Week 2
05 August
We start the day with breakfast at the accommodation where, over a coffee, we determine the route for the current day, the route in which we were thinking of crossing the mountains towards the center of the country. I remembered that I know a radio amateur in Targu Jiu, YO7MPI – Ovidiu, so I contacted him over the air and proposed a meeting. We saw each other for the first time after hundreds of QSOs on the airwaves. We wasted some time getting carried away with the stories and realized we were getting active again at lunchtime, HI.
We started the first activation at “Lacul Vădeni Nature Reserve – RO-0730“, we managed around 30 activations and we decided at the moment to change the mountain crossing route from “Defileul Jiului” to “Transalpina”. The decision was taken at the moment with a total change of plan that delayed us again a few hours to the Petrosani destination, but it was worth it.
Not far from the lake, a few km from Turcinesti, we stop at “Cula Cartianu Historic Site – RO-0873”. A beautiful area on the edge of the village freed from the rural bustle with many old, historical buildings and one relatively new one. The Cula’s rises from their midst, majestic, imposing.
The building could be seen to be cared for and restored, but not a single person in the area, only a dog upset that I “violated its territory”. Passing by, I noticed a small sign on the Cula’s entrance gate, on which there was a telephone number. I called and a very kind lady answered and told me that the visiting hours are closed on Monday, but if we were already in the location, we should wait for her to arrive in 5 minutes. Wanting to see if this location is retroceded or not, we are waiting. At one point we hear a woman’s voice in the distance telling us to push hard on the gate and enter the yard.
We enter, approach the door, and see the lady who invited us jumping over the back fence like a deer. I can’t describe in words what followed… For about 45 minutes, this wonderful man told us the whole history of the building with luxurious details and with a visit inside all the rooms equipped with all kinds of traditional objects from the area. My wife even had the opportunity to “weave” at war with the help of the lady who was behind the “warper”.
Descendant of the family of the culei’s owner and out of the desire not to lose the historical information about it, the lady is emotionally involved in the story and makes it an exceptional guide to the location. I admit that I have not met a better prepared and involved local guide in all my previous trips. Cula is in the state heritage given to the care of the descendants with the gates open for any visitor. In the amount of 10 lei, I received so much information that I will be able to write an article of several pages only with that experience.
In the end, I told what we are trying to do with the POTA program in an attempt to promote points of tourist interest for radio amateurs and not only. We activated the location after the visit and continued our route.
We start the climb towards “Transalpina” and we stop at “Belvedere Rânca Recreation Park – RO-0733”. We find an area next to the road in the area of the POTA point, activate it, and continue the climb.
After climbing for a good few minutes, we stopped in a refuge where there were another two cars parked. We intended to go up to “Vârful Păpuşa – RO-0735”. We took the equipment and climbed to the top. We sat down when we found an optimal place for the antenna and started the activation. We activated and admired the mountains for about 20-30 minutes and continued our adventure to the next location.
We arrive in the evening at “Transalpina National Scenic Trail – RO-0034” where we had an activation with a massive “pileup” of over 60 stations, unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from this superb location to show you, the sun had already set and out of the desire to go down the slope in time I omitted to try a few frames with respective experiences.
The delayed descent from the “pileup” to Petrosani town showed us the fact that it never crossed our minds that we would be left without a voice or text signal on our phones so when we arrived in the city at around 11:00 p.m., we realized that we had not managed to book accommodation again. Coincidentally, I discovered while refueling at a gas station (because of the Transalpina route we had also forgotten about the fuel) that you can find accommodation in the late hours before midnight at a discount of 30-40%. The search did not last more than 10 minutes and we were already heading to the accommodation. With effort, we managed to load the log’s of the current day as every evening, a little past 00:00.
06 August
Awoken early in the morning and a little disoriented by the late hour we arrived at the guesthouse, after a morning coffee, we sketched a route for the day in which we wanted to meet a well-known radio amateur from the area YO2CK.
