Day 15. Sunday, 5th July, 2026. Driving the Tranfargarasan from Cartisoara to Curtea de Argos in Romania.

Leaving our campsite just south of Sibiu

We had a bad night. Woken and kept awake by barking dogs. Many campers had dogs and they had joined in with all the local dogs, so were a bit grumpy when we set off just after 10 am.

We were about 50 kilometres from the start of the Transfargarasan. Poki was whistling quite loudly. More than she had been. We stopped and Dennis checked out the turbo, which is the possible cause. He couldn’t see anything wrong. I had read, that in the summer and at weekends, the Transfargarasan can get very busy and be a bit like a procession. It was unfortunate it was a Sunday and it was very busy.

Approaching the Fagaras Mountains which the Transfargarasan crosses.

The Transfargarasan was constructed in the early 1970s by communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu as a strategic military route. Following the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Ceausescu needed a safe, reliable passage over the Carpathians to connect Wallachia and Transylvania in the event of an emergency.

Built primarily by young, inexperienced military conscripts, rather than professionals engineers, the death toll was high. Officially 40, but it is estimated that hundreds perished during the four year construction period. Mountains were blasted through using over 6 million kilograms of dynamite to carve out the switchbacks and the 887 meter long Capra-Balea tunnel.

We had some slow drivers in front of us. They either pulled off at coffee places or viewing points, or we were able to overtake them. It was an interesting drive. At first a cable car traced us up the mountain. During the drive we saw 5 bears, one with 2 small cubs. Despite signs advising not to feed the bears, cars were stopping and throwing scraps or whatever out the window. Not good for the bears to eat and not good to keep enticing them on to the road.

At the top of the pass there are numerous stalls selling fast food, cheeses, bread and souvenirs. The traffic was so congested with people parking every where, there were police directing the traffic. While we were waiting to pass through, I jumped out and bought a loaf of bread for our lunch. The first bread we have eaten since we’ve been in the road.

Chaotic traffic

Lunch – with cheeses

One of the bears by the roadside.

Breakdown

Once we had completed the route and literally just passed the sign on the opposite side of the road depicting the start from the opposite direction, a clattering occurred. I thought something had fallen off Poki. We pulled in and, obviously something was wrong. Dennis said the steering had become very heavy. We walked back and could find nothing. However, when lifting the bonnet the problem was revealed. The idler pulley bearing had failed and shredded the fan belt. We had lost power steering. Fortunately, we were on flat ground and with space to pull in.

Luckily we had a spare idler pulley and fan belt and Dennis was able to effect repairs. This held us up for a couple of hours. The whistle which we thought could be the turbo, was actually the bearing failing.

Our plan had been to continue on to Bran Castle and Brasov. However, we decided to head for the nearest campsite, Camping Arges, which wasn’t too far away. It has been rather a stressful day, so we are hoping for a good night’s sleep.

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