Mountain Tail
Posted by Dan
Targu Jiu, Romania
We left the plains and the 40 degree heat hoping for an inspiring time in the Carpathian mountains – excited at the possibility of a mountain scape illuminated by the full moon. However, we never saw the top of the mountains or the full moon as temperatures plummeted and cloud fell from the sky. The road turned to stones and mud and on the first evening we couldn’t find anywhere to camp or sleep and so continued to pedal uphill for 80km until finally we fell exhausted into a mountain hut.
We were chased and ambushed by wild dogs repeatedly over the course of the next few days, our first tactic was to pelt them with stones and threaten them with sticks, this worked well until we couldn’t out run them.
We learned that to let them approach and talk to them as if we weren’t scared was a good method. The first time we did this, a dog befriended us, and she guarded us a safe passage over the final 1600m pass. She ran with us for 15 km, down to a cabana. I fed her bread and we named her Larry. She caused a diversion each time a pack of dogs came out onto the road putting herself between us and them, giving us just enough time to reach into our pockets to pull out stones and take aim. We reached the bottom of the mountain safely, and in true style, just like the littlest hobo, while are backs were turned she wondered off expecting we’d be safe, no doubt in search of her next adventure.