Transylvania
Home of Dracula, brown bear, wild animals and beautiful landscape
When you say Transylvania, everyone thinks of Dracula and the stories with vampires, but Transylvania is much more than that. First of all, it is part of my childhood and adolescent time filled with memories from my hometown surrounded by the deep forests and beautiful landscapes.
Now, it is a place where I love to go back and explore the valleys and hills, enjoy the wildlife and it’s energy. Every time you go out of the city into the forest you will spot a woodpecker work on a tree or deer running around.
We go to Romania every year to visit family but this year we took some extra holidays to have some time to go hiking within the Carpathian mountains.
So we decided to visit and explore the North of Transylvania, a county called Maramures. We stayed in Viseu de Sus, a nice, vibrant village, close to the highest mountain, Pietrosu Rodnei(2303m).
The public transport in the area is not very good, you can get there either by train which is very slow or rent a car. The drive from Cluj-Napoca airport to Viseu de Sus is about 3 hours but you will enjoy the views going through the mountains.
We stayed at a local hotel called Hotel Gabriela with lovely spa, restaurant and good food. Maramures has a lot to offer but as we had only a couple of days available we decided to visit the local village, the famous steam train called mocanita and try to summit the highest peak, Pietrosu Rodnei. We have been hiked Ben Navis but hiking the mountain which is almost twice the height felt a little bit daunting.
The trail starts from Borsa, a town 24km( 15miles) from Viseu de Sus, near Borsa Pietroasa Monastery.
The ascent looks very steep and a little bit scary when you see the mountain in front of you.
We started our ascent slowly through the forest and after few minutes we realised there is a lot of snow and we forgot our spikes. We still had our walking poles which were very useful.
The climb was very slow, we were walking on frozen snow and in some areas the snow was over a meter deep. We were trying to follow old foot steps and avoid areas where the snow might be melting and we could fall into it.
Walking on the road in the forest was a little bit worrying as I was afraid we would see or meet face to face with a bear but I guess they were still sleeping in April. Romania has a lot of wildlife like bears, wolfs, linx, foxes, deers and birds as well.
I was very happy when we reached above the tree lines around 1700m elevation. Our plan was to get to the weather station which was only 200m away but the snow was starting to melt and was more difficult and dangerous to carry on so we decided to stop for lunch and turn back. It is important to know your limits and when to stop and think if its worth to carry on. Many people get injured because they pass that point when the hike is not safe anymore.
We stopped for lunch and to take in the views which were speechless, frightening and beautiful in the same time.
We melted the snow for water and then boiled it to be able to drink it. Everything up there felt so wild and free and the air is so fresh that sometimes you can feel it.
I was very lucky and happy to be able to go in the Carpathian mountains and it was a milestone in terms of elevation.
The descend was way easier and faster as we already knew the path and where to step.
The overall route is around 9.3 miles ( 14.9km) and we did 5.4 miles in around 4 hours including pit stops. I believe this route can be done is 3-4 hours in total in the summer.
We also did few short walks around our parents house and I would definitely like to go back in the mountains in the summer and summit both Pietrosu and Moldoveanu Peak (2,544m elevation). It was a great experience, different to what we’ve seen or done before in UK and it is definitely more dangerous so if you want to go hiking in Romania, I recommend to do some research first and plan your journey.
