Europe by van day 10

We got up in the dark at 6am to get an early start for Sighisoara which we thought might take maybe 7 hours.

The mornings are getting cooler but by 9 there’s some heat in the sun and the temperature rose to 30 degrees. The forecast is for more unpredictable weather and there are more billowy clouds and a hazier sun.

The drive was very pretty - again winding hilly roads which meant that after 2 hours I noticed we’d only come about 1/10 of the way. Luckily we reached a valley and the road got faster and the site Camping Curtea Larga, about 10 miles south of Sighisoara, was reached in 6.5 hours with us having only a 30 minute break to eat a sandwich lunch.

As the went through a village we saw a funeral about to emerge from a side road. It was led by about a dozen men, walking in pairs and all wearing black trousers and white shirts. They were carrying flags and looked like the Iron Guard. (Yes, too much Olivia Manning and The Balkan Trilogy - crossing aged rail tracks I thought of Harriet and Guy Pringle steaming south to Bucharest). Following the men at the funeral were 2 horses pulling a cart strewn with branches - possibly yew - and containing a coffin covered with black fabric. Other mourners followed behind. In that area we also saw a few women wearing bright Romany skirts.

Sighisoara, though a large town, has an old part which will be worth a visit - tomorrow.

No sooner had we got the awning up than we had to rush to get it down - thunder, rain and big wind which lasted about 15 minutes.

Today we drove 198 miles.

Thank you for the stars and hearts for yesterday’s Ukrainian blip. Today it is a view from our drive.