Roaming in Romania: Part II – The Transalpina Highway

We awoke in Moto Camp, located in Sibiu, just before sunrise.  Moto Camp is probably the best base camp we’ve ever had and the best one anybody could ask for when staying near the Transylvanian mountain passes.  These mountains are home to several of the world’s most sought-after motorcycle roads.

We researched the weather while drinking a strong cup of Romanian coffee.  The day looked promising and the weather gave us a green light for riding. The buzz from riding the Transfagarasan Highway the day before was still with us and we both were anxious to see how the Transalpina Highway would compare.

The Transalpina Highway was two hours away from our base camp.  We searched the least traveled roads to ride, which provided entertainment as we passed through tiny villages untouched by time.  Horse-pulled carts rolled next to us and the occasional sheep crossings reminded us we were in Romania. These sites are common to Romanians, but for us it was like stepping into the early 1900s.  Between the scenery and our motorcycle engines humming it was a perfect mesh of culture and time that fit nicely.

As we continued to ride, the small towns gave way to a remote pine forest speckled with beech trees shedding their leaves.  As we sped by, we rustled the leaves to create mini sparkling whirlwinds in the morning sunlight while accelerating into the sweeping corners of this magical road. After 30 minutes we stopped along a dam with food and souvenir kiosks to grab a snack and drink.  While sitting there we noticed about 40 Porsches stop and take the entire length of the dam. “Porsche Club of Romania” was stickered on their cars.  Not wanting to be stuck behind any of the traffic we ate with a purpose and tackled the second portion of this road.

Once we left the dam, the sweeping corners continued with steeper gradients, angled such that we had to lean into them and keep our speed up while doing trig calcs on the fly to avoid falling. We continued gaining elevation when suddenly a bolt blew by me on the left, then another, and another. It was the Romanian Porsche Club; it seems they wrapped up their snacks at the same pace we had.  As they roared past like orcas going for the kill (even on blind corners) I thought:  “Hey, I still have Boston blood; I can be an apex predator, too!”  We rode with them in formation as we roared past numerous cars on their Sunday drive.

Having been engrossed with the Porsches and the road (and our minds working geometry problems in the corners), we hadn’t noticed how the terrain had changed yet again.  It went from pine forests to open alpine meadows with volcanic lakes. We continued to ride along these alpine meadows as heavy fog moved in. We were at just over 5,200 feet, but we felt we were on top of the world.  As we adjusted to the new terrain the fog banks closed upon us and our visibility dropped to almost zero.  Then, just as quickly as the fog appeared,  it retreated. When this happened, the veil lifted to give us a snapshot of the road ahead before it dropped again.

Once hitting Ranca, our turnaround point, the fog rolled in so heavily that even the Porsches turned around. As we sat along a wall to fully absorb the view, we could hear the Porsche engines roaring in the distance as they continued down the pass, popping in and out of the fog.  With the fog in no hurry to leave, we thought it was time to return to Sibui and mark another wonderous day of riding one of the best motorcycle roads in the Romanian mountains: The Transalpina Highway.

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