Transylvanian Adventure — Day 4
A volcano, butterflies, a bear, and a Romanian limestone dale.
Although Romania time is 2 hours in front of U.K. time, I have hardly noticed the change, so this morning when I woke at 6am local time, I felt rested and the sun was shining, so I just got up. 6am is a lot earlier than normal for me, but spending the day roaming the countryside and chatting must be a lot less tiring than life at home as I lasted until nearly midnight before sleeping.
I worked on yesterday’s blog before breakfast, then Marius and I set off in his van, again heading north on the main road through Bodoc and Micfalau, where we stopped to look at the typical Székelys village of Bixad. The Székelys claim that they are descendants of Attila The Hun who invaded this area of Europe in the 9th century. They retain the Hungarian language and a distinct culture, although in the modern world are very much part of Romania and live closely alongside the Romanians, Saxons and gypsies. Marius admires their well-ordered culture and villages.
The village of Bixad marked the end of our drive over the fertile green plains, and high, heavily-wooded hills rose on three sides around us. We left the main road and drove steeply up on a winding minor road that was cobbled at some points. Dense beech woods rose high above us and on one side, the land plunged into deep gullies and valleys. There are enormous expanses of wild forest across much of this area where bears and wolves roam freely, and the steep slopes make human access difficult, so development and logging are limited. Thirty percent of Romanian land area is forested, and forestry is a major industry with much of the wood being exported and an awful lot is used for fuel in peoples homes, so you see log piles everywhere in the countryside.
We stopped by one of the gullies where beavers live, whose dam has created some ponds. These are excellent for biodiversity in the forest, attracting a different set of plants and animals from the deep woods. The dam was impressive, but the beavers were tucked away in their lodge.
After a few more hairpin bends we turned left and the scene suddenly opened out as the trees were replaced by a flower meadow, and great panorama under fluffy clouds and a blue sky (see above). After yesterday’s disappointing weather, I was delighted to see lots of butterflies flitting to and fro over the birds-eye trefoil flowers in the turf. There were fritillaries, some lovely black-eyed blue butterflies, some colourful moths and the extraordinary European Map butterfly in its springtime form — the summer one is quite different. It all made me very happy.
Marius dragged me away from my butterfly chasing and we continued up to the main car park which serves Lake Ann and also an extraordinary raised bog which is in the crater of the old volcano on which we were standing. There is still some volcanic activity below as sulphur dioxide gas is being released in some spots, and the mineral water from springs lower down supports a spa industry in the village. The sulphur gas is a real problem for the park rangers who spend time talking to visitors on the bog as the acid in the air and water makes them unwell after a few weeks. The senior ranger who talked to us was going to have to resign because of this.
However the big attraction here is Lake Ann which is in a valley below the car park, accessed on a path through the forest in the warm sunshine. There is a sort of beach area where some people had four dachshunds that barked a lot, who subsequently followed us right around the lake. Marius bought us a sweet snack of glazed bread which we ate while gazing at the view.
We walked slowly round the lake in whose shallows were lots of small fish, along with occasional rather large leaches. These are the medicinal leaches and people still collect for medical purposes. Back at the car park, we got a special dispensation from the ranger to go onto the raised bog and walk to the little tarns. It seems very odd to find a peat bog on top of a volcano whose sides are covered in forest, but water collects there and is made acid by the sulphurous gases which restricts the growth of trees: only a dwarf pine can survive there. The acidity prevents plant material from decaying fully, but sphagnum moss thrives, and it is this that produces the peat. The bog is raised because there is water and gas beneath it that sits on impervious rock. Over the millenia, peat accumulates like a fungal mat on jam. The ponds had some hardy aquatic plants upon which black and red dragonflies perched, which seems remarkable as the water is very acid, with a pH as low as 2. We saw some black and maroon dragonflies that, strangely enough, thrive in these conditions and are quite rare now as so many peat bogs have been drained across Europe.
As we left, we were charged 100 lei, or £18 for the car park, which seemed a lot, but the location is popular, and the facilities are being upgraded so it seems they want the users to pay. On the road back down, we came across a young bear by the road with a car had stopped right next to it, possibly to feed it. This made Marius very cross indeed as he said it is a death sentence for the bear, which is learning to beg from humans so will either be run over, or shot because it has become a nuisance. He was VERY rude to the occupants of the car.
Marius told me that our next destination was to be a real surprise and very special: he’s been really great and I feel so honoured to treated this way by such a knowledgeable, talented man. He is 47 years of age and has been married, but has no children. He is highly educated and, as well as being an ornithologist, wood-worker and his job with the Carpathia Conservation Foundation, loves to play Schuman works on his piano: we have much in common!
We drove for over an hour, over beautiful rural countryside and through great forests, before several miles on a dirt track led us to a small car park among flower meadows. We paid the ranger 50 lei for entry, then walked along a track down to a small river. To Marius’s surprise, it all looked vey familiar to me — the wildflower meadows, grey cliffs with potholes and shape of the landscape. His surprise location was a limestone gorge, or dale which could almost have been in Derbyshire, reminding me strongly of Wye Dale near Buxton. Even the plants and insects were the same, although the limestone cliffs on either side may have been even higher.
One of Marcus’s objectives was to find dippers, which I have often watched in the Peak District, and which feature in my Pennine wildlife book! I gently explained this, and he took it very well. So we had a very pleasant walk to a large cave entrance under a huge limestone cliff, then retraced our steps to the car park. It was now after 5.30pm and he started to offer me yet another place to visit, but I suggested that a beer and supper would be preferable, having been up since 6am, and he readily agreed.
We did briefly stop at a village with an extraordinary church in the ancient style, with a towering wood shingle roof that is a Transylvanian icon. This style seems to have fuelled the dark legends picked by Bram Stoker and film-makers?
Back in his town of Sfântu Gheorghe, we went to a pub by a park to enjoy our beers and a Romanian sausages and mash dish that I really enjoyed, warmed by the evening sun. Our waitress, who was very efficient and nice, had been helped by Marius when she ran away from home at the age of 18 having suffered years of physical abuse from her father. They have a very loving (platonic) relationship, and he continues to help her with advice, but says she is very strong and doing well.
So ends another amazing day in this beautiful country.
This series started with:
The second blog was:
And the next episode:
