‘From above it looks as if someone has used every great curve in every great track in the world to craft the perfect track: an unbroken grey ribbon of motoring perfection’. This was how Jeremey Clarkson described the Transfăgărășan Highway, or DN7C, Romania’s second-highest paved mountain road which crosses the southern section of the Carpathian Mountains. It is often nicknamed ‘the road from the clouds’ or ‘the Great Dragon.’
The road is closed during winter, when temperatures can fall to below -10 degrees Celsius. As snow is often present from November until April, the road is only open from June to September. Even then, it is still weather dependent as the rain is unpredictable and can start suddenly.
Our trip was scheduled for 10 June, and we were lucky in that it opened just five days before. By then, the initial crowds, weekend and a public holiday had passed, and the initial inevitable queues had disappeared.
In total, there is 90.2km with the northern segment (35.1 km) beginning at Sibiu-Făgăraș.
Initially the road was simply narrow, but then the hairpin bends that are required to conquer the steep terrain started, and the scenery became spectacular. At this point, we turned off the talking Sat Nav to avoid it constantly warning us of sharp bends.
We stopped several times for photos where there were obvious passing places, and we felt the temperature gradually getting cooler as we climbed.
At one point we came upon a tower, which appeared to be only for workmen, and there was a photo display for the 50th anniversary in 2024, which showed the road in various seasons – interestingly there were a lot of deciduous trees with lovely autumnal colours.
In winter when it is not possible to cross the mountains by car, Bâlea Lake at 2034m can only be reached by cable car from Bâlea Waterfall. However, we drove all the way to the picturesque lake where patches of snow remained on the surrounding mountains. The cloud was coming in, it began to drizzle, and as it was only 9 degrees, we had a brief and blustery stop, before hitting the road again and driving through an 887m tunnel.
The southern segment has two parts. The first, 25.6km, is from the exit of the tunnel, and as we entered a straighter, more forested section, we were told we may see bears. We wondered whether they would be difficult to spot, but our first bear sighting was literally posing over a stone bridge. Signs warned of fines for feeding the bears, and most cars were, like us, content with taking a quick snap through the window before moving on. In total, we spotted six bears on our journey. A few weeks after we returned home, we read that an Italian tourist had been killed after getting off his motorbike to pose with a bear and her cub. It was hard to feel sympathetic.
The second 29.5km section hugged the contours of Lake Vidraru, and it became more touristy with roadside stalls selling home-made fruit syrups, sausages and cheese or cheap souvenirs.
After overnighting in Curtea de Arges, we continued to the end of the road, in Bascov, the following day.
Unlike Jeremy Clarkson’s drive in his Aston Martin, our journey was less exhilarating, but at least we took in the sights along the way.
I’m not sure I’ve ever written so much about a road trip, and although there’s much more to say, it’s probably best to look on the very extensive website (transfagarasan.travel/en) for more info
