Fagaras

Hiking in the Fagaras Mountains: a too long photo essay followed by a too long trip report.

Notes: 

1. One of my friends told me that five photos on any subject was enough, that people got bored after that. Five? I'm going to assume she meant five per day. So here are my Forty Fagaras Faves - though, if you want to quit viewing after only five, feel free.

2. These were supposed to be two separate posts ofc but I screwed up. Oops.

Part 1 - The Too Long Photo Essay.

Yahoo! I'm going to make it to the summit!
... but I get ahead of myself.

I started in the village of Sebesu de Sus. Shown is a typical house with shuttered windows and a door within a garage door leading to an enclosed multi-purpose courtyard.

And this is a typical Sebesu de Sus couple.

The walk started off innocuously through beech forest...

... but it took me 5 hours to hike up to the first cabana. 

A berry picker with traditional baskets...

.... full of blueberries.

Andrew, rated 10th top marathon runner in Romania, made it up to the cabana in 1 hour and 8 minutes. And he had already done a 60 km run earlier that weekend.

The trail was fantastic, going along the crest of the mountain range.

Most of it was well above the tree line.

Even in the saddles between the peaks the trail followed the crest - you can see it in the foreground here...

though sometimes a bit of scrambling was required. (Note the hikers on the rocky part.)

Where walls were vertical bridges were put in...

... or chains.

Though some of the really tricky bits just had markings to show the way.
(That's my guardian angel disappearing out of sight by the way. He appeared going down while I was going up just before I got to the hardest part of the trail and gave me a super confidence boost.)

Most large mammals weren't wild.

At all.

The hills were FULL of sheep following their shepherds...

... amd so were the valleys.

I stayed in a refuge at Lake Caltun (which looked just like Argentina to me!)

Refuges were the most basic accommodation. (Note round winter door for when there's lots of snow!)

They had wooden bunks and, maybe, a table.

Cabanas, on the other hand, had beds with sheets and blankets...

... a convenient clean clear mountain spring water source...

... and some sort of outhouse or other such.

Cabana Balea Lake, on the other hand, was a 4 star hotel.

And the smart people brought tents so they could set up wheresoever they wanted!

At Balea Lake you could take the gondola down....

... right over the Transfagarian Highway....
(Those curves are not just for fun, the valley is steeper than it looks.)

... and you could see that there were a lot of bridges as well as curves.

Back on the trail I kept hiking along the crest...

... though sometimes the path skirted at bit to one side if the other was too steep and scary.

There were lots of reminders to be careful.

And a surprizing number of very welcome springs where you could refill your water bottle.

A typical view north - valley down to farmland.

A typical view south - mountains and more mountains. (Note the sheep.)

Even the lower elevation sections were pretty.

.It was a LOT of fun meeting the other hikers and making it to the second highest point in Romania...

.... and AWESOME to make it to the summit. Mt Moldoveanu. Highest point in Romania. Yahoo!

PART 2 - The too long trip report.

Fagaras Day 0

I repack all my stuff taking just the bare minimum that I need for the hike leaving behind, for example, my mask and snorkel and my tent. Even so, with 8 days food, my pack is still quite heavy.

I catch the train from Brasov to Sebes Olt ($7 for 3 hours) where I am the only one to descend and I walk into the tiny  farming town of Sebesu de Sus. I have booked a room for the night in a small guest house ($25) and after staying in hostels for so long it's odd to have a room to myself, a private bathroom even, and, as I am the only one here, a guest house to myself. (A bit lonely.)

I get there about 6 pm and go for a 2 hour walk round the town and up to the trailhead so I will know where to start the next day. The town's houses all have high walls, shuttered windows, and doors within garage doors leading into large interior cobblestone courtyards, with picnic tables under grape arbors, stables for livestock, gardens and orchards. I catch glimpses into some of these but there isn't an appropriate photo op. Pears, apples, and plums are all ripe and where trees peek above the walls fruit has dropped to the ground.

Back at my lodgings I'm at a bit of a loss what to do with myself and so have a shower and an early night.

Fagaras Day 1 Sebesu de Sus to Cabana Suru.

The hike up up up to Cabana Suru is supposed to take 3 hours but takes me five. It starts in beech forest and ends in pine. It's actually quite uneventful.