We start the first 2 activations with “Carol Schreter Petroşani Park – RO-0757” sand “Brădet Petroşani Park – RO-0758”. A rainy day is announced after the morning clouds. We managed the activations that kept us in place for about 1h 30 min, then we followed the road to Hateg.
At the entrance to Hateg we stop next to “Lacul Sântămăria Orlea State Fishing Lake – RO-0922” we activated and left for the meeting with the radio amateur I had talked to, YO2CK – Cristi.
The meeting lasted about an hour, during which I tested an antenna with a magnetic base on 20m, which YO3DYL later purchased.
Activations followed “Tronul Străbunilor National Forest – RO-0122”, “Lacul Păclișa State Fishing Lake – RO-0921”, “Lacul Ostrov State Fishing Lake – RO-0904”, “Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa National Historic Site – RO-0908”, “Rezervația de Zimbri Hațeg Natural Area – RO-0754” and “Lacul Cinciș Flora and Fauna Reserve – RO-0753” where we had a fairly good “propagation” so that we could handle the activation well, considering that our goal was to reach Deva in the evening.
We didn’t manage to reach Deva, obviously, the night caught us on the roads of the homeland again, but today we were a little more relaxed because we found accommodation until 18:00 north of Hunedoara towards Deva.
07 August
Waking up in the morning around 07:00 (we were already used to morning hours) we made our route plan at the gazebo behind the guesthouse drinking a hot coffee. The intention was to somehow get closer to Sighisoara and the fortified churches in the following days, but also to have time to go up to Bistrita and then to the Sighetul Marmatiei area. However, we decided not to miss Hunedoara because we had several parks nearby and not to forget Deva either.
We start the day with the famous “Castelul Corvinilor Historic Site – RO-0739” – a cumbersome activation due to the precarious “ground plane”, considering the stone pavements in the area.
We manage to activate the park with difficulty and a little demoralized we head towards the parks in the city with the idea of getting rid of them in the first part of the day when the propagation is better, considering that the “noise” of the band it give us a signal of at least 4 S points.
After the castle, where I can’t help myself to tell you that the new parking requires a parking fee per day even if you only stay there for an hour, we start to activate the parks in the city: “Hunedoara Corvin Park – RO-0740”, “Hunedoara Central Park – RO-0741”, “Hunedoara Tineretului Park – RO-0742”. I don’t have many pictures from here, we focused on quick activation to escape the city.
We leave the city and continue our route to “Chizid Forest Reserve – RO-0033” where I have the opportunity in the heart of the forest, near the point on the POTA map, to test the recently purchased mobile antenna.
A less pleasant experience follows for us in the next location “Dealul Cărpiniş – RO-0744”. In an attempt to climb the panoramic hill from where we could photograph Hunedoarea city from above in all its splendor and to get closer to the POTA point on the map, as usual, if it is possible to broadcast from it, I managed to “caress gentle” the vehicle with the thorny plants that clothed the hill (carpinis). On the way down after a successful turn around in a road approximately 3m wide (the car is over 4m long) I managed to suspend the car on 2 ditches formed by the flood about 50cm deep. Moment of “crossroads in the family” at the halfway point of the journey…
We managed to activate/take a picture and then slowly descend towards the city and find an open service that has a ramp to see what damage we have after the smooth slide on the body. Nothing had happened, the smart manufacturer (I won’t mention him, I don’t want to advertise) thought to dress the whole car in shields from front to the back. The only breakdown was the disconnection of a cable from the oxygen probe from the catalyst, so we continued our adventure passing over the “family crossroads“…
It is the first day when we manage to find accommodation ahead of time and be relaxed to continue the activations.
We check-in around 14:00 and after leaving our luggage at the guesthouse we decide to activate what remains to be activated through Deva: “Cetate Deva Park – RO-0738”, “Dealul Colț și Dealul Zănoaga – RO-0748”, “Arboretumul Simeria – RO-0927” and in the evening “Dealul Cetății Deva Natura 2000 – RO-0747”.
