Our second last day and we can’t believe it has almost finished, months of prep and planning. We woke up at our mountain hostel, with Cami going out for some early morning shots, whilst Craig and Andrew had some breakfast.

Before long, Emil was taking us back down the mountain, in a scene which resembled Top Gear. A kind gesture, Emil offered to drop us off in Carta where we would be staying the night, a drive which included a water crossing!

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Arriving at the campsite, we were depleted of cash, so the tents were pitched and an hour long walk to the nearest atm was on the cards. Morale hit a low point on that walk due to a lack of cash, tiredness and horrific driving, making the walk less enjoyable than before.

However, once the atm was reached and food bought, morale went up again with jokes being cracked on the way back. Although, when the rain started pouring down it didn’t sit too well!

Once back, an exploration of Carta took place. Carta is a small and rural town with a more traditional way of life. This was highlighted when a herd of cows paraded through the streets, even some of them making trips into people’s backgardens! (Got some decent photos though)

With night approaching we were all day in the shelter at the campsite (the only place that had outlets) as all of our battery packs and camera batteries had died from the previous days. After a while however, we all headed to the tents for some shut-eye. Well that was our second last day. Till next time, adios from Team Troon.

We woke up and went for breakfast. After that we went a walk into Bran and found a market so spent an hour or so looking around. Stephen found himself some now sunglasses and we also picked up a few things for James which we are sure he will love. After exploring the market we made our way to Bran Castle (Dracula’s Castle)

This visit was a massive help to our major project as each room was jam packed with historic information and it was one of the more enjoyable visits of this trip. We enjoyed the food we had so much the night before we decided to go back again for dinner. After that it was back to the camp site to chill for the rest of the night.

Team 2 picked up Eddie this morning for his long awaited excursion to DINO PARK !! Needless to say Eddie was super excited…. 😊

Thanks Team 2 🤙

With a relatively early start to the day, we were headed out of the campsite at Carta. However, we were around 5 minutes late out of the site so as a team we decided on a shortcut, to which the railway bridge looked a good option. After checking that no trains were due and realising that there was a pedestrian path on one side of the bridge, we crossed which cut out 20 minutes of our journey.With a further 30 minute walk we made it to the intersection that we were getting picked up at. The arrival of Emil, the host at our hostel, marked the beginning of our journey into the mountains.

Our destination was the Transfagarasan Road, famous for being Top Gear’s ‘Worlds Greatest Road’. To say the least, the road was twisty to a sickening level!

Once up there however, the views were stunning and we got used to our hostel for the night, a cosy one for definite.

Heading out of the hostel, we passed through the tunnel (which was FREEZING!) and headed to the market next to Balea Lake, a bustling place and quite unexpected for us. With coffees and crepes bought we then headed to get some scenic pictures.

With pictures in the bag, the team headed for dinner, and we were in for more than we thought! First came a soup that was more like a main in portion size, then a full plate of meat and onion to top it off.

After dinner had been sorted, a trip back outside was planned and executed for some blue hour images and footage. On our excursion we met a very friendly American woman who we talked to for what seemed like ages.

As the team arrived back at the hostel, we sat out in the communal area for a while before heading back to the room and meeting our two roommates from the Netherlands who we had a chat with, although apparently my (Cami’s) accent is a bit too strong for some to understand when we talk to some other foreigners. Till next time, adios from Team Troon.

“Am in a better mood today.”

https://youtu.be/LGmPvK9Nj-I

#TeamTaaka #Day8

Today Dillon got up early to go do some laundry and got hit with a 50lei bill for a single load of washing!!! Absolute scam artists!! We then picked up breakfast and headed to the bus for Bran. We got off and walked to vampire Camping to pitch our tents when we got a surprise visit from our favourite people, Super James and the rest of the leadership crew. After there photo op they left us in peace. We went out to complete another of our missions by trying a local delicacy

We got it from a street food wagon and it was delicious- they are Meniu Crispy Strips.

Tomorrow we go to explore Bran fully.

We woke up and went for the bus to Râşnov. We got off and went to the supermarket for food. We then embarked on the 45 minute walk to the Râşnov Citadel which has helped us in completing our major project. On the way up to the fortress we saw an excellent opportunity to complete our “use an interesting mode of transportation” challenge-

Here are some of our pictures from the Citadel:

On the way back to the bus we came a cat about the size of a shoe who we called Jim and we were sure he was blind.

When we got back to our hostel we decided to try our Food Panda the Romanian Uber Eats. We ordered some Pizzas and Crepes.

Relaxed start to the day with Nathan joining James & Debs at the gym (the warmest place to be this morning, twas a little chilly!!) It felt like wind chill factor of -12° ❄ but probably about 10°, although having gone with the advice from the inspection trip team [you won’t need a hoodie, its roasting in Romania] none of us had a jumper / hoodie or anything long sleeved !!! 🤤

Sporting our best shorts & tshirts we piled into the red jallopy and headed to visit the Citadel perched high on the hill above Rasnov..

Our tarnsport to the gates of the Citadel was a tractor train which passed Dino Park (twice) much to Tedwards dismay 😟 {Team 2 have agreed to take him with them on Thursday 😊}

Views at the top were stunning….! & still cold…..

Back down the hill to the red jallopy we headed to Bran for a spot of lunch and to catch up with Teams 1 & 5 at Vampire Camping. Great to find them all still smiling and happy…

With teams 1 & 5 happy, it was back into the red jallopy and back to base in Rasnov, with a quick stop for supplies…where James found some new headgear…😂

The sun decided to play ball and appeared from behind the clouds, so that meant one thing, an hour on our new loungers before heading into Brasov to meet teams 2 & 3

It was time for us to grab some dinner, pizza, pasta & salads. On the way back to base we dropped into visit team 3 again who were staying in Cristian for the evening and had met up with some local Romanian Scouts & their leader.

Was great to see that the Romanian Scouts had already completed their Explorer Belt… we left them to it and continued heading home to Rasnov to some duvet cosiness…