Doug’s Adventure In Transylvania
Following my brilliant 10 day adventure in Slovenia last year, I decided to go to Transylvania, this time with a friend.
I have been tempted to go to Transylvania, which is part of Romania and has a lot of unspoiled natural countryside, for several years; so it seemed the logical choice for my next hiking/wildlife adventure. Last year, I set off alone with an air ticket to Ljubljana and another from Venice 10 days later, taking a 16-pound rucksack and my camera. It was all amazing, helped by glorious weather. This year is a bit different as my friend Richard is joining me, and it is a bit more organised and not a journey from one place to another. As I don’t know Romania at all and language will be a problem in remote areas, I have booked a very knowledgeable guide (Marius) for a couple of days, and also ‘The Complete Wildlife Experience’ tour for 3 days, leaving the last 3 days open.
Our outward flight to Brasov departed at 06:50, which meant that we’d have to leave home at 3.30am on Monday 27th May, but at 2:39 am I was woken by a ping on my phone. This was a WhatsApp from Richard telling me that he had food poisoning and was not fit to travel! This was a shock, and very unfortunate for him — seriously bad luck. I had booked everything for two of us, and flights to Brasov tend to get very full — there are only 2 a week, and money paid for the first 6 days activities may not be refundable. So I drove to horrible Luton Airport alone, to be met at 4.30am by a traffic jam! It was chaotically busy, with traffic cones and marshals everywhere. Even finding the ‘meet-and-greet’ man for parking my car wasn’t easy. Then the terminal was heaving with people, probably in part because this is a bank holiday and half-term at schools.
Luton Airport is all about pushing people through efficiently, and with no thrills: space is tight and people are crammed together. At the departure gate there is no seating, so even with Wizz Air’s ‘priority’ status, you stand in a queue for over half-an-hour waiting to be allowed onto a bus to take you the aircraft. And to think that air travel used to be viewed as fun!
I landed in Brasov at 2pm local time (2 hours in advance of the UK) in cloudy weather. The airport is on a plain, but you can see the mountains, and on the approach we flew over some spectacular mountain ranges where snow remained on the peaks that rise over 2,000 metres: there’s a lot of wild Carpathian country down there!
My little hotel has a lot of character and a pleasant view over Brasov city and, since I’d only slept an hour on the ‘plane, was surprised that I didn’t feel too tired to do some exploring. It was very cloudy and the forecast isn’t good, but the rain held off so I was able to enjoy a beer and a snack in the main square (pic above).
Romanian food is not exactly exciting and seems to be comprised mostly of any part of a pig, cooked for a long time and served with polenta in various forms. They also do pies that look like they have a lot of crust and a heavy-duty filling. It’s all very wholesome, but….
However, the Romanian beer and wine is very good, and the red wine served by the glass with dinner has been excellent, and much better value than what we get at home.
Romania is still recovering from the era of Nicolae Ceaușescu and his ghastly wife, who ruled the country for 22 years until 1989. His youthful communist ideals decayed over the decades into hard-line self-serving dictatorship, isolating the people and spreading misery. However, Romanians today are open, lively and energetic, and working hard to restore and build a modern, happy country. The language is difficult to understand, but in writing, it looks very familiar with many words having Latin roots. This makes life a lot easier for a foreigner than in most of neighbouring countries that use slavic languages and the Cyrillic alphabet. Also, as in Slovenia, English seems to be the ‘lingua franca’ and is included in many signs and advertisements.
On Tuesday morning, after a good sleep and excellent breakfast at my hotel I took my camera and day pack and set off on foot to walk to the ski resort of Poiana Brasov along the 1,000 metre high ridge that dominates the south of the town. This was 12 kilometre walk through the woods with 750 metres of climb, mostly during the first section which involved hundreds of steps and rocky bits. However the path was very well marked and maintained so easy to follow.
I was passed by several runners, and steep long-distance hill running does seem to be popular as ultra-marathons are advertised in town. Then at one point, high on the ridge, I heard childrens’ voices and soon saw a teacher leading a big group of 10 or 12 year olds towards me. I was thinking how this showed Romanian schools were getting the young into the countryside, until I heard English spoken. This was a school trip at half term for the British School in Bucharest!
Winter has been cold and damp here followed by a cool spring, so plants and wildlife are late (unlike in Slovenia 2023!). I only encountered one wildflower meadow with some nice colour, one butterfly and the woods are very green, although there was quite a lot of bird song. I had hoped to see the lovely woodland orchids and lots of insects among the springtime flowers.
But it was a pleasant walk, and I got lots of exercise along with some lovely views.
As I ended my walk, a bus to Brasov was about to leave, and with a 10 lei (£2) ticket, I was whisked seven miles downhill, arriving in the bus station in bright sunshine.
After a shower, I walked into the old town once more which, unlike yesterday, was busy with happy people strolling or enjoying a drink in the afternoon sun. I sat with a beer, and a tomato salad and watched the people for an hour before seeking out a promising restaurant. The wine was excellent, but the hard lump of pork on my plate was less so.
And what of my missing companion, Richard? Well, thanks to modern communications and my two smart phones (I’ll explain later), there has ben quite a lot of communication going on with the wildlife tour company and our guide, Marius, whom I shall meet tomorrow. The plan is that Marius will pick me up from my hotel at 10am and we will spend the day exploring Romanian wildlife and culture, after which I will stay at his B&B and have dinner with his family. We’ll do the same on Thursday as Richard has booked a B.A. flight from Heathrow to Bucharest, where a friend of Marius will meet him and bring him to Brasov. Marius and I will meet him and we’ll have supper together. Then on Thursday morning, he will take us to meet our Wildlife Carpathia guide and a group of us will be spending three days and two nights in remote hides with basic accommodation and no Internet.
After that, the final three days are completely open: I wonder what we’ll do?
Check out the next blog…
