there were others along the road (like this one), apparently meant for use by travelers. Until recently, many Romanians still got their water from these wells. Mehedinti, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
People in the villages are quite friendly. They will wave and call out any number of greetings including salut, hola, buna, ciao, and bon jour! Sometimes we were greeted in English with “hello,” often pronounced like “yellow!” - especially by the kids. Some kids also hold out their hands for a high-five. Most of the kids do it to be friendly, and smile broadly when your hands connect. But there are definitely a few mischievous kids that play games, pulling back their hand at the last moment or trying for a hard slap. Kinda of like kids everywhere.
A new addition to the local fauna is the domestic turkey. Starting in the town of Negoi, and for the rest of the day, every town we passed through had lots of turkeys. People had flocks of turkeys in pens in front of their homes, or they were tending flocks walking down the street. There were even a few unattended flocks just wandering along the roadsides, or out in fields. They really were everywhere. It’s another thing that separates this region from all the other places we’ve visited. We couldn’t remember seeing more than a small handful of turkeys during all the rest of the trip across Europe.
Orthodox Church. Negoi, Romania. Negoi is where we started seeing the turkeys. And there were lots of them. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Between the towns, we rode through wide-open areas covered with the stubble of harvested corn. Like some of the industrial-scale fields in Spain, the fields here have no trees. The woodlots are all gone. Our line of sight was only broken up by the occasional low hill, or a line of reeds along a waterway.
The lack of trees here made it hard for us to find a place to camp for the night. We checked out one spot that was blocked from the road by some tall reeds. But the open area on the far side was visible to a small cluster of temporary dwellings that were occupied by people. We decided not to stay.
We ended up riding well over 100 km before, around 6:00pm, we turned up a road that headed for a large patch of trees. We were thrilled to find that a farm road let right up to the trees. The access to the woods was blocked by a ditch, but there weren’t any “keep out” signs, so we lifted our bikes around one of the ditches, one at a time, to get into the woods. We found a lovely, secluded, spot for our tent.
There were some signs that there might be pigs in the woods. And sure enough, as we were making dinner, we could hear a group of pigs approaching. We threw some sticks into the nearby bushes and yelled, which scared them away easily enough. We’ve heard that pigs can be dangerous depending on how feral they have become, but these didn’t present a problem.
Even though it was getting dark after we set up the tent, we decided to cook a nice meal, rather than eat sandwiches. So we cooked up some rice and tuna, with a few Oreos for dessert. It was a big production, with all the cooking and cleaning lasting well after dark. But it was worth it for a nice, hearty meal.
Our miraculously secluded campsite in the woods. Dolj, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Bistret to Corabia (5 October 2019, 90.0 km, 56 mi)
We spent an unbelievably peaceful night camping in those woods. It was very, very quiet, and the pigs didn’t bother us at all.
We arose with the sun, but that’s much later now. So, even though we were pretty efficient taking down the camp, we didn’t get on the road until nearly 9am.
We continued to ride through small villages, on a road that was relatively-lightly used, until we re-joined a bigger highway at Bechet. It was really wonderful that the traffic was light. But that also meant that the little villages didn’t have much in the way of services. We had planned to buy breakfast along the way. But even though we stopped at upwards of 10 mini-marts, we couldn’t find anything to eat. The stores basically sold only drinks (mostly sugary soda pop), cookies and candy. We wasted a lot of time stopping and checking out stores, then moving on.
After about 22 km, we gave in, and ate our last two Cliff bars by the side of the road. And wouldn’t you know it? Not long after that, we hit the bigger highway and the bigger towns. Suddenly there were real grocery stores with edible food. It figures.
An old, public water well. The sign says the water from this one isn’t potable. Dolj, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
In this part of Romania, horse-drawn carts are everywhere. We see them in towns, out in the fields, and even riding down the highway, like these two kids. Cars barely take any notice of them, and go whizzing by at top speed. Dolj, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
A few, friendly geese hanging out by the road. Macesu de Jos, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Ever since we entered Romania we’ve been struck by the prevalence of fires. We saw widespread burning of agricultural fields, frequent burned spots along the road where fire had been used to clear weeds out of ditches, and lots of people burning piles of leaves and litter in their yards. In some places, the air was filled with a haze of smoke. Fires seem to be an integral part of life in rural Romania this time of year. At one point while we were riding through an open area, PedalingGuy remarked that he could see the smoke from five major fires at once. That doesn’t count all the little fires in the villages.
As we cycled through Romania, it seemed like fires were burning everywhere. We passed lots of already-burned fields like this one. Olt, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Once we were back on the highway, we had to contend with bad traffic again. The drivers are fearless, and will go incredibly fast on these narrow roads, with no shoulder. Patience is not a virtue they cultivate. They pass other cars, horse-drawn carts, and bicycles as soon as they approach them, even when there’s not really enough room. We had to get off the road to avoid collisions a couple of times again today. Very annoying.
We arrived in Corabia late in the afternoon and headed straight for the Hotel Sucidava. It’s right down on the banks of the Danube, which we thought would be a lovely location. But as we approached the hotel, all we saw was a huge, industrial-scale, grain processing facility. It didn’t give us the best feeling - and we wondered if we were in the right place. But just around the corner and down a short road was the hotel. And it’s actually quite nice. We upgraded to a larger room, overlooking the river. The wifi is really fast, and we saw a kingfisher from our balcony. What more could we ask for?
This Common Kingfisher was hunting from a boat line, right below our hotel balcony. Corabia, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Corabia Rest Days (6-7 October 2019)
On the road, you never know for sure where you’ll get a good internet connection. The wifi at the Hotel Sucidava was really fast, which was very handy for doing some research and planning. We also had a big room, with a fantastic view of the Danube. Since we had some extra time before we needed to get to the Black Sea, we stayed a couple of extra days in Corabia to work on our future plans. There are a lot of logistics to work out.
The hotel has a great location, right on the shores of the Danube River. Corabia, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The view of the river from our hotel room. Corabia, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
A perfect sunset. Corabia, Romania. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