It's at the Cabana - a large 3 room hut with a chicken coop and outhouse close by, and an amazing view down over the valley below - that things get interesting. There is a picnic table on the porch where several people are drinking tea. A cup is pressed upon me. A local woman asks what my intended route is and I pull out my map to show her. She approves the cautious decisions I have made for the coming week. A young German couple, Robert and Jeanette, show up and plates of food are brought out; salami and goat cheese and fresh bread. We are given shots of local plum alcohol. (We have no idea is this is all free or if an extortionate bill will be presented at the end.) A group of 6 dirt bike riders appear, pull out cans of cold beer and accept cups of hot coffee and drink the two simultaneously while starting up a barbecue and loading bags of sausages on it. Then some runners, who have made it up in 1 hour and 8 minutes, stop by very briefly before taking off further up. Various other hikers arrive; a German family of 3, a group of 6 Czech teens, and they set up tents. It is a bustling hub of activity. Robert comments that he feels like a grandmother sitting on the porch watching the world go by. Later blueberry pickers, who started in the same village as me that morning and have been high in the hills filling very traditional baskets full of berries, stop to eat bread and wait for one another before heading back down the hill in the dark. They will be back up in the morning probably before I am awake. And the last person to stop in and chat, as we stand round the coals of the BBQ, is a shepherd, who heads off up the hill in the dark to who knows where.

Recommendation #1: Stay at least one night in a cabana.

Day 2 Cabana Suru to Cabana Barcaciu - Ups and Downs

I leave Suru at 8 am and start hiking up,  by 9 I am above the tree line and by 10 I have made it to the crest of the mountain range. The crest runs EW for 70 km and off to my sides I can see down down into valleys and beyond to the flatter farmland to the north and to mountains and more mountains to the south. It is such wonderful weather that I get out first my sunglasses, then sun block, then my hat and long sleeved shirt. There are herds of sheep grazing up here high in the mountains and I have great fun trying to get a good picture. It is totally lovely. I hike along most of the afternoon in bliss, clouds occasionally swirling far below, and  arrive at Lake Avrig at 3 pm where I stop for a break.

Shortly afterwards Robert and Jeanette and the German family I met the day before arrive and start setting up their tents. I, having chosen not to bring my tent will carry on hiking back down 800 m vertical to the next cabana. Each step down is painful; why did I choose not to bring my tent? I own the world's smallest lightest tent. And I have it with me, by which I mean stored in a hostel in Brasov. But I'd somehow become hooked on the idea that this was a hut to hut hike and thought it would be good to go with a lighter packsack. I hadn't really realized that most of the huts are located far down from the crest so staying in them involves a lot of extra up and down. If I'd brought my tent I could be starting at Lake Agriv tomorrow morning with the people I met yesterday but with each step down - and 800 m vertical is a lot of steps down - I know that by the time I get back up that same 800 m in the morning they will be long gone. Obviously, I realize now, as I walk down down down, it would have been less effort to take a tent, carry it to the crest once, and stay hiking along the crest and camping wherever met my fancy. I'd read every online review of the trail I could find, I'd sought out good hiking shops in both Bucharest and Sibiu to talk to people who'd done the trail before, and I'd made the best decision I could with the information I'd had at the time. Nonetheless, when I get to the bottom my mood is equally as foul as it was blissfully happy earlier in the day.

Fortunately it's impossible to remain grumpy for long in the wilderness. I stop at a mountain brook to wash the streaks of sweat, sunblock, and disappointment of my face and give my hair a good dousing too. The trail then continues for another couple hours through a pine forest with a rich moss floor. Though not as spectacular as the crest was this too is lovely and as I hike steadily along my mood lifts; the forest walk really is nice, my week is off to an excellent start.

I arrive at Cabana Barcaciu at 7 pm. It's just as nice as Cabana Suru was, devoid however of a single person who speaks either English or French, so I have a snack, and tumble, exhausted, into my bunk.

Recommendation #2: Take a tent!

Day 3 Cabana Barcaciu to Negoiu Peak to Refuge Caltun. - Up only up.

From Cabana Barcaciu I hike several  hours through forest again before, at 11 am, starting my way up. I go up an endless steep hill covered with loose scree, up some more, up through a huge boulder field that requires scrambling and climbing, up some more, up a path that is purely climbing, and arrive, 4 hours later and more than a kilometer higher, at Negoiu Peak, only 9 m lower than the highest point in all of Romania. A young man who had passed me 20 minutes previously is waiting for me, and to my great joy - and their great amazement - Robert and Jeanette arrive a few minutes later. It has been an incredible day. I might have missed a bit of the crest hiking but the climb has pushed me to my limit and I am thrilled beyond words with my accomplishments. After a short break and a couple photos we hike together down to a nearby lake where there is a campground and refuge (looking a lot like Argentina to me) sharing very companionable comparisons of our experiences. The refuge, intended for emergencies and for people like me without tents, is simple building with sleeping for 16, on two wooden bunks, and one large table and bench; it makes the DR ski cabins, which have windows and a stove, seem luxurious. Its one exceptional feature is the winter door high up in the wall to use when the snow is several m deep. I settle into this very crowded space - there are 14 of us - to eat, chat, and fall asleep.

