Transfagarasan Highway Romania Scenic Drive TOP TRAVEL DESTINATION GoPro Hero 9 ULTRA HD 4K - PART1

Показать описание

"More than 150 kilometres in length, the Transfagarasan Highway is Romania’s most spectacular and best known road and, thanks to an appearance on BBC Top Gear in 2009, now one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions. Fully open only from June to October, the road’s highest point is at 2042 metres: the tunnel which links the northern and southern sides at Lake Balea (Balea Lac).

Getting There
To get to the Transfagarasan from Bucharest, the best way is to take the A1 motorway to the industrial town of Pitesti (best known as being the place where Dacia cars are made). The DN7C officially becomes the Transfagarasan at the little village of Albestii de Arges, 6km north of Curtea de Arges. The road climbs steadily from here, and by the time you reach Capatenii Pamantului - the last village before the serious hairpins begin - the scenery is already stunning, with the road clinging in places to the cliffs as it passes through a wonderful natural gorge.

Capatenii Pamantului is home to the ruins of the real Dracula Castle, Poienari, (real in the sense that Vlad Dracul actually lived here for a time. Bran Castle - often marketed as Dracula’s Lair, was never Vlad’s home). You will see the impressive castle high to your left as you approach: you can visit the ruins, but doing so involves a climb up more than 1500 very, very steep steps. It is not for the faint of heart.

From here a series of hairpins and three short tunnels bring you to the next landmark on the Transfagarasan, the Vidraru Dam. One of the largest hydroelectric plants in Europe the road passes across the top of the dam (completed in 1966), and offers fabulous views of the Vidraru lake.

The Transfagarasan then follows the outline of the lake, the water often visible through the trees on your left. The valley then gets gradually steeper, before climbing sharply, up to its highest point (2042m). This fact means that the Transfagarasan is not actually the highest road in Romania: the Transalpina further west reaches a maximum altitude of 2145m).

The Top of the Transfagarasan: Balea Lac
As you exit the Tunnel the landscape changes starkly, and quite often the weather with it. Whereas the southern side is a relatively gentle climb, made in the most part through the trees along the side of Lake Vidraru, the scene on the northern side is little short of spectacular: a wide open valley with the road serpentining its way down visible as far as the eye can see. This is the classic picture postcard view of the Transfagarasan, and one which moved Jeremy Clarkson to call it ‘every great corner from every great race track lined up one after the other.’"