Battling Bureaucracy

05-Jul-08: Scenic
Romania: Baile Herculane to Targu Jiu
104km, 5h 04min ride time

Its funny when I sit down to recap only 2 days how easily they can blur into one without the benefit of having kept a cue sheet of notes for reference...but I think I have managed to sort the memories in my mind into their respective days...not that you will know any different anyway!

Immediately upon leaving the spa town of Baile Herculane we started on a climb that lasted for the first 40km with only very small patches of relief when the gradient shifted from the predominant 5% back down to 1-2%. The climb did offer up some magic views and cool temperatures as we made our way upwards and alongside forest covered mountain sides. The road led us alongside a waterway at the foot of two spectacular mountain ranges which towered regally above us, each peak dressed in a white limestone crown and leafy robe.

And the reward for having spent 3 hours climbing was about 5 minutes and 5 kilometres worth of descent on the other side which in itself made the climb worthwhile. The scenery changed from being surrounded on all sides by tree covered mountains to little valley farming settlements. Houses were of all types, but as is typical of the village areas we have seen in Romania to date, in very poor repair...rustic, would perhaps be a more sympathetic way of describing them.

We have witnessed an odd blend of old and new technologies in use today...in the cities and major towns quite modern technology is in use, the most novel example being the countdown timers on traffic lights and pedestrian crossings which tell you how many seconds until you will get a green light or the opportunity to cross the street. But there is very obviously many traditional practices still in use, including cultivation by hand and the frequent use of horse drawn carriages for transportation of people and goods. There is also no discrimination between the old and the younger generations. It is common to see 3 generations out in the fields cutting grasses or picking fruit.

There is a widespread and amusing practice in Romania of storing grasses for use as cattle feed during the winter months. Hay is stacked in conical style piles resembling ant hills which are wide at the base and rise to a peak at the top and are often supported vertically by a branch which protrudes from the centre of the pile. Most are covered at the peak by a small sheet of plastic which prevents water from penetrating the centre of the pile and directs it so that it runs over the outside of the conical formation ensuring most of its contents stays dry without the need for full covering. Some of these piles are huge and most require ladders to reach their tops and others are even supported on stilts in low lying areas to keep them off the ground...all in all quite an odd sight which is ever-present in rural areas and even in the front yards of more suburban style houses.

Dogs are also equally widespread but aside from the odd idle threat they have been quite timid compared with our expectations for the contrary and to date there has been no encounter in which a dog has even come close to being declared victor over a human powered bicycle.

The day following on from the 40km climb and subsequent descent was fairly forgiving and led us into the town of Targu Jiu in quite a respectable time, particularly compared with ground covered in the first part of the day. After a short venture into the nearby shops we retreated inside to escape the heat and before we knew it dinner...a rather 'interesting' pizza party...was over. Following dinner those of us continuing on the Silk Route through to Beijing were invited to meet for an update on the current status of obtaining Chinese visas, the event and outcome of which deserves an entry of its own and I will relay later.

06-Jul-08: Bumpy Ride
Romania: Targu Jiu to Ramnicu Valcea
127km, 6h 37min ride time

Today's ride was dubbed by a participant a few years back as a 'pitch and bitch' day...if you weren't going up you were going down and once you were down you started back up again. Give me a 40km climb any day! And the road surface for about 70km was terrible. So I would like to re-dub the day as 'pitch, bitch and ditch'...I am surprised my bike held together it got shaken about that much!

The route took us away from a highway and up through many a small village. As it was a Sunday everyone in town seemed to be out and about for some reason or another. There were huge gatherings at brick-a-brack style markets and many families just walking alongside the roads.

Romanians love to see and be seen. The majority of all street-side houses have a bench seat sitting outside their front fence looking out over the street, and others have two seats on either side of a driveway positioned to face each other, and are most often occupied by little old ladies just sitting and people watching.

