Transylvanian Adventure — Day 5
Champagne and luxury bear watching.
The early morning sun was shining from a bright blue sky when I woke up, and the air still and warm. I did some work on my pictures and blog, then listened to a bit of news on Radio 4 (through BBC Sounds) to learn that Trump has been found guilty by the jury in his New York trial. Could some sanity be returning to politics in America? Marius had told me he’d given up listening to the news, but was delighted when I told him, so was in a good mood as he prepared breakfast.
We then we set off to the headquarters of Wildlife Carpathia in Brasov where he would hand me over to their guide for the two night ‘Complete Wildlife Experience’ tour. The countryside north of Brasov looked much nicer than when we drove through it on rainy Tuesday, when the mountains were not visible in the distance.
Tourism is one activity of the Conservation Carpathia Foundation which works on nature conservation across the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, employing about 150 staff and many more seasonal workers. The Foundation buys land and acts politically to protect and restore natural environments, involving and employing local people wherever possible. Tourism brings in some revenue, but also spreads knowledge of the area and its work. I was to spend two nights in remote hides in the mountains, without electricity or vehicle access, experiencing the forest and high pastures, and watching out for whatever wildlife happened by.
They can take a party of up to six people on the Wildlife Experience, and were expecting Richard, me and a journalist on this weekend, but as the journalist had pulled out, and Richard was not with me, I was on my own, with two female guides! These were Oana, a senior guide who is 35 years of age and married to a climbing instructor and lives near the Dracula village of Bran. I was fortunate as she is very experienced and highly intelligent, having several degrees and a wide knowledge of Romania and its culture. Elena is a trainee guide of similar age and has two sons, but is a single mum and shares child-caring with her brother and ex-husband. She likes physical challenges in the wilds, and told me she has run the length of the Piatra Criuli Mountain range; about 30 kilometres and well over 1,000 metres of climb.
Marius was looking after me as part of his job with the Foundation, but in the coming days, he will be organising a larger horse-riding week for 20 people. I was sorry to bid him farewell as we have become good friends, and I’ve enjoyed his company enormously.
Before we set off, I was handed a document to sign, one clause of which relieved the company of all responsibility for my well-being, even if an accident is caused by staff carelessness. I protested that this was not reasonable and, anyway, should have been included with the tour conditions that I had already agreed to. However, I signed it along with a written protest and Oana thanked me for the valuable feedback and has since raised it with the management.
Until now, I have been north of Brasov, but now we are heading south-west, into the Carpathian Mountains. Once you leave the city, the road narrows and gets very windy as it climbs, and as this is the only main road in this direction, it is very busy with trucks and cars, so progress is slow. However the scenery is lovely, and I wasn’t in a hurry, so just enjoyed the ride. We passed through Bran, which is the village that Bram Stoker used for the location of Dracula, although he never visited the place. It is now a tourism honeypot and the castle has adopted the legend although it never had any link with vampires or Vlad The Impaler. It is privately owned and runs tours made as scary as possible.
We didn’t stop there, but continued to the town of Rucar in its beautiful valley setting. Wildlife Carpathia’s tourism office is there and Oana stocked up with food for our stay in the hides before we continued our journey.The car was a 4-wheel drive Dacia Duster which is Romanian, and extremely popular as it is extraordinarily good in all terrains. This was to be tested when we turned off the main road onto a dirt road that would take us up to the area we were to explore. A lot of legal logging is taking place, and the road is being used by huge trucks, some of which we came across on the way, and as it is unsealed, very steep and following recent rain, it was in appalling condition. However the Duster, and driver, coped with this easily.
We stopped at a tree nursery owned by the Foundation where, using local labour, they grow thousands of native trees to reforest areas that have been clean-cut, often illegally. Further on there is a huge dam holding the second largest reservoir of drinking water in Romania. On the far side of the dam we were held up by loggers transferring huge trunks from one truck to another. From that point the road got smaller, steeper and more bumpy and pot-holed.
Arriving safely at their little car park, I sorted out my rucksack for the two nights to avoid carrying unnecessary weight, then we set off up a steep track that took us up to the Bunea Hide. This was built by a local carpenter entirely of wood, apart from the windows, so that a minimal amount of foreign material is brought into the area. It has comfortable bedding for up to eight people, a shower, toilet, cooker and stove, but no electricity nor mobile signal. You sit looking out of the windows onto a grassy forest clearing with glorious mountain scenery on all sides.
There was a stiff climb through the forest up to the hide, but once installed, Oana said that it is tradition to open a bottle of champagne and celebrate our arrival. So there I was, on a sunny afternoon, sharing a bottle of Champagne with two terrific women catering to my needs and surrounded by remote mountains and forest. This experience becomes increasingly extraordinary!
We spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting at the table, watching bears wander through the clearing, stopping to browse on the grass (see pic above). I think that we saw 5 or 6 different animals, at least one of which was visible at all times until nightfall. I also managed to photograph an eagle that, helpfully, landed on a tree within view.
Oana prepared supper of crudites with cheeses and cold meats followed by creamy mushrooms and polenta and we drank excellent local beer and white wine. It was all very convivial as we talked quietly not to disturb the bears, and the sun set behind the high mountain ridges.
When the two ladies were talking in Romanian, it often sounded quite like Italian, and there are a lot of words that sound very similar in both languages, although the spelling looks unpronounceable. I have not noticed this so much when men talk, but perhaps it is because they were talking softly.
My bed was extremely comfortable with pillows, duvet and a lovely view through the windows, and I slept very well.
I do wish that Richard could be here to experience all this, and I feel incredibly privileged.
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