3 posts tagged “mountain biking”

Day 1

I arrived at Vratz, via a brief stop at Mezdra at around 5am. There I met Dobrian, who would be my chain smoking mountain bike guide and interpreter for the next 4 days. The overnight train from Bucharest had been a bit of an endurance mission - it had come from Moscow, and was several hours late by the time it picked me up. Additionally, all of the Russians needed to have their visas checked when entering Bulgaria which held proceedings up another few hours. Finally, the Russians had also taken all of the sleeper berths - so I was left in a second class upright seat with a couple of Romanians. Luckily only 3 of 6 seats were taken in our compartment, so it was not as bad as it could have been.

Due to the lengthy trip getting to Vratz, I had suggested that an easy day's riding would be desirable. This was assisted by two main factors:

• Dobrian's need to stop for a smoke every 5km; and
• Dobrian breaking his bike half way around the ride (broken rear mech)

However, after 4 hard days in Romania, I was quite happy with this.

 

Once Dobrian's bike had broken, it was really more about how on earth we were going to get back into town. We managed to find a local's drinking spot, so stopped for a couple of beers. The old farmers started having me on suggesting that I probably thought Belgrade was in Bulgaria.  I got Dobrian to respond "if you're so smart, what is the capital of NZ?" - this certainly stumped them.

 

As we finished a little early, I went out again with Valu - a local teenager and ace downhiller, who put me through my paces on some pretty fast and loose sectons near my guest house.

Day 2

The second day started with picking up a new rear mech for Dobrian's bike and then getting a transfer to the top of the nearest hill. After some repairs, we then set off up and over a series of ridges before reaching a dry waterfall with an excellent view over the valley in which I was staying. What followed was an extremely technical downhill single track section (thanks Valu) which fully tested my pretty unresponsive brakes (from the Romanian repairs).

 

We then headed into Vratz for a late lunch and sat out the hottest part of the day (around 3-4 it became far too uncomfortable to ride).

Day 3

Following a short transfer, we set out again - initially over tarmac, before an extremely long 4WD track downhill. At the bottom we then had a 12 km climb up out of a valley in the increasingly inferno like riding conditons. Luckily we were riding along next to a creek, so we stopped several times to cool down by taking a dip into the icy water.

Along the way across each day in Bulgaria, we saw numerous springs and creeks, which Dobrian tried very hard to convince me to drink out of. Frequent bouts of food poisioning on previous trips had convinced me that this was not a good idea, so I stuck to mineral water. However, this did create something of a logistical problem as I could only carry 3L at a time - and on the hottest days I was drinking up to 5L. Running out of water on a long climb in conditions like this is a sure way to overheat within about 30 mins.

 

In any case, we soon were at the head of the valley, where we stopped at a monestry for lunch. In addition to the ubiqituous meat balls / meat on a stick we also had a pretty good bean soup. In the afternoon that followed, the beans provided a good, if quite smelly energy source. It also astounds me how people in many hot countries cannot think of anything better than a good hot soup to refresh them on a 35 degree day.

We then climbed up to 1500M - which, in the heat was quite tough (cue more pushing from those on downhill bikes!). It was a great view from the top, overlooking a number of mountains down to the village we would finish at.

What followed was an extremely fast 1000M vertical descent - made even faster for me by my erratically working brakes!

 

We then finished up with a beer, a great reward for what had been probably the best day in Bulgaria.

 

On the train back to Vratz, an elderly Bulgarian guy came up to me and surprisingly spoke English. He got out a rather old atlas and started talking about the various parts of New Zealand. At the back of the atlas was a list of the countries and the religions that were most dominant. He found it hard to accept when I suggested his atlas was wrong - that New Zealand wasn't really a mixture of Catholic and Protestants - that it was a highly secular country, and if anything, Anglicism was probably most frequent (or none at all!).

Day 4

My final day riding started with an early train half way to Sofia, where Dobrian took me on one of his favourite rides.

But first I tried a Bulgaria breakfast drink called Boza. Made of wheat, this drink had a flavour that I can only describe as grey-brown-sludge, and I could only drink a few mouthfuls without wanting to hurl. I decided it would be wise to decline drinking any more.

We then arrived, and once we had dropped the packs off to be looked after for the day we spent the morning climbing back up to 1500M - again, pretty intense in the heat. I was then looking forward to a long downhill back to the train station when I started having puncture problems on my rear tyre. Looking more closely, I realised that the 10 quid special I had on the back was starting to disintegrate under the pressure of 8 days on the trail.

I then limped into our lunch break. More meat balls and repeated attempts to fix my tyre later, and we set off - pausing briefly at a large communist monument to look at the view (and for me to have a somewhat unexpected comfort stop in the bush nearby).

It was then a relatively technical single track descent back to the train station. It was probably right on my limit at that point, with there being several sets of steep steps that I wasn't feeling up to on that particular day - especially as my rear brake was still acting somewhat erratically. However I made it down without falling off the side of the mountain (always a good sign!) and we headed back to the train station.

 

From there, it was another hour to Sofia, where Dobrian helped me pack my bike up and get onto a train to Istanbul. Over 8 days, I hadn't climbed 9 vertical km and ridden something like 350km. For me, this was a great result.

The train to Istanbul, although late, was actually really good. Retro, with berths assigned somewhat randomly (and not corresponding to your train ticket), it felt very orient express. There were only 3 berths in my compartment, but in the end, it was only me and an American guy who was living in Istanbul.

