Sunday April 25th, Giurgiu airfield, extreme sports gathering. Of course, I only participated in the offroad section (organized by the Kamikaze team ) 
. I really did expect a bungee jumping crane, but they did not make it afterall 
If you like these photos, or the subject of offroad, stay tuned (RSS or email), because it’s one of the main areas of interest on this blog
The infamous doctor Semaca has once again been so magnanimous as to invite me at Luana Offroad Fest, Spring Edition, 2010. This is a small insight into what happened there in the weekend of April 16th to 18th:
If you like these photos, or the subject of offroad, stay tuned (RSS or email), because it’s one of the main areas of interest on this blog
PS: here are last years’ Luana photos.
This Sunday I went on an expedition around Bucharest, lead by the infamous GPScu. There were some other 40 crazy guys just like me. We wandered around in the forest, bushes, fields, etc, managed to get a few nice shots, and then had a barbecue. Here are a few photos and movies from this trip:
Am ajuns la momentul in care vreau de la Patrol niste chestii pe care nu le poate face, asa ca e cazul sa il vindem cuiva caruia i se potriveste mai bine
Iata prezentarea masinii:
Nissan Patrol Y61, motor RD28TI, 95kw, 130CP, preparat pentru ture offroad pana la dificultate medie. Mecanic / tehnic ireprosabil.
Masina merge impecabil in teren si pe strada. Este foarte bine intretinuta dpdv tehnic, controale lunare incepand cu Decembrie 2008. Este gata de expeditii si ture. Singurul lucru la care nu se preteaza sunt concursurile. Indoiturile si rugina de suprafata de pe tabla sunt specifice masinilor de teren in relieful Romaniei.
Practic nu mai trebuie nimic pentru offroad pana la mediu, se ia masina si se baga in teren, expeditii, ture, etc.
Si poze cu upgrades si dowgrades dar si cu ea in actiune :
Last weekend I was in the Brasov area. I did phone several offroaders from Brasov but they decided they had better things to do on Saturday. The only person who graciously accepted my invitation was the infamous FLOW . He was kind enough to revamp his entire schedule (he was attending a drifting show at the mall !) and lead us on a very interesting and challenging offroad track. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:
Stay tuned (RSS or email) for some HD videos and an amazing wallpaper with Flow’s city car
A few pictures taken in the course of Agnita Ladies’ Ride:
On January 24th 2010, I joined the X3M Offroad Valcea crew for a relaxing cruise in the mountains near Valcea. We took a 7 hour, 50 kilometers long stroll in a completely untouched area. As you will see, the snow was pure, clean and shiny white. “The warm sun” we enjoyed refers to the white balance only, because the highest temperature we encountered was -8 degrees Celsius.
I will start off with a few pictures of ‘action’ but will end this post with much more pictures of the beautiful winter scenery we were lucky to encounter:
The official thread of this trip is posted here.
As you have probably noticed, some photos are in the 1080p full-HD format. I would be honored if you used them as wallpapers.
By now, any visitor of this blog should already be aware of the existence of technical methods to automatically receive new posts: the RSS feed or via email.
During A.D. 2009 the powers that be decided to asphalt Transalpina. Letting aside the discussions on the real (hidden) reasons, the practicality of the idea (given the fact that snow is meters high from November until May !!), what this means for us is THE END of Transalpina as we knew it.
Transalpina used to be this hidden gem of a national road, higher than Transfagarasan, but unpopulated by the famous Romanian Buffalo . It used to be a road for ‘aficionados’, for people that love the adventure and nature, beyond the love for their cars or their image. You would see Fiat Pandas, Citroen BXs, Daewo Matizes et al trying their best not to fatally hit the underparts of their cars, just to be able to enjoy the extraordinary landscapes. It was not a road for SUVs (I have not seen X5s, GLs and the likes), for manelists and barbecue eaters.
