Bâlea Cascadă is the waterfall that gives its name to the stop, a thin silver plume that drops down a steep glacial step in the Fagaras Mountains, just below the Transfagarasan summit road. It sits at 1,234 metres, and the hairpins above it climb to a high lake and a tunnel at around two thousand metres. Victoria, a small town of about ten thousand people, is the nearest place of any size, some fifteen kilometres away as the crow flies, and fuel and food are down there or in the villages on the northern approach.
The Transfagarasan is one of the great roads of the world, and the northern side is its most dramatic. The road climbs from the foothills through beech and spruce forest, then across a high, bare alpine meadow before squeezing between rock walls and climbing the headwall in a long series of tight hairpins. The surface is generally good tarmac, though frost heaves, potholes and loose gravel appear in places, and it is common for cars, buses and bikes to share a narrow lane. Weather changes fast: sun, fog, rain and even snow can arrive in a single afternoon, even in July. The road is normally open only in summer and early autumn, closing under snow for much of the year, so check the status before heading up.
The road was built in the early 1970s on the orders of Nicolae Ceausescu, after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 made the Romanian leadership anxious about a quick military route across the Carpathians. Thousands of soldiers worked with explosives and hand tools, and the project cost lives, which locals still mention quietly. The result is a road that is more spectacular than practical, which riders appreciate and military planners may not. The high point has a small lake, a hotel and a cable car station, and summer weekends bring crowds of day trippers.
Nature at this height is rugged. The Fagaras range holds Moldoveanu, the highest peak in Romania at about 2,544 metres, and the slopes shelter chamois, marmots and, in the forests, brown bears, which sometimes appear near the road, so never feed them. In summer the meadows are bright with alpine flowers, and the air smells of pine and cold water. At the waterfall, stalls sell cheese, sausages and honey, and a bowl of hot bean soup tastes better here than it has any right to.
Bring warm clothing and a waterproof layer, since it can be cold even in midsummer, and fill the tank before starting the climb.