Everyone I have met on the trail, from the blueberry pickers I stopped to have a wonderful conversation with completely in mime this morning, to the mountain guide I met who encouraged me to go to the peak and spent several minutes going over my map with me and making sure I had the best route planned out, to the other hikers I passed going in the opposite direction all of whom stopped for a few minutes to talk about the upcoming trail - or merely say, 'Salut', if we had no language in common - has been wonderful. I have absolutely enjoyed my hike so far and I have no regrets tackling it, nonetheless, parts have been very tricky, so...

Recommendation #3: Don't hike the Fagaras on your own.

Day 4 On to Balea Lake

I hike the crest all day with Robert and Jeanette. It is wonderful. A LOT of up and down, I mean, I knew mountains weren't flat, but really! Did I mention it was wonderful? And at Balea Lake I meet the other Germans from day 1 and share both supper and breakfast with them.

Recommendation #4: Just do it.

Day 5 Balea Lake

The Cabana at Balea Lake, which was originally Ceaușescu's cottage, is at the junction of the EW hiking trail and the NS Transfagarian highway and is really a hotel. I take the telecabin down the valley and then hitchhike back up the highway, an amazing road commissioned by Ceaușescu for military purposes (and so he could drive to his cottage). He paid for it by selling all of Romania's food one year and many young military men died during its construction. Top Gear is quoted as saying it's the best road in the world. There are lots of motorcyclists having fun on it and even some cyclists! Now the whole area is a bit touristy, but, why not? Street food is balls of hot Butz, which look exactly like BBQ'd grapefruit, but actually are goat cheese coated in ground cornmeal.

Recommendation #5: If you don't want to do the whole hike carrying a pack stay at Cabana Balea from where you can do day hikes off in six different  directions some leading to mountain peaks others to waterfalls.

Day 6 On from Balea Lake

I have been pampered staying in a hotel,  I don't really want to put on my hiking shoes and heavy pack and start off up a steep track again, I feel as if I have already had the Fagarasian experience and I almost decide to stop and see what else the world has to offer instead, but the weather forecast says lovely and I can't come up with a valid reason to quit so in the end I convince myself to carry on...

... and I don't know if my legs are stronger, if I've eaten enough muesli to make a difference, or if I left something behind but my pack seems lighter. And the day is lovely; perfect weather, good paths along the crest all day with wonderful views in every direction, it's simply bliss. I'm glad I kept going.

Recommendation #6: Keep going.

Day 7 Moldoveanu Peak

I go to the peak. My first official summit. The highest point in Romania. On a perfect day with cloudless blue sky. It is amazing. Wow! Just wow! Wow!

Afterwards I hike the ridge for several more hours before descending to Cabana Valea Simbata where I celebrate by buying beer and a huge bowl of homemade soup and bread. I take these to eat outside around an empty fire pit with the view of the valley and the mountains in front of me. Because I am sitting there someone comes to build a fire and then because there is a fire others come to sit there too. As dusk falls there are a couple dozen of us round the fire, a guitar is being passed slowly in one direction and various bottles of alcohol slightly faster in the other. Song after song is played and everyone joins in. Although I am once again in a group where there is not a single other person who speaks either English or French it is nonetheless a fun and fitting way to finish a fantastic week. (Total cost of the night including a bed, supper, and a beer is $13.)

Recommendation #7: Go to the peak.

Day 8 - Egress.

I walk down the rest of the mountain in the morning knowing I have to make it back to Brasov that evening and without any plan of how to get there. At the bottom is a monastery. I ask a tour bus guide where to find a regular bus stop and he doesn't know but says I can hitch a ride with them 20 km to the main road. There I stick out my thumb and the first car to pass stops and drives me 20 km to the Fagaras train station. The next train to Brasov leaves in less than an hour! Easy peasy!

As I sit on the bench at the train station sipping the last of my clean clear mountain stream water out of my Nalgene I can see the faint silhouette of the mountain range in the distance.

It has been an amazing week.

Recommendation #8: Although I was lucky with my egress a wee bit of forethought about how you are going to get back to your base might not go astray.

Additional comments:

Almost any mountain range could likely be named the Sawtooth Mountains and the Fagaras are no exception. Walking the crest involves going from one peak down into a saddle and then up to the next peak. If the peaks are close together you feel like a yo-yo, if they are further apart you get to the top of one peak and can see your next few hours walk, down and then up again, stretching away in front of you. Which of these is better is a matter of personal preference.

