Fresh from our first successful night of free-camping in Serbia, we were looking forward to spending a night indoors to wash etc etc, however Romania was to have other ideas! After entering the country, the first task was to conquer our first “mountain” , all 400m of it!! We are glad to report that this “pass” was completed without any pushing, although we did have a couple of stops to remove layers! Once at the top a quick picnic in the drizzle and down the other side to look for a B&B in the first town, Moldova Noua,  however, after conducting a drive-by of town, we decided to drive-through! Re-assessing the situation and map, we selected another free-camping spot, although the wild dogs barking at us throughout the night wasn’t ideal!!

Not so fresh in the morning we packed up and pedalled on until we found a restaurant/cafe, only to find that they did not take cards or Euros but they did refill our water. Pressing on into  a lovely headwind we stopped at the next town and found The Shop, only to find that neither did they take cards or Euros. Through broken English we managed to establish that the nearest cash-machine was over 70kms away, which was completely unachievable in the remaining daylight!! Rechecking our food situation (low) and desire to push on against the wind (low), and without local currency, our 3rd night under canvas and in the wild was the only option. A lack of cafe-toilet stops meant that Tim was the first to use the backpackers trowel! Continue reading →