Jones’s Maiden Voyage

We drove back to Tulcea to food shop. Coffee, veg and beer were achieved, but I swerved this…

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Then we headed south. Our main touristing of the day was Enisala Fortress. The fortress was built by Genovese merchants at the beginning of the 14th century to take the monopoly of Black Sea trade from the Byzantine Empire. Today the walls are pretty much intact but not much else. You can’t access the tower, unfortunately.

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As so often, best views were of the distance from the fort, and of the fort from the distance.

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The inside of the fort needed a human and dog model to liven it up.

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We stopped for lunch at Taverna La Navod Jurilovca, where a quick Google Translate (once I’d switched it from Romanian to Scottish Gaelic, which wasn’t helpful) showed us that actually Romanians do eat sea snails. Yesterday our Danube Delta guide had assured us that they were edible but it wasn’t in Romanian culture to actually eat them.

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Rog ordered a smoked fish and aubergine salad, which was good but not quite as good, so we swapped half way through.

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After a failed attempt to see the Ancient City of Histria (closed Mon - Weds), we wild-camped right by the beach on the Black Sea.

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First use of sand mat - fantastic!​

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This drone shot was strictly illegal, and got me quite concerned that Romanian air defence would think the country was being attacked by an DJI Mini 4/Pro sent by Mr Putin.

After the essentials were sorted, we took Flynn for a walk up the beach.

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Not pictured, Flynn particularly enjoyed the walk back along the path behind the beach, where he managed to put up a brace of pheasants (but not catch them, so dinner plans remained unchanged).

After the walk, we had a drink with a view…

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Then we ate steak and chips, having failed to buy more thematically correct fish earlier.

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And then we had another walk to catch the sunset.

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What a fantastic spot. We’re looking forward to sunrise over the Black Sea tomorrow.
 
Beautiful photos and great write up again. My other half is asking how much of what you have seen in Romania do you think is possible without a 4x4? It’s a fascinating country.

Today, in Mortange sur Gironde we saw this, which piqued his interest.

 
Grianan said:
Beautiful photos and great write up again. My other half is asking how much of what you have seen in Romania do you think is possible without a 4x4? It’s a fascinating country.

Today, in Mortange sur Gironde we saw this, which piqued his interest.

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Most of it, if I’m honest. All of it if you don’t mind some bumpy tracks - which you can usually avoid anyway if you don’t have a Garmin Overland, which seems to treat tracks like roads. Wherever we’ve gone there have been caravans and panel vans. Fewer A & C class vans, but not none.

That van looks cool! Have a look in the 4x4 section of MHF - I listed out quite a few different options there, both PVCs and C class.
 
KiwiKampers said:
Did Flynn pack his own big stick? He surely didn’t find that stick on that beach?!
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No, I found it on the beach and broke it in half for him!

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Grianan said:
Beautiful photos and great write up again. My other half is asking how much of what you have seen in Romania do you think is possible without a 4x4? It’s a fascinating country.
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I agree with Jane, I would have brought Denby to nearly all of these spots. There’s one I wou;don’t have but we turned back in Jones too - we were about 2km into a 8km or so trail which was very steep and deteriorating badly. IT didn’t help that it was also the first such section.

I think in a more normal coachbuilt or A class, you’d be OK if it had big wheels and not much overhang. Small wheels, very long Alko chassis and a big rear end I think you’d risk grounding out or even not getting round some of the corners.

Grianan said:
Today, in Mortange sur Gironde we saw this, which piqued his interest.

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Very nice. Looks a bit like Project Yonder. Same no compromise build quality. I bet same price :-)
 
Jane NotRog said:
Not a fan? Why?
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We did a road trip in Bulgaria by car perhaps 10 or 15 years ago. The coastal resorts around the Black Sea weren't our sort of thing but even then there were some fabulous towns such as Nessebar dating back to the Athenian Delian League. We had teenage children with us and they of course liked the resorts.

Inland we visited the Roman theatre at Plovdiv which is spectacular, and the old town of Veliko Tornovo which was once the capital. There are lots of old towns and rural areas.

The hardest thing for us was map reading. We didn't have satnavs or Google maps (it was that long ago) and towns names were in Cyrillic, so we were never quite sure where we were!

I think you might enjoy it if you avoid the Black Sea resorts.
 
Wanders from Glos said:
We did a road trip in Bulgaria by car perhaps 10 or 15 years ago. The coastal resorts around the Black Sea weren't our sort of thing but even then there were some fabulous towns such as Nessebar dating back to the Athenian Delian League. We had teenage children with us and they of course liked the resorts.

Inland we visited the Roman theatre at Plovdiv which is spectacular, and the old town of Veliko Tornovo which was once the capital. There are lots of old towns and rural areas.

The hardest thing for us was map reading. We didn't have satnavs or Google maps (it was that long ago) and towns names were in Cyrillic, so we were never quite sure where we were!

I think you might enjoy it if you avoid the Black Sea resorts.
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Thanks - yes, I’ve already decided that the big resorts won’t be our kind of thing.

Time is against us for a thorough exploration of Bulgaria - not just Schengen but the worsening weather as we get into October. Our thoughts are that we’ll make the drive to Bucharest more interesting by taking a swerve through north eastern Bulgaria. Veliko Tornovo will probably be where we turn north.
 
Jane NotRog said:
Thanks - yes, I’ve already decided that the big resorts won’t be our kind of thing.

Time is against us for a thorough exploration of Bulgaria - not just Schengen but the worsening weather as we get into October. Our thoughts are that we’ll make the drive to Bucharest more interesting by taking a swerve through north eastern Bulgaria. Veliko Tornovo will probably be where we turn north.
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Bucharest is on our list. Might do it as a city break.
 
Lenny HB said:
You have been in it drinking Gin then complaining about your hangover, 🤣
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We’ve yet to see it in Romania! And I blame your gin ;)

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Wanders from Glos said:
I’m certainly keen, Claire is more cautious. We are a 7m A class so need reasonable pitches 😂
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We’re a 7M coach built and are planning on doing this area around next May time, it won’t be exactly the same but we’ll use a lot of this as a guide.
 
Wanders from Glos said:
Yes we would do the same. The blog is a perfect travel planner with added humour Will you do a blog?
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I enjoy doing blogs as it’s good to help others and for looking back on, I just need to practice my writing skills to make it interesting 😂😂😂. My English teacher once told me I write how I speak and no one understands that 😂😂😂 thankfully I have other skills.

We head away in two weeks so may do one for that trip.
 
lorger said:
I enjoy doing blogs as it’s good to help others and for looking back on, I just need to practice my writing skills to make it interesting 😂😂😂. My English teacher once told me I write how I speak and no one understands that 😂😂😂 thankfully I have other skills.

We head away in two weeks so may do one for that trip.
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Please do, we get so many good tips from people’s blogs. They’re a fantastic resource on this site.
 

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