The environment we rode through today was clearly very traditional and the generations who have called these villages home all have their own charm. The elderly dress very traditionally, much as I would expect settlers would have in the early days back home in Australia, and treat you with suspicion and curiosity until you wave or shout 'Buona Zseta'.

Younger generations dress in a fairly modern way, particularly in the cities where young Romanian girls seem to always be dressed up and ready to party with full makeup and meticulously styled hair. Little children, particularly in the villages, love when we ride past and many run out to 'high-five' us as we roll past. Others practice their 'Hello's' and are delighted when we respond. When we stopped for lunch the locals were all wandering right up to our food table to have a look, which was quite funny, and apparently when the food was first set up they came along and started taking it thinking it was a market stall!

Overall the P,B&D day was well worth the physical exertion and stress on the bike...some riders turned back to take the more direct highway route after only enduring a couple of kilometres of rough road surface and had their own experience of smooth roads, tailwinds and easy riding, arriving at camp in about half the time we did. But in my opinion, not as rich for the experience as those of us who stuck out the rough stuff and saw the real Romania.

Our route did eventually lead us back to the highway, so we got to experience the smooth roads and tailwinds for the latter part of the day, although the hard work in the early part had taken its toll on energy levels and backsides! Coming into camp we passed by a lake, the shores of which were swarming with weekend sun lovers, cars haphazardly parked any which way alongside and protruding onto the road and fires of all makes cooking sausages 'till they were black. Immediately after the lake, so close that all the commotion appeared to related, was a large public pool in to which so many people were crammed that it was standing room only, and with a carpark which resembled that of the Ekka show grounds back home.

We are camping on the front lawn of a small pension motel tonight and have use of 3 rooms for showering...for 40 people...so it was first in best dressed!

07-Jul-08: Manon's Birthday
Romania: Ramnicu Valcea to Dragodana
111km, 5h 14mins ride time

My day started at about 4.30am when I woke to the roaring of lions at the zoo neighbouring the motel we were camping on the front lawn of. Being awake and needing to answer the call of nature I ventured off to the bathroom, balloons in hand...I attached a bunch of balloons to the back of Manon's bike in recognition of her birthday, which she kept there for the whole day accompanied by a bunch of plastic tulips someone else gave her and so drew a bit of attention riding along!

On my way to the bathroom I clearly caught the attention of a few wild dogs lurking about the camp and started them off barking which made me nervous about how their proximity to the camp and my ankles may change in the time that I was in the bathroom! Thankfully the sun started to rise whilst I was in the bathroom and when I emerged I was at least able to see where they were...

Our riding day started with 2 consecutive ups and downs, comprising a climb of about 5km and a descent of a similar distance, after which the day was predominantly flat. But the terrain was not our greatest concern today...we were riding for the whole day on Highway 7, which seemed to carry every motorist and truckie in Romania on a Monday morning! We were being passed every 2 seconds by a fast moving vehicle of some sort and throughout the day the number of 10-12 wheeler trucks would have been in the hundreds.

The road was in good condition for most of the day, however had no shoulder whatsoever so we had no choice but to ride on the white line, which in the wake of so many trucks is cutting it very fine and the risk became too much for a few who opted out and took a ride on the support bus in lieu. Drivers in Romania, unlike those in western Europe have no respect for cyclists, but in fairness the vast majority do exercise tolerance, which is more than I can say for drivers at home...at least no-one has maliciously tried to run us off the road as yet.

To add to the necessity to hold on for dear life every time a truck passed to avoid the push and suck of the wind draft they cause, we also had to contend with a few aggressive wild dogs en-route. Thankfully, in all instances someone had passed before me and so I had warning and also the benefit of the dog being subdued by the prior onslaught of pepper spray and tasers!

Just before the lunch stop at 60km, the traffic stopped dead and was backed up for about 5km as a consequence of road works...the benefit of being on a bike was the ability to scoot up the outside and skip the queue. It was like an obstacle course though, with pot holes, car doors, truck doors, exhaust, etc...when I reapplied sunscreen at lunch my arms went purple from the blend of sunscreen and exhaust stuck to my skin!

