The Shadow of Dracula Castle - Kevin Novello
from the hotel. Another thing worth mentioning is the food, we never had a bad meal. One caveat is that Romania is a difficult place to be a vegetarian. It’s possible, but not convenient.
Day 5 Hotel Tarnov to Sighioara, a Taste of the Extreme and Quaint Romanian Hospitality
Day 5 was the route back to Dracula Castle which was more forests and meadows but not before a detour to give the advanced group a taste of the Romanian hard enduro scene on a hill that was used in Romaniacs the previous year. The climb began with a steep ascent that wasn’t something you’d find in a typical enduro, but not quite extreme either. Easy by Romanian standards, it required no special skill beyond finding traction and keeping the front wheel from looping out. About halfway up is where things got interesting. And by interesting, I mean steep. Steep to the point where someone installed a steel cable that ran the length of the hill to help hikers keep upright in reaching the top.
The steep part of the ascent included a couple of narrow, off camber switchbacks followed by a straight shot of about 60 yards before a few more switchback turns to the summit. Mastering the pivot turn would have been very helpful here, along with careful clutch/throttle control. There were also just enough slick rocks to add some serious annoyance. Gummy tires would have made a big difference.
Sean McCabe, my Xpower counterpart from the UK, indicated that this hill was used as an Iron Class hill for the 2018 Romaniacs. I would have pegged it as any “easy” silver class climb or difficult bronze class hill. Apparently, the difficulty factor has expanded since my last Romaniacs in 2015. It took almost 45 minutes to reach the summit, but the view was quite worth it.
In many ways, Romania is like stepping back in time. Most of it I find unabashedly charming. However, one drawback is the lack of infrastructure, to include petroleum stations. Having used quite a bit more gas than expected on the Hard Enduro Climb, we began running dangerously low on fuel towards the end of the day. At this point I was riding solely with the guys from the UK, as we wanted to take an “advanced route” to finish out the day. Realizing we weren’t going to make it back to hotel on what was in our tanks, we located a village that looked promising for having petroleum. No luck, as the village was very poor and with little infrastructure. While on the phone with the Xpower support vehicle, the locals began to gather around us, curious to our presence and not having seen many motorbikes before.
In most instances, this would have sketched me out and had me missing my Glock. Not here though, the locals were simply curious and eager to talk with us (via google translate). After a half or so of chatting it up, the Britt’s managed to find the local “pub” (which was little more than a hole-in-the-wall convenience store with a few tables, chairs, juke box and bottles of beer) and off we went to wait for the Xpower support vehicle to arrive with gas. It was a sobering sight to watch the locals’ stream in and purchase small loaves of bread, shots of alcohol, and other basic staples to get them through the day. Within an hour we were on our way, returning to the hotel after dark and just as the rain set in for the evening. Worth noting was the 1,000-year-old fortified church, with its 20-foot walls just outside the pub. An amazing site that had me wishing I could have spent more time there. Maybe next year.
Day 6 Sighisoara to Sibiu: The Clay Slide, Hamstring Pull and Lizard
Day 6 was the return route to Sibiu from Sighisoara. The previous night’s rain left the silty soils saturated and extremely slick, making for some slow going, despite the easy single track and rolling meadows that comprised most of the route. Overall it was an uneventful ride until we came across a muddy logging road, a short distance after the lunch spot, which happened to be the Fortified Church at Bietran. For this day, it was just Ron, Scott and me as