Behind the Iron Curtain

We have FINALLY hit the road. After 9 days in Thal and getting the bikes in tip top shape we got up on Sunday morning ready to go.

We said our goodbyes to Sam’s family and were on our way. It felt amazing, exhilarating and a bit a surreal that we were riding out of town and wouldn’t be back for over 6 weeks and around 12,000kms. The smiles on our faces didn’t come off for the rest of the day.

We warmed the engines up with an autobahn run down towards Hungary before getting on to some back roads. Our GPS system is interesting to say the least!! We are still learning how to use it and the settings we had it on took us to some “roads” that most people would call mud tracks! One “short-cut” took us off road down a mud trail, through a field and back in a figure of eight to where we started from.

We crossed over the old iron curtain and instantly the human landscape changed from the picturesque manicured homes of Austria to the pastel coloured communist-style apartment blocks of Hungary. The roads got rougher, the houses and cars older, more people just milling on the sidewalks. Even the endless wilting sunflower and cornfields had an air of poverty.

We crossed Lake Balaton on a ferry, arriving at the perfect moment to ride straight onto the ferry. We then stopped for a swim on the other side as it has been ridiculously hot, and here we are in heavy riding jackets and pants sweating up a storm.

At the end of the first night we ended up in the middle of Hungary and found a totally random campground with the owner greeting us while wearing only his y-fronts. He was a happy smiling man and amazingly accommodating and helpful although we had no language in common. He cooked us an amazing feed of eggs and the most flavourful dried meat. He even showed off his meat store room *drool*.

Day two took us into the flat lands of Hungary and Romania. We had a beautiful bowl of goulash and a beer for breakfast, crossed the Danube on a ferry, and managed to waste plenty of time but we’re not really sure how. We ended up in Timisoara in the west of Romania. Known for its remarkable fortified ruins, we skipped the sightseeing and went straight to the broad main square for dinner and a beer. Keen for more we wandered the streets and found a random bar. The manager took a liking to us and we joined him and his friends for shots, fun banter, discussions about Gypsies, life under communism, motorbikes and women. Hitting the hay at 3:30am probably wasn’t the smartest idea though…

Heading out of Timisoara on Tuesday 29 August on a bright sunny hungover day we caught our first glimpse of the Carpathian mountains – our playground for the next few days. Finally the flatlands were over and we were winding our way through the hills. We stopped by a beautiful little river for a nap, the cooler mountain air a welcome change. Soon after we wandered into Enduromania, a motorbike camp, to set up camp for the night. Given we had some time we headed off for a little play on the bikes off-road without gear, after a few tips Amand’s off road skills looked to be improving – although he certainly put the crash bars to the test in getting a feel for things!!

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The importance of the off-road training paid dividends the next day as we headed down from Enduromania into the valley via a beautiful piece of road and off into Parcul National Domogled-Valea Cernei. On the way we stopped in Mehadia to fix Amand’s bent and broken crash bars from the day before. After finding the mechanic shop closed we found some guys building a house and they just happened to be welding. A stroke of luck!! A guy walking down the street with his kids, who had broken English, wanted to help and we managed to get across what we were after. They were so friendly and wanting to help, and wouldn’t accept any payment once the job was done. We gave them some beers and made their day.

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The National Park was stunning and the road was rugged, made for bikes and definitely not for cars. We ran into a guy just before we started who told us he had once taken his car through this road, crazy Romanians!! It was so amazing to be in the middle of nowhere in the Romanian mountains riding down dirt and mud tracks. We have certainly found the adventure part, what a day!!