Surprise entry in the Rallye Harghitei – all the way to engine trouble...

Day 3: Arad (Ro) – Lacul Rosu (Ro)

Yet again we experienced another eventful day. We started with a warm shower at the truck stop near Arad. At 07:30 we set off in the direction of Timisoara. Shortly after, the motorway was closed and a diversion sent us for roughly half an hour over the worst gravel track imaginable, full of extreme potholes.

After that the road was fine again and we made swift progress through countless villages. What struck us in particular was that many of the village residents were sitting in front of their houses watching the traffic. As we drove through the villages people called out and waved to us – a few ladies even danced for us in their typically colourful Romanian dress. This inspired us to stop in the next village and hand out baseball caps and chocolate to the children. In return we were spontaneously treated to a Romanian schnapps and a lovely elderflower drink.

After more villages we found ourselves right in the middle of a “real” rally, taking part “out of competition”. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we realised the Rallye “Harghitei” was running through the villages. For this reason we drove a big loop, adding an extra two and a half hours to our journey.

On this detour we fulfilled another wish-kilometre. Then, in the dark of night – it was already 22:10 – we crossed the Carpathian mountain range. SELMA suddenly started making strange noises. A quick engine check pointed to the turbo. We continued at a slower pace over another range of hills with many tight bends and potholes. On the mountain pass, SELMA suddenly stood there wrapped in thick fog as if from nowhere. It quickly became clear that this fog was a whitish, oily cloud of smoke. Fortunately, just a few metres further on there was a car park for the Lacul Rosu tourist park. After an intense discussion – whether to keep driving, tow SELMA, or spend the night here – we wisely chose the latter. After all, we had already been on the road for nearly 15 hours.

So we slept here in the middle of nowhere, some 53 kilometres short of our destination, the orphanage in Piatra Neamt. The irony of fate is that we had all been looking forward to a “proper” bed. That will just have to wait a little longer for us… :-)

Brief summary:

Day three also ran smoothly overall – we even took part in a real rally, albeit out of competition. Our planned stage goal of arriving at the orphanage in Piatra Neamt was clearly not met due to SELMA’s engine breakdown. We’re not disappointed, just curious to see how quickly we can get SELMA back on the road.

After SELMA’s oily stench we need a cold beer to clear our heads, and then catch some sleep here in the middle of nowhere. Thank you, SELMA. :-)

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https://www.instagram.com/p/COlcSoRhitv/

Your Judo goes Orient – Team