Day Eleven Tuesday Vampires, Attempted Coup and Old Friends

We wake up fully refreshed despite our poor hotel conditions and it’s off to the Transylvanian Alps today, everyone is looking forward to this one today. We are on the road and very quickly in the Alps; the views here surpass all the scenery we have seen so far and then some. All cameras go into overdrive and the only radio chatter is look at this coming round the next bend, we have lakes and dams as well as craggy mountains and forested hillsides, Abdul (Shinybeast) sums the views up by stating “this is simply beautiful”. It’s as much fun for the drivers as we go onwards and upwards and even get the opportunity to stop up here to get some even better photographs and switch drivers. Everyone thoroughly enjoys today and it has probably been the best driving day that we have had or are going to have.

Obviously being in Transylvania thoughts turn to vampires, concerns are raised and garlic is dished out at the rest stop just in case. We know that vampires don’t come out during daylight hours but we are not taking any chances. Then a great debate springs up over which screen vampire we would want to be bitten by, the three vampires out of Van Helsing get a mention but the clear winner is Kate Beckinsale out of Underworld that is until Ricki chips in with a late entry of Brad Pitt from Interview with the Vampire. In the interest of fairness and equality a draw is declared and the search to see if Brad and Kate are hiding in the Alps begins.

During the day as we progressed through the towns, we took a couple of wrong turns and Rory and John (Irish Rovers) took this opportunity to attempt to take control of the convoy and become convoy leader for the day. At the first town they jumped up the running order from eight to four and at the next town Convoy Leaders and the Simpsons took a wrong turn so that put them into second place only the Proclaimers stood in their way now. Unfortunately the Proclaimers held the Irish Rovers off with blocking tactics of driving down the middle of the road and following the right directions. Sorry Rovers better luck tomorrow. At the same time we lose Anthony and Michael (Flintstones) who are running at position six, they very quickly appear at the back of the convoy in Truckdoctors position number 10. There is talk of conspiracy with the Irish lads attempting a coup and taking over the convoy from positions Convoy Leader and Truckdoctor.

We have hit a mixture of roads today from the winding mountain roads, to bumpy city TIR routes to roads that have brand new tarmac one minute and become a dirt track the next. There has been a great deal of European money spent on the roads in Romania, and regular convoy drivers see the improvements year after year. Then something that no convoy driver driving in Romania has seen before appeared, a motorway it was brand new and at times our 10 vehicles were the only vehicles on it. We trucked along nicely on it and were proud to christen the CWUHA’s first motorway in Romania.

We arrive at our hotel for the evening just outside Cluj Napoca in Romania and again it is not up to our standards. Again only four star and six months old, glass elevators in the foyer and power showers in the rooms (complete with a stool in the shower for some of our older convoy drivers to sit on, Ray was very appreciative after a long day on the road), LCD TV’s showing Champions League football and even a mini bar in each room (honestly this convoy just keeps losing the plot with its hotel choices). Convoy Leaders play a blinder with negotiations though, the rooms should be 90 Euro’s a night but after a bit of haggling and explaining who we are and what we do the price is knocked down to 60 Euro’s a night (well done Peter).

Finally a funny thing happened in Romania this afternoon. We were parked up somewhere between Bacau and Targu Mures in the Transylvanian mountains having a cup of tea. When a rich Geordie voice said “What are you doing here” followed by “I know you” to which Jim & Duncan (Proclaimers) said “We know you”. The mystery man was no other than Terry Scarr an old friend of CWUHA who the Proclaimers travelled with over 10 years ago to Bulgaria. Terry told us that he and his mates had delivered aid to villages around Bacau. We then took them down to meet Bob (Truckdoctor) and Jack (Bulldogs) who had also travelled with Terry all those years ago. What a small world it is and it’s great to know he and his team are still on the road (thanks to the Proclaimers for writing todays finally).

Stay tuned for more and see ya later

Paul (one half of the big boppers)