The best things, and most rewarding ones, that have happened to me have always been spontaneous, random shit that I did over the years with lots of joy packed in. Like this amateur 4x4 experience that I had yesterday with a couple of friends.
It all started over a beer at a local restaurant near my house, and next you know we were at the garage with some bottled water, quite frugal and not truly appropriate equipment, cameras ready,and having the thirst for climbing the hills for a bit and snapping a pic or two(actually about 200), on the way to the top where the sunset kisses the cliffs every day, no exception.
First things first, so we had to fill the tanks of the small SUV and the ATV, and we did that on the gas station near the entrance of our small town.
That little guy behind the wheel of this small Suzuki, filling its tank, is 2 meters high actually. I'm about 30 centimetres shorter...
Oh, and as usual, my #facesofhive contribution with my rusty washed colored cap and t shirt, and my protection glasses on. Too bad the sun was in my face and I couldn't smile... wait, I usually don't smile.
Before getting on tracks lets talk a bit about the vehicles. The SUV is a quite old Suzuki Grand Vitara, rocking a 1.6 petrol engine, and some small modifications to make the vehicle quite capable on forest roads and also a bit of off roading. It has really exceeded my expectations to be honest.
The ATV is a CanAm Renegade of 800 cmc and about 70 HP, and quite stock I guess. Don't know too much about it other than the fact that is brutal, it has a hellish sound from its Arrow exhausts and still haven't learned to ride it properly, hence it was my friend that rode it the whole way.
The plan was for myself to jump on it as well here and there, but no, not this time...
Here we are somewhere at the beginning of the off road escape where nothing seemed or looked special, on a country road, right before the crossroad we were supposed to decide where we were heading.
The truth is that we didn't had any plan on where exactly we would go. Once you get off the road, in the vicinity of my hometown, you do have options for multiple dirt and forest roads, and after a bit of debate we decided to get to the wind mills.
Sooner than later we entered a small village... I don't even know if that was really a village or not. All I know is that it had a small portion of a paved road, quite tight for two vehicles to pass by each other, and we had to pull on the side and let the others pass...
Yes we did met two cars on the way.
That was where I stole three pears from, and took some more pics of the 4x4s we were getting with, on the hills. Have I mentioned that you'll scroll through about 180 pics in this post? Probably not, so don't run for your life yet.
That's where the pavement ended and the dirt welcomed us again through the forest. Actually it welcomed mostly our friend on the ATV, while the two of us driving the Suzuki didn't had too much of a share of dirt in the nose.
Forgot to mention that the car is UK imported so the steering wheel is on the wrong side of it, hence you'll see my snapping pics and recordings from the driver's seat.
I don't know how much you can see this road, but it was very very bumpy, for a person like me that never got off road. I haven't even had the chance to photograph the nasty part as I had to hold myself good on the chair.
There was a really nasty part of it where the car would jump like crazy, and haven't even crossed my mind to take any pics.
That was the end of the more difficult part of the world and from here we entered the forest. A silent, green and full of life forest that got disturbed by three bozos with a noisy Suzuki and an even noisier ATV.
The ride was quite smooth however and my spine entered relax mode again. I have to admit, although I don't know if the driver will ever read this post, not being a hiver, that he has an aggressive style of driving.
It was time for a halt and in this area near that enclosure I really felt timeless. It's like I was a child and an adult at the same time and the clock was just an illusion. I don't know if there was anyone having there usually cows or sheep or something, but I liked a lot that tiny piece of space in the forest.
It was right before sunset and we would have stayed there for longer, but we were still away from the mills and we really wished to get it there in time.
It was time to move on and to be honest the bad part of tracks was over, from here on it was quite smooth and we even met some cows on the road. They didn't looked too surprised to see us, but neither did they seem to enjoy.
I guess that folks using SUVs, cross motorcycles and ATVs go there often and they're accustomed with noisy people around then once in a while.
That was a hi and a bye from that little cow, while chewing some grass, and from here we were quite close to the mills. When we left the town it was quite hot outside and just a breeze was blazing, but as we were approaching the top it all intensified, except the heat...
Oh, and that thing below is no mushroom, it's just some Romanian cow proper shit. I remember it very well since my grandma used to own cows. Haven't seen such treasures for a while though... and luckily haven't stepped on one either.
As if he wasn't tall enough... He had to climb on that tinny big wheels car and have a proper look of the surroundings. Over there the wind was quite strong and the driver(Mihai) was closed to fall from where he stood like an eagle.
The one that got most of the dust on his skin and clothes, and swears to never ride that thing without proper equipment was this guy having the GoPro mounted on his helmet.
At least he recorded something and you would probably see that footage on one future 3speak post of mine...
Here you have it, the first wind mill, producing electricity for who knows what Romanian company, and our first major objective achieved. That's where the wind was way stronger, I guess due to the open space and where there should have been more such mills if you ask me...
While there, little Mihai couldn't stop from testing a bit more his capable SUV and crawled that two meters high hill and got to become my smartphone photography subject for some really nice shots.
I don't know how much the bent grass can tell but it was really windy there and way colder than it was on our previous halt. Those who mounted the wind mills on that hill really knew what they where doing.
Back on the dirt road and it was time to get to the final destination. The place from where you can see both our hometown and a Serbian village across the Danube, and the Iron Gates Dam as well. Purely majestic I would say.
Without the mosquitos and other insects that bothered us, that place was really magic.
Welcome to the finish line! Both 4x4s made it with no problems at all, despite getting into the adventure not properly prepared, and it was time to chill for a bit, enjoy the moment and the view, and snap some more pics and record some more videos.
I had to take a pic on that thing... Maybe next time i'll ride it the whole way... Maybe. It's brutal and don't feel myself too comfortable on it.
The best view is from above and for that we used the drone once again. My friend playing with it didn't had battery on his smartphone anymore so he lifted it up in the air by just its remote, without getting to see what the camera was actually recording.
If the footage is OK I will upload this as well on 3speak.
Time to say good bye and move on. Time to get home. Back to our little town we used another road, and haven't actually got on the same course as when we came there. As I said in the introduction there are multiple roads on those hills, 4x4 friendly and we have plenty of choices.
As mentioned a couple of times, this whole thing was an unplanned adventure that turned out really great, with lots of fun, new experiences and memories, and I got the feeling that it will have a continuation. Some part two with other tracks will follow up so stay tuned.
This one though gets to the category of unplanned things that go well.
Thanks for attention,
Adrian