📆 Day 5 | 1 August

📍Route: Tilișca - 6km past Tău Bistra

🚴‍♀️ Distance cycled: 51 km

🏰 Places visited: Poiana Sibiului, Stâna lui Ion

We woke up early and made some coffee. The place was beautiful, and the sun was already drying the morning dew from our tents. We packed up, as it had already become a routine.

We started biking through the forest, surrounded by beautiful scenery. The climb was quite steep, so it wasn't easy. We continued on to Poiana Sibiului – a village filled with large houses with interesting architecture, though many of them appeared uninhabited.

We stopped there for a picnic, since we had skipped breakfast and were already running low on energy. After a good meal, we resumed our journey. The route remained challenging, with a lot of uphill biking under the hot sun. We tried to stay hydrated as best we could and treated ourselves to some ice cream, but the fatigue was starting to take its toll, and morale dropped a bit.

Still, we didn’t stop. After the long uphill stretch, a rewarding downhill followed. We then joined Road 67C, which leads to Obârșia Lotrului. The road took us deeper into the mountains and forests, where it became cooler. There were plenty of mountain springs along the way where we could refill our bottles, but once again, we faced another long climb.

Progress was slow, and we decided to stop at Stâna lui Ion for a warm meal. Not long after, we looked for a place to camp, as we were exhausted after all the uphill biking. We eventually found a spot near an abandoned building — it wasn’t clear its purpose — but nearby, was a small bee farm.

Today was more about resilience and staying focused on our goal, as the route really tested us. In the evening, we lit a small fire to keep warm, as it was the chilliest night we’d had so far in the forest.

We camped next to the Sebeș river