In the Arboretum Simeria reserve, we somehow managed to relax and recharge our energy after a week of adventures on the banks of the Mures River. In this place, I also managed to solve the “gentle caresses” on the carpinis hill on the entire left side of the car with some fine polish found in the trunk when we were looking for seats.
08 August
From the early hours of the morning, we decided that our route would end with accommodation in Alba Iulia. We started the tour a little late, at around 11:00 we had the first QSO at the location ”Casa Memorială Aurel Vlaicu – RO-0802 ”
We continued the path to Cugir where we wanted to activate “Poiana cu Goruni Natural Area – RO-0806” and “Cetatea Dacică Singidava Historic Site – RO-0807”. The last one gave us a bit of work, it is on a hill with an uphill climb from Cugir. Tired after the 2 locations on the way down to Cugir, we decided to have a coffee and rest our legs a bit and here we realized that we had omitted to take pictures of the locations.
After that followed “Tăblițele de la Tărtăria – RO-0800” and “Pădurea Tărtăria – RO-0801”.
Around 14:30 we arrive at “Ruinele Castelului Martinuzzi – RO-0246”, activate and follow the path to “Cetatea Vurpăr (Zebernicului) – RO-0250”
The unpaved and cobbled country road between the Castle and the Vurpar Citadel, plus the stress that the car’s ventilation system stopped working on a hot day with over 35 degrees in the shade, even in those areas, tested our patience a bit and we were already thinking of stopping the trips for that day and going directly to Alba Iulia city to stay and take a break until the next day.
I don’t know what happened when leaving again on the national road to Sebes… the ventilation is coming back! After a good few minutes of driving, our neurons cooled down a bit and we realized that it would be a sin not to stop at “Belvedere Sebeș – RO-0799”.
That place charged us with so much energy with the landscapes of freshly cut hay and its panoramic views that we completely forgot about the ventilation problem and the hot day.
Of course, we also stopped in Sebes to activate the 3 parks in the city. We managed with difficulty 2 parks of them due to the loud noise on the bands and the fact that between 12:00 and 16:00 the propagation was seriously affected by too intense activity of the sun. We had already realized that we no longer like city parks and that we are attracted to the wilderness, HI. “Arini Sebeș Park – RO-0245” si “Tineretului Sebeș Park – RO-0244”
Before leaving Sebes, I had noticed that not far from us there was a reservoir “Acumulare Petrești Lake – RO-0804”. We activated also this one.
We were approaching the end of the day a little tired and stressed. The lake breeze and the fact that the propagation was starting to recover convinced us that it would be a sin on the way to Alba to pass by “Râpa Roșie Geopark – RO-0240” and not activate it.
The end of the activities ends in this superb location with a sunset that seems to color the steep slope even more. If we hadn’t forgotten the tent… we would had use the campsite near the location. Stealed by the scenery, we arrive late at the accommodation in Alba Iulia, around 10:00 p.m.
09 August
We decide in the morning at a hot coffee to start the route with the parks in Alba-Iulia and to continue with the route to Sighisoara passing through the multitude of fortified churches.
We start with “Parcul Dendrologic Doctor Ioan Vlad – RO-0217” and “Cetatea Alba Carolina Historic Site – RO-0212” which we finish relatively quickly. Around 11:00 we head towards the exit from the city towards “Confluența Sebeș Mureș – RO-0797”, then towards “Dealul Ciugud – RO-0795” and “Dealul Straja – Belvedere Munții Făgăraș – RO-0794”.
I had noticed that in these areas the road, although narrowed as we climbed the hills, did not become off-road like in the south of the Carpathians. We had asphalt with small areas probably affected by the cold season. We didn’t realize at that time how much the smooth crossing of the mountain areas facilitated by the good roads will matter on this day.
After that followed: “Dealul Ohaba – RO-0793”, “Pădurea Deleni Obârșie – RO-0792” and “Dealul Cergău Mare – RO-0791”.
