Last year I tried to bike on top of Baiului Mountain. Wasn’t able to push my bike up the ski slope, so I aborted. This year I came again. Now I’m stronger – I can push my bike pretty much everywhere. I’m also wiser – instead of going up the slope, I chose a forest road, it’s longer, but not as steep.

Even so… it was steep, depressingly discouragingly steep. We had short periods of biking, long periods of bike pushing followed by long breaks for recovery. But, eventually, we made it through the forest, arrived on the mountain crest and we were greeted with a fantastic view of the Bucegi Mountains.

The road on the crest was marvelous, going on one side of the mountains then the other, alternating the views over the Bucegi with views over other less known mountains. We met a few tourists, a couple of jeeps and some shepherds, surrounded by sheep and guarded by dogs.

The road down the mountain, to the village of Secaria, was not as good. Covered in a layer of sharp fist-sized rocks, it was a torment for bike and biker. My Samuras were skidding all over the place, left and right under the will of the rocks, my hands strained by the stream of shocks, brakes never releasing the rim. One of the rocks managed to jump off the front tire and hit my shinbone. Pain! I stopped and looked at my leg. It was covered in a thick layer of dust – except where the rock hit. It managed to wipe the dust off. I’ll be fine.

The rocky road finished, we went through some puddles (to add a layer of mud over the layer of dust) and then we reached civilization. A cold drink, AC and a shower never felt better!