In the afternoon we have stopped in front of the Aranykakas restaurant in Sândominic. It was supposed to be only an overnight stop, but in the end, we spent there 6 days. Once we have parked, our rear batteries stopped charging, so we have started some troubleshooting the next morning. We have found out, that both alternators are not charging. We started searching for a good car electrician, but we couldn’t find anyone. Luckily, on Saturday two guys from the local car service have shown up and helped us to remove alternators and sent them to a service in a bigger city. On Monday afternoon, to our surprise, they came back and told us – “both alternators are like new and working properly”. So, again we started searching for a problem, and we found out, that one of the data cables going to the EPC unit is probably bad, so we successfully bridged it. But to our luck, also the Cyrix got broken and rear batteries could not be charged until we will find some shop, where we can buy it to replace it. Well, we got some troubles, but a local friendly guy borrowed us his aged Lada Niva, that we can still do some exploration around. And we did it, we tanked 20 liters of gasoline, and our adventure with Lada Niva around the spectacular Bicaz Gorge has started. We drove a twisted road through massive stone walls, the gorge is famous for its limestone rocks towering over narrow roads and passes. The road along the 8 kilometers of ravines, often in serpentines with rock on one side and a sheer drop on the other, is one of the most spectacular drives in the country. There is a very touristic Lacul Roșu (the Red Lake), with its traditional cabins, hotels, and its famous lake (situated at 980m altitude) caused by a landslide in the 19th century. We did not stop there, but we drove through small villages with many stops until we reached Bicaz Dam finished in the 1950s. Then we got back to Sândominic, from where we drove again the same road with the truck to Piatra Neamț, but this time without any stops.
Parking location – Sândominic: 46.603556N 25.753945E (🔌, 💦, 🚻, 🚿)