We arrive in Blaj City and stop at “Piata 1848 Blaj Park – RO-0243” and “Câmpia Libertății Blaj – RO-0242”. Here we had some delays because it had started to rain a bit, but we managed to make the necessary connections in a fairly short time so as not to endanger the equipment.
We were approaching the area with a multitude of fortified churches in which we had been activated for several hours: “Biserica Evanghelică Fortificată, Țapu – RO-0473”, “Biserica fortificată din Șeica Mică Historic Site – RO-0506”, “Biserica fortificată din Agârbiciu Historic Site – RO-0489”, “Biserica evanghelica fortificata din Axente Sever – RO-0479”, “Biserica fortificată din Târnăvioara – RO-0488”, “Biserica fortificată din Valea Viilor – RO-0495”, “Biserica fortificată din Proștea Mare – RO-0511” and “Biserica fortificată din Brateiu Historic Site – RO-0501”.
It was a fantastic propagation on this day, I didn’t realize how quickly time passed until the last location in Brateiu when the noise on the s-meter indicated that the evening had set in and the street lighting was already in operation. We didn’t even realize that both the LPG and gasoline fuel tanks were almost empty. What can I say about our accommodation… on the last hundred meters we find accommodation in Bazna where we arrive after 22:00.
We won’t soon forget this day, 20 parks are not easy to do in a single UTC day, but not impossible. Obviously, we didn’t have time to take pictures everywhere, but we can still share with you a few found on the phone:
10 August
We left relatively early from the accommodation in Bazna to “Dealul Înalt – RO0789” where we also activated SOTA. Propagation was good that morning and the non-existent noise in that area made it possible to shout “CQ SOTA_CQPOTA” to deal with a massive “pileup” of over 50 stations. It was a nice start to the day, like we haven’t had in the whole period of these two weeks. We were quite late with this first location, the hill having a forest road quite close to the top but also a pedestrian climb of approximately 80m in height.
We went down the hill into the village and stopped at “Biserica fortificată din Bazna – RO-0491” where we activated for 20 min. The church is renovated and open to the public for visiting. In the church, the sounds from the functional organ performed by a lady charged us with energy even more than the nature escape on the hill.
Later on the way to Sighisoara, we activated one by one: “Biserica evanghelica fortificata din Boian – RO-0478”, “Biserica evanghelică fortificată din Moșna – RO-0484”, “Biserica Fortificată Alma Vii – RO-0474”, “Biserica fortificată din Pelișor – RO-0499”, “Biserica fortificată din Richiș – RO-0483”, “Biserica fortificată din Biertan – RO-0477”, “Biserica fortificată din Copșa Mare – RO-0496”, “Biserica evanghelica fortificata din Valchid – RO-0517”, “Biserica fortificată din Șaroș pe Târnave – RO-0497”.
The route lasted around 4-5 hours with all activations and near Sighisoara, we were already thinking if we would activate something or go to accommodation. We had somehow managed on this day to find accommodation at the entrance to Sighisoara around lunchtime.
While relaxing, since it was still early, we called the accommodation and said that we would arrive after 18:00. Before entering the city we had noticed on the map “Stejarii seculari de la Breite– RO-0169” and I diverted the route a little towards the location.
The road through the forest is paved with angular stone, difficult to advance, causing us to lose more than an hour with our activation. It was worth the energy charge that we benefited from in a clearing where secular trees were rarer. Also, we could observe the sunset during the activation of the POTA location.
We decided to end the day and leave for accommodation. When we got there, we unloaded our luggage and talked at the restaurant about the maximum time we could have dinner. While gathering the radio equipment I received a phone call from LB9HI (YO6SM). Mihai was in a park in Norway and he asked us if we were still doing something at the end of the day. In our plan we had “Cetatea Sighișoara World Heritage Site – RO-0162” but we had decided to start the next day with its activation. Of course, it seemed tempting to activate with Mihai at the top of the list in the log, following the 5th meeting with him on the air that day. Because we still hadn’t tightened the radio equipment, we said let’s go to activate it and have dinner after that.