It was then that I had heard Russia had invaded Georgia - the next country on to Turkey - so it was with some trepidation that I arrived again into Istanbul. It was one of those strange moments when you realise just how out of touch you are with what is happening in the world - something which does not happen very much in my always-connected lifestyle!

After spending the first day looking about Brasov, and going up the somewhat creaky cable car to the hill next to town, I then met up with Razvan, who would be my guide for the next few days.

Day 1: Brasov day trip - 55km, 1.1km ascending

The first day was supposed to be something of a warm up, although I would have to say I found it quite tiring. We basically climbed out of the back of Brasov to the local ski resort where we had our first encounter with a pack of Romanian wild dogs. When I say wild, these ones were nominally shepherd's dogs, although they were so aggressive that they may as well have been completely wild.

Needless to say, being surrounded by 15 snapping mutts made me wonder if I should have organised a rabies shot before coming on this trip. Over the next few days, wild dogs flying out of hedges and the bush would certainly add to the difficulty level of the cycling we experienced, particularly when they chose to do so as you were flying down a technical piece of single track!

We also checked out a fortified village which commanded a great view up towards Dracula's castle before another long climb back to Brasov.

I had been slightly concerned about bringing my bike as I thought the chances of a breakdown somewhere that I could not get parts was quite likely. So I guess it shouldn't have surprised me when on the first day my rear disk brake crapped out. Unfortunately Razvan didn't use disks and I am of course incompetent when it comes to this sort of thing, so some fannying about was required to get me moving again.

Day 2-3: Overnight in the Romanian countryside, 90km, 1.7km (ish) ascending 

The following day our start was delayed a bit as we had to take my bike into the shop to get some new pads fitted - Razvan and my attempts the following day having actually not helped. Took the mechanic all of 10-15 mins and we were away again.

A quick transfer to the next village and we were climbing again up a fire road into the national park. This continued for several hours before we emerged into a beautiful alpine meadow, complete with cows and ringing cowbells. We then headed over a plateau type area before starting to descend - stopping to check out the cheese sherpas - local shepherds that lived in the mountains continuously for 5 months a year during summer milking sheep, making cheese and protecting their herd from the local wildlife (bears and wolves being a constant threat).

 

Their migration to the alpine meadows was mainly spurred by the need to make hay for the winter on the lower slopes, and it was good to note that whilst the shepheds protected their flocks with their lives if necessary, they did not kill bears and wolves hunting their sheep. This explains why Romania has 90% of Europe's remaining bear population.

We actually saw fresh bear prints - and knew they were fresh as it had rained the night before.

After a tricky and quite technical descent, we then started climbing up to the guest house for the night. Initially Razvan had suggested we were just climbing from 800 to 1000 M, so I was somewhat ropable when he changed his mind and mentioned we actually had to climb up to 1400M! I'm sure he experienced a large number of scathing looks from me.

Eventually we made it to the top of the climb, and had a huge meal prepared by the guest house managers. There was certainly plenty of meat on meat action, and plenty of cheese as well! It was also interesting to try their honey flavoured brandy - Razvan believed it was too sweet, but I had no problem downing a couple of shots.

The next day was easier, mostly descending, although a couple of little climbs with bite.

We stopped in at Vlad the Impaler / Dracula's castle - impressive from the outside, pretty dull on the inside - with the exception of a staircase that was initially hidden in the fireplace (the entrance now being changed to make it easier for tourists to climb).

 

We then headed back to the town we had started from the day before to stay at another guest house. This time the manager had been drinking since 10am with friends, and so was very quick to make with the brandy - unfortunately, this time it tasted like aviation fuel - so I didn't have particularly much of it (thankfully!).

 

Day 4: The final climb - 50km (ish) 1500M ascended

 

The final day and Razvan had something special planned - climbing out of Sinaia (a European capital of culture), through the forest and up through alpine meadows and more ski fields to reach a summit that overlooked the whole of the region.

It was to be a difficult climb, up to 2500M, so enough to be the base of the Romanian Olympic team (for altitude training) and certainly enough for me to be breathing pretty hard.

Grinding away hour after hour, I was not sure if we were moving fast enough to get up and back before my train to Bucharest that evening. So on the second half of the climb I stepped it up a notch, but somewhere near the top the cloud unfortunately rolled in. This pretty much negated any chance of a view and pretty soon had created a navigational error from Razvan - meaning we climbed an extra 100M we didn't have to. This meant by the top I was completely out of gas - having rather a lot of trouble staying on the bike, particularly as we went over a few technical climbing sections.

For the second time in the week Razvan was subject to a series of extemely scathing looks from me, and I came close to throwing in the towel, as you couldn't see anything anyway.

However, I stuck with it, and at the top was rewarded by a view of about 5 metres, and more importantly, a hot tea in the hut with a little rum in it. This made me feel a little better, but what made me completely recover was the 1500M straight descent. It took a couple of hours was fast, rocky in places and quite loose. Great riding, and felt really rewarding to overcome a challenge I didn't think I was fit enough to complete - even if it was shear guts an ardenaline powering my riding at the end (not much in the way of skill or finesse involved.

Even better, I made my train to Bucharest, where I was to meet up again with Korina.

Total climbing in 4 days = just over 5 vertical km!

Here is a ride that I did in the weekend with Darren in Bracknell Forest. We had to pick our way around the Gorrick race that was happening that both of us were too lazy to enter!

 

If you want to see a fly-through of this trail, then post a comment and I can send a Google Earth type .KML file - long live GPS! If you want to download .GPX of the ride, then Download .gpx from here.