Day Eight: Driving Off Road!

We decided to spend two nights in Cutea de Arges so that we could go up into the mountains and see some of the amazing churhes. We headed up the Transfagaran Highway, which is reputedly the highest road in Europe. We drove up to a beautiful lake, formed behind a high dam in a mountain gorge. We drove round the eastern shore on a very potholed tarsealed road, had a picnic, and then headed back along the western shore. This was not sealed... and we bumped along a very challenging metal road for 21 Km, nearly the whole way in first gear, with the occasional bit in 2nd gear. It was well worth it though, it was spectacular. (Nick says the best bit was when Sally stood on the front seat out of the sun roof and took video as Nick drove through muddy ruts).





We then headed to a small village called Corbi, which is a couple of kilometres off a minor road. Here there is a 13th century church set in a cave on the side of a cliff. It shelters the oldest collection of religious paintings held in Romania. We were invited to join the evening Mass. This was an Eastern Orthodox service, and we stayed for about 20 minutes.



Life is still very simple in these sorts of villages. We found three old knitting, the washing being done in the river, and the ubiquitous horse carts




Then we headed back into Cutea de Arges and visited a very 14th century old church that is entirely painted inside. Fortunately we were allowed to take both video and flash photos.





To Nick's delight back at the hotel we found that an Italian TV station was broadcasting the All Black's vs Wallabies Tri Nations game. We watched this while consuming a rather nice Romanian beer called "Ursus". The result was great!!! AB's triumphed... think the final score was 33 - 13. After that, at about 9.30 pm we went to have dinner on the terrace.
It was a really fantastic day, seeing so many remote vilages and friendly villagers, and being up in the mountains.