All that is gone now, with the advent of asphalt and ‘civilization’ . I have personally vouched to search for alternative roads for those who would appreciate them (there are rumors about a passage between Curmatura Oltetului and Vaideeni). But until I find them, we do still have one option in the area: the Strategic road.
Like Transalpina this was built by ‘ze Germans’ during the second World War. It is approximately 60kilometers long, on the top of the Latoritei mountains. It is perpendicular on Transalpina, which it crosses in the Saua Stefanu. That is one end of the Strategica. The other is in Valea Macesului, between Brezoi and Voineasa. This end is well hidden, as well it should be:
Where from
When you see this sign, stop the car and start looking for an un-obvious ascent into the forrest:
Hidden Gem
Hidden Gem
In my opinion this is were your adventure should start, because the first 4 kilometers are literally tough for ‘normal cars’ (non offroaders). So I’d rather have the difficult part in the beginning of the day, with gas, energy and time ahead of me. For real offroad cars, when dry, it’s a walk in the park. If rainy, it could become tricky (lateral inclination, no trees, ruts, mud, etc).
When dry, the ascent has been done with cars as ‘low’ (offroad-wise speaking) as the Audi Allroad or the Subaru Outback. They DID however struggle (had to push, burn the clutch, etc). Enough with the small talk already, let’s look at some pictures:
Plaiul Poienilor, Obstea Mosnenilor
Plaiul Poienilor, Obstea Mosnenilor
This is the reason you want to get on this road: it’s so high that you actually look DOWN on eagles:
Where eagles dare
I made an inspired “stop” :
How Land Cruisers are meant to be used
and what I mean by “Inspired Stop” is that I chose the best damn place to take this LC picture, toghether with the fact that I did actually stop 3 meters from the abyss:
View from the top
You can notice the road from Valea Macesului to the Galbenul and Petrimanul lakes on the bottom on the valley!
After this, the road is easy, clear and simple (you can make mistakes, but they are correctable: if the road disappears or becomes to difficult, you took a wrong turn )
As you can see, somebody is taking care of this road:
Clear Road
This is the biggest danger to offroad cars on this road:
Very Useful to have MT tyres
which means that there is a lot to enjoy on this road:
Busy Bee
Real Help
There are some ugly things going on in the area, like the forest clearing on the road from the lakes to Curmatura Oltetului:
Say WHAAAT?
Forest Clearing
Forest Clearing
These photos are a dedication to those who say that offroad cars disturb the environment…
Oh, since we are having a parenthesis about destruction, here’s how the Muntinu Stairs died:
Say Whaaatt, take 2
“shooting works”
If anyone is still not convinced to make this trip, I end this post with a bang (actually what I hope to be a memorable photo of the area):
What you can see
PS 1: I have to mention the fact that the road passes through two peasant yards. So you have to stop the car, get out, open the gate, pass, get back out and close the gate, so that the animals don’t get out…
PS2: if you like these photos, and trust me when I say there are more coming about beautiful and interesting places in the world, then you might want to stay tuned (via RSS or email )
Since last autumn I wanted to revisit Trasnsalpina. This summer I was able to up the game and do Transalpina a second time, but also include the Strategic road in that day’s trip. I will tell you more about the Strategic road in following posts. For now I will just tell you that it, like Transalpina, was built by the Germans in the second World War and is a 60km dirt road going from starting from nowhere, going to the middle of another road .
It makes however a great trip for sightseeing and for testing your suv or crossover. It’s a child’s play for real 4×4′s . After some 45 out of 56 kilometres I found this settlement of mushroom gatherers! Literally in the middle of nowhere, these guys had power generators and lived in Quechua tents underneath the plastic covers…
Mushroom gatherers camp on the Strategic road in Sibiu County
Keep watching this blog for more pictures and track ideas from this area! Or better yet, subscribe to the blog (either by RSS or by email) .
Almost one week later, only at the persistent argument of Cornel Biciu, here are some photos of friends at the Kamikaze Cup trial on Sunday October 11th 2009
PS: Cornel, now you owe me a trip together with Nea Gigi 
