A day of contrasts.
There was no sleep me last night. When fitting the new idler pulley at the roadside yesterday, the bolt provided holding the pulley to its aluminium mounting point was really not long enough. It went into the housing only a few threads. I guess with all the drama, I was quite thankful that we had a spare and itching to get going again.
Realisation.
When getting into bed, it dawned on me that the pressure on the bolt would soon cause it to fail and we would have a debacle. So, I spent the whole night replaying the scenario and hatching a plan to resolve it. Refit the original bolt and hope the thread in the housing is not too damaged. That must have taken about 30 seconds but do you think I could stop replaying it! Not a chance.
By 6am enough was enough and the old bolt was recovered and refitted. Yes, the thread had been damaged but being aluminium,, the old bolt was forced in and the idler in place. At some point in the future I will have to run an intermediate thread tap through the hole to repair it. While the belt was removed I took the second idler off as its bearing was not very smooth when rotated. As the bearings are pre lubricated and sealed I could not get new grease in, so applied some WD40 in the hope it would penetrate the seals. I have a plan to fix that. Just hope the bearing lasts till I get-a-round-to-it…:)
The drive and destination.
Jen had done some research before leaving Blighty and it included driving north east to view some historic centres and castles.
We are in the mountains and there is very little driving that does not entail mountains. The scenery is beautiful and we are headed towards Brasov. Some of the roading is pot holed and very rough but increasingly new hot-mix roading is being laid. The trouble is, there are numerous single lane hold ups where new road sections are being laid. It’s just over 100k’s to Brasov but it took us around 3 hours. En-route We drove through Bran renown for its castle. We decided not to stop as the place was heaving and we were already running behind.
Bran Castle
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The same thing happened in Brasov. The sat-nav took us into the historic centre but there was no parking available, anywhere!!! The place is gorgeous with trendy alleyways and beautiful buildings which we could only view from Poki
Heading for the border.
Beyond Brasov is a town featuring Peles Castle, which according to Jen, is also spectacular. I’m sure it is but we never even got to see it. There is no provision for the thousands of visitors and their cars, so after misreading the sat-nav directions we missed the castle.
Enough of the frustration, we decided to cut our losses and drive south to the Bulgarian border. We have been driving for 15 days and only covered 2700 miles and with the same number to get to our destination countries, we have little time to spare.
Ruse is the border town we are aiming for and it’s 245ks from Brasov. Fortunately we are soon out of the mountains and on a new motorway that takes us south around Bucharest and making progress at last. Our last Jerri can of diesel is emptied into the tank. The gauge is on empty but this should give us enough range to refill in Bulgaria where the fuel tax is much less. Alas, the new motorway formation is not yet complete and we are diverted into the outer suburbs of this big city. It’s 5.30pm and there are no campsites anywhere. The sat-nav is unsure of an alternative route to keep us out of the city and picking up the ring–road again.
A sign for a hotel clinches the deal. We’ll stay the night in a hotel, if the price is right, and make a new start for the border tomorrow. It’s very basic, the hotel and there is booming music at the poolside. A birthday party is in progress. Let’s hope that doesn’t go all night!! What with barking dogs and thinking about vehicle repairs, Theres been little sleep lately.
While dining in Poki there are about 8 guys playing a ball game on a disused tennis court beside us that we could not quite see due to trees. One of the participants walked past and we chatted. The guys are from Nepal and working in Romania installing solar panels. The game they are playing, is cricket and they are very excitable.
There is wifi but we are both so tired lights are out at 9.30pm.
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