This weekend I took Cara in the first summer biketrip. The trip also had a scientific purpose to it: to find (and eat) the elusive wild strawberry.

So we took a train, Friday afternoon, not knowing (’cause I don’t watch the news) about the yellow-code weather warning: heavy rains, all weekend, mostly in Central Romania. Yay!

One and a half hours later, I was in Mizil. The rain just started. Put on my (Singaporean) raincoat and started pedaling. Stopped 7 km later, to wring my socks. My shoes felt like little buckets. At least, I thought, the incline wasn’t hard at all. Couldn’t have been any wronger. I think I needed, in total, about 2h30′ to get to the top. That’s because I took 2 minutes of rest after every 30 meters or so. Would have been faster walking.

The only thought that made me push on was “At least, after the top there’s gonna be straight downhill, no more first gear pedaling!”. Well, couldn’t have been any wronger.. again! After the first 30 meters off road, the bike was 10 kg heavier with mud. I needed one hour of struggling just to push the bike down the hill. Finally, just a little after getting dark (to remember: get some spare batteries next time) I managed to arrive in Sangeru, dragging the big pile of mud that used to be Cara.

Next morning started with a scrub. Gradually, the jet of water managed to bring Cara back to life. Leaving her to dry, I went to pillage the orchard. Started with the cherries, then went for the (domesticated) strawberries. After this appetizer, I was prepared. The elusive wild strawberry will not get away! Climbed the legendary Babaru hill, where some villagers reported seeing the elusive wild strawberry, shooting blurry pictures of it with their 2MP camera phones. Up there, I finally managed to track it down. Here you have it, exclusively, the first and ever sharp picture of the elusive wild strawberry, seconds before being eaten by me:

After that, my mission was complete. Just had to return to Bucharest. Easier said than done, because Nature was pissed at me for eating the elusive wild strawberry. First, it managed to puncture my front wheel. Luckily, I took out my handy portable flat-wheel-fixing-kit and undone the damage that thorn caused. But then the rain started again. Biking up the way I came was now impossible. I had to admit defeat. I put Cara in the trunk and left for Mizil by car, while seeing Nature laugh at me in the rear view mirror. I’ll be back!