After lunch the highway became marginally quieter as the majority of trucks turned off onto the motorway, much to our relief. The highway by appearance could have been a 4 lane highway passing through small towns anywhere, except for the presence of horses and carriages using the highway and cows and sheep grazing on the nature strip alongside it!
The road surface was appalling for the last 10-15km and the accumulation of bumpy surfaces is taking its toll on bruised palms and sore elbows.

As we turned off the highway into the town of Dragodana for the last 7km, the thought on everyone's mind was 'how on earth did they find this place to stay', as the road was well off the beaten track. The accommodation arrangement was supposed to be the same as the night prior, camping on the grounds of the motel, but on arrival the owner refused to let us camp on the one obvious patch of grassland for fear of us destroying her overgrown greenery, and so we were accommodated in a combination if squeezing tents onto any other available patch of grass or on concrete in the carpark, or joining the slumber party in the reception hall...the latter of which I did.

We all survived the day and received an apology from the tour leaders for the high risk day of riding...last year they did the route on a Sunday when the traffic was pretty much non-existent and don't imagine they will being doing it again on a Monday when the traffic was an accident waiting to happen!

08-Jul-08: Celebrity Cyclists
Romania: Dragodana to Bucharest
82km, 3h 36mins ride time

Today started early again for me, waking to the coughing, snoring and 'whispering' of other slumber party campers and also to the sound of dogs fighting outside. Throughout Romanian the dogs have been everywhere and their presence is probably most obvious at night when it is like the neighbours dog incessantly barking all night long...times a dozen! The problem of wild dogs in Romania started during the communist time when families had their farms repossessed and were forced to move into inner city apartments and leave their dogs behind...

Our route today had us retracing our tracks out of Dragodana and back to Highway 7 bound for Bucharest. Aside from the persistently bad roads, the morning was quite good riding, with less traffic and flat roads and no hurry to be anywhere. We had all morning to cover 70km in order to reach the lunch stop and starting point for our police convoy into Bucharest so no-one was in a hurry. Even so, we all still ended up arriving about 90 minutes prior to the departure of the convoy and so retreated with our sandwiches in to the shade of a few small bushes and a large billboard by the side of the highway.

The convoy was something we were all looking forward to and it didn't disappoint...although the only police presence we got was one officer on a bike, it was still very effective and drew a lot of attention as we were escorted through intersections and ran red lights. We felt like celebrities as onlookers waved, shouted and took photos on their mobile phones. Some even took to returning the waves with a queen-like hand turn which was quite amusing.

The afternoon in Bucharest was frustratingly spent on a wild goose chase for a couple of non-existent laundromats and the evening spent doing laundry by hand!

Chinese Visa Update

A few days ago we had a meeting with TDA staff who updated us on what they are doing to assist us in getting our Chinese visa's. The first statement was 'Henry (the owner) would like to remind you that TDA is not responsible for your visa requirements'...which got things off to a flying start!

The current situation is such that not even our tour leader has been able to obtain a Chinese visa as yet...so where that leaves us no-one is entirely sure, although it was pointed out to us that there is a possibility that the tour will end at the Chinese border.

It seems that our current available means of obtaining a visa are:

1) Apply in person at an embassy in your country of residence...which means flying home...not altogether the cheapest or most practical option!

2) Apply randomly at all other embassies in the hope of winning the lottery as a consequence of inconsistent rules and regulations.

3) Wing it and see what the post-Olympic mood is...we do not enter China until after the Olympics and so there is a chance they will relax restrictions in the interim, although there is also a chance of them getting worse!

4) Very small chance of getting our group visa for all tour participants.

We are all getting very frustrated with not knowing what to do next and running out of time to make any arrangements...but all we can do is wait for the next update...which is the outcome of TDA meeting with the Chinese embassy in Toronto...

Will keep you posted, in the meantime am open to all suggestions, advice and condolences!