Yearly Archives: 2022
major appliances
This post is about a 19km walk from Oașa Lake to Tau Bistra. I am still tired, but in the end I get to play with a friendly dog. This morning I felt a bit better. I had taken a shower and washed my hair. Also, the team of the guesthouse had done me the […]
Carpathian Hunger
This post is about a 24,4km walk from Obârșia Lotrului to Oașa Lake. I walk through the woods and I listen to Darkthrone. I felt tired when I left Ninel’s guesthouse. It would have been nice to stay there for a little while longer. They had a hammock between some trees, and the food was […]
and no volcano
This post is about getting a rabies shot in Vulcan. I am lucky to find rides with Ninel and Remus. And no, Vulcan does not have a volcano. Today was the date of my second rabies vaccination. I was deep in the mountains, and I had to somehow get to a hospital. where to get […]
tree line
This post is about a 15km walk from the Transalpina View Point to Obârșia Lotrului. I am exhausted, but I make it down past the tree line. I woke up in the middle of the night, thinking I had heard footsteps on the gravel. There they were again! I looked outside the tent but couldn’t […]
thick slices of bread
This post is about a 15km walk from Rânca to the Transalpina View Point. I see some snow and I hear some Hungarian. I had a tight vaccination schedule ahead of me: my next shot was going to be on June 21st. This meant that I needed to be in a place from where I […]
distance to wallet
This post is about getting a rabies shot in Târgu Jiu. When I arrive at the hospital I realize that I forgot to take my wallet. The bites themselves weren’t bad at all. I had washed them in the bathroom of the Tara Restaurant, and when the management got wind of what had happened, they […]
dog attack
This post is about a dog attack in Rânca. I get surrounded by a pack of feral dogs, get bitten in both legs, and use my pepper spray on them. They came for me on the afternoon of the second day. hooligans The clouds had been dark and heavy, and I had been spending my […]
come out blasting
This post is about a 21km walk from Novaci to Rânca. I somehow manage to gain 1100 meters of altitude in one day. I had slept too little. The plan had been to go to bed early and rise early, to be well rested and make use of as many hours of sunlight as possible. […]
anxiety
This post is about a day of anxiety in Novaci. I worry about the road through the mountains and about bears. I was so nervous. Several times within the last few weeks I had woken up in the middle of the night not knowing where I was. It always took me a little while to […]
land of a thousand wells
This post is about a 24km walk from Mușetești to Novaci. I see wells everywhere, and I walk to the start point of the Via Transalpina. The people from the adventure park had turned out to be quite wonderful. Not only did they allow me to camp wherever I wanted to on their premises, but […]
adventure park
This post is about a 20km walk from Turcinești to Mușetești. I take a shortcut through some water and sleep in an adventure park. Having slept during much of the afternoon of the day before and during the night, I felt better this morning. And so I packed my stuff and started walking again. There […]
I try not to poop
This post is about a 4km walk from Rugi to Turcinești. I am really just trying to get to a place where I can lay down. Those of you who have been with me for a long time might remember my friend Paul. I haven’t talked about him since China, have I? Well, Paul was […]
pineapple pants
This post is about a few days of wearing pineapple pants at a pool. I try to get rid of some anxiety, but the worry about the road is real. The village guesthouse was quite nice. It even had a pool. And it turned out that I was more or less the only guest, at […]
anything but the shit show
This post is about a 23km walk from Rasoviţa to Rugi. After a short stint on one of the main roads I walk through the fields again. At about seven in the morning I was glad that I had put my tent outside of the cemetery gate and not inside. An old man with a […]
no way
This post is about a 32km walk from Tismana to Rasoviţa. I learn that I have to change my route, and I end up sleeping next to a graveyard. I don’t go back to the monastery. Instead I have tea with Alexandra and John, a couple from Bucharest who are renting a bungalow close by. […]
pharisees
This post is about a 27km walk from Ponoarele to Tismana. I’m excited to see the Tismana Monastery, but things work out differently. I had been playing with the idea of staying in the guesthouse for another day. It was mostly the soreness in my legs that was telling me to do so. But in […]
God’s Bridge
This post is about God’s Bridge in Ponoarele. It’s a natural bridge that used to be part of a cave, and there’s a cave next to it. When I woke up I could hardly move. Even just taking the stairs in the guest house felt difficult. Everything hurt. sore But I needed to get some […]
morning beer
This post is about a 32km walk from Godeanu to Ponoarele. I start off with a morning beer, and toward the end I struggle a bit. The night was good, but it was over too early. I had pitched the tent in the shade of the late afternoon, which meant that now it was in […]
don’t forget the struggle
This post is about a 9km walk from Balotești to Godeanu. The first stretch is one of the toughest climbs the Caboose and I have ever done. Mircea has warned me about the road ahead. It’s steep and unpaved, and it winds its way up the mountain for about three or four kilometers. I am […]
Via Transilvanica
This post is about a 19km walk from Drobeta-Turnu Severin to Balotești. I fix a tire in John’s bike shop La Pedale, and I wait out some rain. In the morning I walked through Drobeta and straight to a bike shop called La Pedale. I had been there before a few days earlier to fix […]