Amazing Transalpina Road – Closer to the sky– Last summer trip ~ 1~
Last summer, me and my parents took a trip on of the most amazing roads in Romania, Transalpina. It is the highest road in Romania, reaching a maximum altitude of 2145 m above sea level in Pasul Urdele.
The Transalpina road has a 146 km length that goes through the Carpathian Mountains. It is quite famous and attracts a lot of tourists due to the experience that it provides.
While driving through a mountainous region on a dangerous road you can feel the level of adrenaline rising. If don’t have a powerful car, like us, I believe that it will get even higher, hoping to make it to the end :)
On the way there, we stopped to Pestera Muierii, which is an elaborate cave system located in Gorj County. The cave contains a lot of bear cave remains, as well as human skulls, dating back to 40 000 BP. They are among most ancient early modern human in Romanian prehistory.
The view from outside the cave
We made another pit stop, before driving through Transaplina, at a mountain cycling fest, at Ranca resort area.
We stopped there for the night. In the evening there was a rock concert, with one of my favorite bands, Trooper. I really enjoyed the big fire camp made at the end.
In the morning we continued our trip on the beautiful mountain road.
The road has a lot of serpentine twists and turns making a little difficult to drive.
TransAlpina was built at the beginning of the 2nd Century AD by the Roman legions during their war campaign to conquer Sarmizegetusa – the capital of Dacia (now Romania). In case you’re wandering were my name came from. :)
Ruins of Sarmizegetusa Regia
Sarmizegetusa
Of course now, the capital of Romania is Bucharest, which doesn’t correspond to Sarmizegetusa, being over 300 km away.
Paving of the road began in 1930 and eight years later King Carol II inaugurated it. That’s the reason why Romanian locals in the area call it The King’s Road (“Drumul Regelui”). But the road remained inaccessible until a few years ago, and was totally open to traffic in 2015.
Transalpina road it is located in the Parang Mountains and offers beautiful natural setting. The road allows a rapid transit between Oltenia and Transylvania, two regions of Romania. It links Novaci, south of Parang Mountains and Sebes in the north. We started our trip from south, and climbed our way to the north.
On the road we enjoyed dramatic views and amazing landscapes.
We had to stop a few times, to admire the beautiful natural surroundings.
The road is breathtaking but also requires an experienced driver. Luckily for us, my father has over 30 years driving experience.
Situated on high altitude, the wind blows hard. Being a hot summer, that was a nice experience :)
We admired the rocks and even took a few with us, because they were so beautiful!
The walls of the mountains are protected by fences so that rocks will not fall on the drive way.
The blowing wind gives a lot of positive energy!
We continued our road...
And made another few stops...
My father speaking with my brother on the phone and telling him about the awesome ride that we were taking.
And again on the road...