Transylvanian Adventure — Day 3
A wild cat day of lakes, villages and storks.
Tuesday did not start well: the weather forecast was very poor, but much more importantly, I had a message from Richard that he felt very unwell and was unable to travel. Pills had helped stabilise his stomach, but he still couldn’t eat, was losing weight and felt exhausted, so he had to cancel his flights, luckily receiving a full refund. It’s incredibly bad luck, and I felt very sorry for him, and disappointed, and it was going to be different from what I’d planned.
My hotel was quite busy, with a muted babble of Romanian and other languages as people breakfasted and used the coffee machine. I took the last table and enjoyed water melon, croissants and some local sausages and rather soapy cheese. Having packed and paid my bill, I waited for Marius on the veranda with a nice view of the hill hill I had stood on top of yesterday.
He arrived in his black van and, after warm greeting, sat down to discuss plans now that I was alone. His English was perfect, but I was to learn that he could switch from that to Romanian, Hungarian, German or French from one moment to the next. He was sorry about Richard, but content to guide me alone and outlined the day, during which we would stay at lower altitudes because of the weather, focusing on some lakes and villages to the north of Brasov. When I had planned this trip, I had assumed I would spend my time in the mountains to the south, so this was an opportunity to discover some of the real, rural Romania.
We set off under threatening clouds, heading north-west along busy roads through industrial areas and passing some Stalinist-looking apartment blocks. Leaving the town, green fields stretched towards the distant hills, some very large, and some the size of a decent garden. We turned left on a minor road to the village of Satu Nou, then took a dirt track to a set of reservoirs that were now a nature reserve with restricted access.
From that point on it rained intermittently until 6pm, which was not ideal for enjoying the landscape or for wildlife photography, and the butterflies would be hiding. However, we donned our waterproofs, and set off with cameras and long lenses on the track around the lakes. The first bird we saw was a great crested grebe, which are also frequent at home in Buckinghamshire, and a few mallards flew over. Suddenly the water close to us seemed to explode as large fish broke the surface in a frenzy of rushing and jumping — quite spectacular and very noisy. They were probably being hunted by a large predator, possibly a catfish.
During our damp 2-mile circuit of the lakes, we saw fewer birds than expected, and apart from a marsh harrier in the distance, a couple of patrolling black-headed gulls, and other species flying out from the reeds as we approached. More interesting was the great number of wildflowers growing in profusion, amongst which a few damp butterflies and moths cowered. However, it was enjoyable and interesting, and we got to know each other and compare wildlife photography notes on the way.
Back in the van, we drove through the agricultural landscape, talking all the while, with Marius describing what we saw and explaining the complex culture of the area. It is populated by people originating from Romania, Hungary, Germany and by gypsies. These groups tend to live in separate settlements with their own house styles and dialects, and Romanian and Hungarian are both spoken and taught in schools. Saxon Germans settled here many centuries ago, but many were exiled by the communist regime in the 20th century, and their homes given to Romanians. As well as passing through well-organised Romanian and Hungarian villages, we saw settlements that gypsies had created by taking over a piece of land and building rows of little houses, often without services and keeping the horses that pull their carts in adjacent fields.
As the rain poured, Marius took me to a restaurant for a bowl of excellent broth with vegetables and diced pork, during which we talked about our lives and a bit about the environment and politics. We are both born nature lovers and share a huge concern, and some despair, for the way that humanity treats our environment; so we find our solace in our quiet enjoyment of walking, watching and photographing its beauty.
Our next stop was Comana de Jos, the ‘stork village’, where every telegraph pole and some chimneys are capped by a huge stork nest. These are regarded as being lucky, and the storks are loved by the villagers, so they come back every year, each time bringing more twigs to add to their considerable mass.
On this day, the storks looked bedraggled (see pic above) and sad in the rain, but Marius pointed out that it can be a lot colder, and they are used to it. The stork adults take it in turn to feed in the fields on grass snakes, lizards and other small prey and as we left the village I got some lovely pics of one taking off.
We also saw a very damp-looking lesser-spotted eagle perched in a tree by the road, black against the lowering sky.
The weather began to brighten a bit as we drove through the villages that dotted the green countryside that was now quite hilly. We parked at a small village that had been developed as a spa, now a group of empty buildings, around a spring that produced slightly fizzy mineral water that is highly valued in the area. Marius filled a bottle from the little iron spout, and was followed by one visitor after another.
There were also quite a lot of bids about including some song thrushes, a pretty little black-backed redstart, and I saw my first lesser spotted woodpecker (we get the great version in our English gardens, usually on a bird feeder).
At the next village, Marius was astonished to find a mature red deer doe licking the paintwork of a parked car. It seemed quite tame as there were lots of people about and cars rushing by.
Our final wildlife destination was another lake, and as we walked down to it, we spotted a wild cat, which is a distinct species from the domestic cat and becoming quite rare. It stopped and looked at us just long enough to get one good pic. I have never seen one, nor expected to, so this was quite exciting. They are present in Scotland, but can breed with domestic cats, so hybridisation is a growing problem.
We then suffered yet another rain shower, but then, at last, were blessed by warm evening sun as we explored the lake shores.
Again, we were to be disappointed by the absence of bird life, although we saw a buzzard, a couple of grebes, and there was a hoopoe calling repeatedly from the woods. However the sunshine did bring out a few blue butterflies: it’s amazing how these hide away for days when the weather is poor, then suddenly emerge.
We got to Marius’s house in Sfântu Gheorghe (Saint George) at about 7pm where he cooked a delicious chicken and noodle dinner before leaving me to organise my photographs and write this blog. Although the birds we found had been a bit disappointing, and the weather awful, it had been a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable day.
The next episode is here:
