11/8/99

Finally the day which had been 6 months of planning and 2000miles in the making had arrived. A tentative look up at the sky revealed clear blueness - thank god for that! We all went down to breakfast to be greeted by the hugest table of food you can imagine. There was heaps of bread, fruit cheeses, all sorts of stuffed things - just masses of food. We all ate our fill but had hardly scratched the surface. It took some active translating by Bogdan to explain that the food was lovely - the English just don't eat large breakfasts.

The plan for the day was to head up into the mountains to the Enduromania base. Unfortunately the sky was rapidly clouding over and the prospects of a clear view looked poor. Soon we all got ready and headed upwards. We had been warned that the road was poor and we weren't disappointed. The road was a disused one up to an abandoned mine. In a couple of places half of it had been washed away by the river, it was all covered in gravel and in a few places the concrete was gone and it was just gravel. I certainly wasn't enjoying the ride and when we got to the point where the concrete disappeared and it turned into a gravel track I called it quits.

Jeff & Liam also decided to ditch the bikes and walk up but the rest of the group rode it. The track up was pretty hilly and deep in gravel - and just for added amusement included a stream crossing. We arrived at the base which was another lovely house in the hills. I soon realised that I'd forgotten the tripod for my camera. Since there was no chance I could ride back in time I managed to blag a lift on the back of one of the enduro bikes back to the village. This was the highlight of the trip so far - the ride was bloody marvellous, I have to get me one of these bikes!

When we got back the eclipse had just about started. I got the camera set up and we all stood around chatting and nervously watching the cloud cover coming and going. Before long the moment was upon us and it was getting darker by the second. The sun disappeared behind a cloud and when it reappeared it did so as a stunning corona - made all the more impressive due to the thin clouds. Unfortunately we were quite a way off totality and we didn't get a very long corona but it was worth it just for the short time - it really was stunning. The approach to totality was odd - it was getting very dark but there were still sharp shadows, very odd. The whole sensation was improved by the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere. As it started getting light we could see it was brighter on the horizon across the valley.

Soon the excitement died away and the eclipse was over. After some time spent chatting away and generally soaking up the atmosphere we started to make a move. We all made our way back down to the village stopping on the way to take some pics. There was a half built damn on the way which was a remnant of the Chouchesku regime. He was very keen on building and did so for the sake of it. This damn was something he started but it was never finished as it isn't needed. The country has seven partially built nuclear reactors - just two could supply the entire country. The deserted mine was quite oppressive too. At some point, Chouchesku just decided mines weren't needed and shut them all down overnight - hence all the roads and machinery are still as they were with the mines in use - everything was just left.

On return to the house most of the group went off to see the Danube at the Serbian border. I stayed behind to do a bit of a more permanent fix (a drink bottle) on the bike and generally relax - having been sat on a bike for the past week I was in need of a break.

Soon they all returned and we sat down to another huge dinner washed down with beer and schnapps. Bogdan again kept us company and this time he had some of his 'double distilled' schnapps which was pretty strong stuff!