Romania and the Fagaras Mountain Mission!

We arrived in Bucharest to a sweltering 36 degrees!! It was horribly hot, and until this point there has been no chance to sit down and add anything to our blog, hence my slackness... At this stage I also have to apologise, there will be no photos for this post, even thought we saw many cool things because I am in a little internet cafe in Sibiu which does not appear to have the technology for me to put any on here...maybe at a later stage I will add some.

So after finding a little hostel in Bucharest for the night we managed to catch a train to Campalung where we planned to start our tramp across the Transylvanian mountains, otherwise known as the Fagaras mountiains. Bucharest was just a nasty, hot, busy city, I am not very keen on such cities..it had many similarities to Rio de Janiero. So it was a relief to get out, and after zipping around a strange little supermarket in Cimpalung for a bit of food we managed to score a ride up to Cabana Voina, the start of our tramp. (Cabana's are like French chalets, instead of a tramping hut imagine a mountain hotel).

We soon realised after arriving at the pretty Cabana Voina which was nestled amongst the pine trees that the amount of food we had for at least 6 days tramping was minimal, but luckily we also knew we would come across other Cabanas which sold food high in the mountains on about our third day...so we would have to rely on that.

Day 1: In the morning we headed up through the pines with very heavy packs in beautiful fine weather keeping a wee eye out for bears (there are apparently 5000 bears in Romania!!). We climbed 1500 meters into grassy alpine meadows, and soon encountered the first flock of sheep and shepherds with very ferocious dogs. Our guidebook recommended carrying sticks to fend off the dogs, they are so agressive to fend of attacks from bears and wolves!! Yikes!!

We climbed and climbed and climbed till we reached our first summit, and looked out into the very distant haze to see an extremly distant peak which Chris kindly pointed out to a tired Emily and Ed would be something we would climb in a few days time. We dropped down to a beautiful wee apline spring and set up camp.

Day 2: The weather continued to be clear and sunny, and we slogged up the next few hills in the heat because we were now way above the bush line. Chris got attacked by a very angry group of sherpherd dogs when he got ahead of us, and his 'beating' stick came in handy again. So when he came back down to find us and lead us back up through the dogs they seemed somewhat more subdued, phew.

By late afternoon we all ran out of water, so by the time we finally reached a little lake to camp by we were all very thirsty, and Ed was pretty dehydrated and not feeling so good. But after lots to drink and some dinner we were all feeling better.

Day 3: We all woke up feeling sunburnt, and our sunscreen supplies were also running very low, so ironically we were kind of hoping for bad weather. We set off up another big climb, then descent, then climb, and encountered a lot more people tramping today than previously. We were more on one of the popular parts of the mountains and we were entertained by the long trails of Romanian trampers who seemed to crawl up some of the hills.

By mid afternoon we ascended 'Moldova' which is the highest peak in Romania at 2544. It was quite steep on either side and we zoomed down the other side off the summit when we heard the first peel of thunder. However, even when we were miles down and walking along the ridgeline in the rain we could still see little figures wandering around on it's summit seemingly unconcerned!!

We descended down to a lake and Cabana Paragu where we were able to buy soup and biscuits though a little hole in the wall at the Cabana (very strange)- but it was so good to get food seeing as all we had had to eat that day was some lollies (-: The lake was not to cold, so the 3 of us went for a quick plunge before dinner and by bed time we all were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.

Day 4: In the night the wind had picked up and it was still very blustery in the morning. We started the day with an ommelette from the Cabana, and then headed up another climb (this was turning into a bit of a routine by now!) Ed was suffering a bit, so Chris adopted the approach of carrying his monstrous pack to the top of the climb, then running back down and carrying up Ed's pack, in the meantime I slogged up somewhere in between them. But by employing this method we travelled pretty quickly, and after about 4 hours we descended to the Lake Balea where the main road crosses the Fagaras range.

There were two humungous Cabana's on the lakeshore, and we had lunch at one before discovering some stalls by the road where we bought more supplies: 1 block Smelly smoked cheese which tasted more like ham, 1 jar honey, 1 large loaf stale bread, some more chocolates and lollies, 5 peaches. Maybe not the most delicious food in the world, but we were pretty excited about it nonetheless.

A few more stiff climbs and we teettered around a narrow ridge in the ever stronger winds to Lake Cultun. A beautiful alpine lake, but like many of the places we had so far discovered it was littered with horrible rubbish. So we pitched our tents a bit higher on the ridge away from the rubbish and noisy Romanians, and as we cooked up yet another dinner of rice and tuna the mist crept in.....

Day 5:

At about 3am it started raining very hard, and the first wave of thunder and lightening came roaring through. It was the loudest thunder I have ever heard, and for 3 hours the three of us did not get much sleep!! It was pretty scary, but finally it subsided and we emerged from our tents unscathed to find it drizzly and grey. We were planning on climbing over the summit of Nigouri and around a steep ridge to Lake Avrig, and from what we could see yesterday this was a very steep route and apparently involved using some fixed chains and ladders.

Of course, even though the weather was bad, Chris was super excited to take the harder route, Ed and I a little apprehensive but persuadable, so as everyone else headed down we headed up toward the Strunga Drucului (Dracula's Chimney). Very appealing!! We hauled our way up the chimney, grateful for the fixed chains on the steep slippery rock and onto as misty summit. We were pleased to be on top, but as we descended we encountered another party who warned us of the difficulty of the next section...but it was a bit late now!!

Sure enough, the ridge steeped, and we had to climb over and around some very steep ground. Luckily, Chris the pack lugger would climb or descend the tricky section with each of our packs before helping us over it. He ended up climbing some bits 4 or 5 times!! And slowly but surely we made our way along the ridge to safer ground. Eventually we reached a sign pointing back the way we had come which said: Route Forbidden in Bad Weather, opps! We kept walking through the cold rain and wind to the lake Avrig. I was pretty tired there, but the others were keen to continue so we kept going. The rain continued and it was getting dark when we decided to drop down through a creepy section of forest to a refuge, which is a small unmanned hut.

The refuge was very old and falling down, and there was a group of people tenting nearby, but we climbed up into an upatairs bit which was open sided except for its solid roof. It was very dry, and you could look out into the trees and the mist. There were strong smelling pine branches on the floor, and it was an excellent find for 9 oclock at night in the pouring rain.

We dined happily on our final meal of rice and tuna.

Day 6: It was still very misty and cold in the morning, but we felt we had to finish the Fagaras ridge no matter what, so we slogged back up the hill and along the tussocky ridgeline in the mist. We encountered several groups of people who had been camped out on the ridge for days waiting for the weather to clear, and we had to answer lots of questions about moutain bears and track times... we felt quite knowledgeable about the Fagaras mountains by now!

We continued down back into some dark erie mountian birch forest and to a little town called Turnu Rosi where there appeared to be a train line. It was a very poor little town with horse and carts, and some friendly local kids who were extremly excited by Ed's digital camera.

We caught the last train out that day and sat on the comfortable seats making them wet all the way to Sibiu. We were looking forward to a good feed and a shower after a pretty cool tramp.