The Transfagarasan

Tuesday September 13
The Transfagarasan.  53km Total 2764km

Today was a spectacular ride on the Transfagarasan Highway.  Max altitude 2000m.

We got going reasonably early, as there was a forecast for thunderstorms later in the day.  Although this has been the forecast the last couple of days and we haven't seen any.

Nice road surface, not too many cars, not to steep, and no panniers!  What more could you want.

Our destination in the distance

Half way up though, there's a cable car to the top so we took it.  Spectacular but scary. $10 for each of us and $10 for each of our bikes.

You can just see the little red cable car.  It took our bikes and about 12 people

At the top is Balea Lake, surrounded by rugged peaks along with a couple of hotels and loads of tourists.

There's a 1km tunnel that goes straight through the mountain behind Dermot's head to get from the northern to the southern side.  We'd brought up our lights so we could ride through.

Southern entrance to the tunnel

The view on the southern side

The lines on this from top left to bottom right are sheep

Then we headed back through the tunnel to the northern side and went on a half hour hike up to one of the saddles.  Great views.

Then the long ride back down the mountain.  A 32km descent.  We met a couple of Australians riding up - the first ones we've met on our whole trip.

In the evening, Victor and Lena joined us for a drink of their palinka.  The best one I've tasted.