Friday July the 30th
Total distance driven: 4.208 Km
Today’s distance: 355 Km
Walked distance: 5,6 Km
Next destination: Tulcea and the Danube Delta. As expected the road was flat and straight. Here is what it looks like near Bucharest:
After a quarter of an hour I got bored. There was still a place I actually wanted to visit: The Vulcano Mud near Berca. Initially I wanted to skip it because the ride to Tulcea was already over 4h long but I got so bored of the road that I changed the route while on the go.
It took me two hours to arrive in Berca but there were no signs to the Vulcano Mud. My sat nav sent me up the hills on this road.
Nobody around, just few cows.
I did an Enduro training before leaving and it was a lot of fun 🤩 As for all the things, there are some techniques and you need practice but for me the key lesson is: go fast 💨
If you approach the trail with fear, you will be rigid and risk to fall. It’s a bit like surfing: hang loose 🤙🏻 Depending on the trail type, there is a speed where it begins to be real fun. The rear slides every now and then and you go with the flow.
After almost 10 Kms off-road the sat nav reported: you have reached your destination. Mmmm, it looks like I’m lost.
I kept driving and soon I saw a camping with a vulcano on the left side.
You really need to be fond of this place to find it. There are no signs and the trail makes you doubt more than once, if you are in the right place. Once there, you get repaid with a fantastic feeling of living on a wonderful planet.
Finally I saw a lunar landscape and heard an intriguing blup blup.
It’s just mud and gases coming from underneath but when you are there, it’s a surreal experience.
I’m glad I came here. Between the mud and the off-road, it was another amazing experience.
Driving back, the sat nav initially sent me through another path, which ended up to be a dead end with another hint from L.A.
I had to perform a couple of interesting manoeuvres with U turn on stones in very close spaces. Lollo weights around 260 Kg with luggage now and it was a hot day. I decided to take again the same route I came from. I truly had a lot of fun riding off-road and I attempted to record it by putting my phone in a pocket of the jacket. Unfortunately it was in the wrong position and the video does not deliver the experience I had. It was epic! I was sliding almost every meter, going up and down and in curves. I was often in 3rd gear at about 50 Km/h.
It was a bumpy ride and the phone jumped out of the pocket 😱 I was driving downhill when it happened and attempted to stop. The genius of me 🤣
Here is the damage report:
The most difficult part was to pull up the bike while fully loaded and without any help. Luckily I managed. What an enduro session: 20 Kms of pure sliding and dust. A lot of fun 🥳
For the next 2,5h I covered most part of the road to Tulcea, until I stopped for dinner. When I dismounted, I literally couldn’t walk. My back was completely blocked. I couldn’t straight it up and every step I walked was a lot of pain. It was really bad and I thought my journey was going to end here.
I drove for over 4.000 Kms without an issue. Why did I have this problem now? Maybe when pulling up the bike? Or too many vibrations during the off-road session?
I could not ride any longer and had to take a room nearby, while attempting to find a solution. I was in the town of Braila and found a room at Nemo’s on the Danube.