11 August
We started the day with a coffee in the restaurant of the hotel where we were staying. Because we had been away for many days and the clean clothes were almost finished, we asked the accommodation if they had a laundry room and how long it would take. They helped us with our request but we had to wait around 3 hours. I took the POTA map to study and found something to do until lunch.
Arriving at the car, we noticed that the ventilation was not working again, the day was expected to be somewhat hot, but we were still in the mountainous area – we were not too worried. We were leaving for the location “Castelul Bethlen din Criș – RO-0787” (which was somehow in the previous day’s plan).
We activated it for about 30 minutes. We had imagined that there would not be too many operators in front of the transceiver because it was Sunday morning (10:00), but we were pleasantly surprised to see a small “pileup” of about 30 stations on us. The QSO hunters were served probably coffee in front of the transceiver. 😊
We continued the activations with two more locations: “Biserica fortificată din Șaeș– RO-0509” si “Biserica fortificată din Apold – RO-0508”. We finished visiting and left to the accommodation in Sighisoara for vacate the room.
Passing a little past lunchtime, we decided to somehow shorten the road to Maramureș, so as not to be late with the fortified churches and to follow the path to the north. As we were leaving, we found that the ventilation in the car was working again… (I was thinking not to catch fire because it looked terribly like imperfect contacts, so I did a quick check in the area where I knew the fan was located).
We made the road to Târgu Mureș in one piece and it took us about two hours to reach the “Dealul Mic Park – RO-0040“, a location with a panoramic view of the city. We had such good propagation with very low level of noise that the s-meter didn’t even move on the transceiver.
The next destinations were two in the city and one on the way out. Arriving in the city we visited “Cetatea Târgu-Mureș – RO-0288” and “Platoul Cornești Recreation Park – RO-066” (the s-meter reminds us of city life by coloring the screen with a few S dots).
There was a lot of crowding and noise in the city because it was Sunday after lunchtime and people had gone out into the open air in the park. We were so fast that in an hour we were already heading towards the exit from the city to “Weekend Recreation Park – RO-0153” located right next to the Mures River – more wild as we like it. 😊
We decided to spend the night in Bistrita and look for accommodation earlier than usual. Relaxed that we found accommodation, we stopped on the way to Reghin at “Castelul Teleki, Gornești – RO-0295”.
Arriving in Reghin, we stopped in the park in the middle of the city “Reghin Central Park – RO-0978”, where I found generous space in the parking lot so that I could take a look under the body of the car to see if something is hanging. Again, the wire from the catalyst hangs… 😊 and naturally I solved it myself better than the people in Hunedoara from the service. 😊
We stopped near Bistrita intending to activate/visit the location “Castelul Kemény, Brâncovenești – RO-0296” (we didn’t manage to visit – it was closed after 7 p.m.).
We decided to leave for the accommodation in Bistrita and to activate on the way one or two more locations. We were trying to activate “La Gloduri – Vulcanii noroioși de la Monor“, but we gave up at the moment when a river stone “played a little on the drums under the car” starting from the front to the back, at which point we decided together to move to the side paved road and let’s be a little more selective with the offroad routes.
We caught the sunset at the location “Belvedere Valea Șieului – RO-0662” where we met a family from the area who had come up the hill to admire the twilight landscape. We activated it, took some pictures, and decided that it was the last destination for the current day because it was late in the evening and we were in an unknown area, unvisited before.
The End of the Second Week
I calmed my curiosity with this second article, the continuation of the POTA adventure. I think that with this marathon you have done more than you imagine. There are very few who manage to do what you have achieved. I think you have broken many records even in Europe with this extraordinary POTA marathon. And don’t forget, I’m looking forward to the next articles. With friendship, YO3RAM, op. Edi
Thanks again Edi, the final post of this article is ready, enjoy reading! 73 de YO3BEE & YO3DYL