The trails are, without exception, extremely well laid out and marked with painted symbols on the trees, or, above the tree line, on rocks. The refuges and cabanas, however, vary greatly both in comfort and in quality of services offered.

As a Canadian I was a bit shocked that even the most popular campsites, which have about 30 people staying there each night, had no outhouse or equivalent, especially since there were no trees, or even many large rocks, to offer any privacy. Worse yet, a couple of the cabanas had such disgusting (to me) facilities - poop flecked painted footprints on either side of a wee hole - that I was forced to flee outside and find a rock to hide behind. (Back in Istanbul public women's washrooms usually had two stalls one with a western toilet and one with the eastern footprints and hole in the floor. Even there I was amazed that anyone would not choose my preferred toilet style.)

Also, very non-North American, was the copious assortment of garbage; plastic water bottles, beer cans, broken glass, etc., left everywhere along the trail and around campsites and cabanas.

On a more positive note the people were fantastic in that they were always, not sometimes but always, again without exception, beyond friendly, helpful, and supportive. They always stopped to say Hi, to make sure you were OK, and, in the evening, for example, offered to share whatever meager supplies of food or drink they had. I don't think I can remember another week in which I received so many friendly smiles from so many complete strangers. 


Yes, a great week!

Brasov

Brasov and area  AKA  Strange bedfellows  AKA  Too many pictures of me being happy

Sibiu, did I recommend Sibiu? Scratch that! If you only have time for one Romanian town make it Brasov.

It was wet out. Too wet, I decided, to go on a hike - and the forecast was rain rain rain - so instead I chose to go to Brasov for a break. I booked an 8 am ticket, got up early and hoofed it to the train station, only to be told that the train was over 2 hours late.

Jane, Lucas, and I - temporary travelling companions.

I, of course, was not the only one to have arrived to catch the same train. The woman beside me turned to me and said, 'Shall we go on a last walk round Sibiu?', and the young man beside her said, 'I'll come too.' and just like that an alliance was formed. We reminded me of a logic problem; there are three people, each from a different continent, none from the continent they are on, they each speak two languages, none of them speak the same languages as each other or the language of the country they are in...

Me being happy on a last walk round Sibiu.

We toured Sibiu together on foot one last time then rode the train to Brasov sharing our eclectic lunches. Jane desperately wanted to visit Bran Castle that afternoon and I was sceptical wrt wether we'd have enough time what with the train having been late and all but we stumbled across a fantastic private guide right at the train station who was willing to take us there for almost nothing, and then we rounded out the day with a 3 hour "free walking tour" of Brasov.

One of the towers at Bran Castle.

Bran Castle - most amazing thin about this place was the many many tourists packed in like sardines. The castle has been incredibly well advertised as 'Dracula's Castle' despite no real connection to either the historical figure or the literary one.

Following days we took a side trip to Sinaia to see the Peles Castle and the monastery in the same town,  hiked up a canyon called the 7 steps because it has ladders leading up the trickier bits, and went to a concert in the main town square. And, of course, having as one of our motley crew a person of Chinese descent we took way too many pictures of each other.

Me being happy at the Peles Castle, summer home of Charles I of Romania and full of spectacularly lavishly decorated rooms and extensive collections of artworks, weapons, and the like.

Detail of door from of monestary in Sinaia.

Both Brasov and Sinaia are in the mountains and have huge ski resorts that start right in the towns. In the summer you can hike up and take the gondola down or take the gondola up and mountain-bike down or set off on a hike in the hills on trails that lead to a series of different huts for a couple of hours or a couple weeks. Given the almost constant rain and the very low cloud cover any or all of these seemed like something to save for next time.

I think, if I were making a serious recommendation, I'd suggest staying in Sinaia and visiting Brasov rather than the other way round... but both work. It's a great area; local foods include huge beaver tails covered with lots of cheese and garlic, zip-lining is less than 20$ for a set of 12 lines down from the 7 steps canyon and if you're prepared to walk back up with your helmet and harness you can go a second time for free, the place is stepped in history, a nature lovers dream, and the locals are the happiest most helpful bunch I have ever met!

7 steps canyon.

Me being happy in the canyon.

Yup. Just another fantastic few days bumming around Romania.

Sibiu

AKA A long account of pretty much nothing.

Bucharest? Did I recommend Bucharest? Scratch that! If you only have time for one Romanian town make it Sibiu.

(A total aside: when I was in Bucharest I met an Italian woman who was on a biking trip, we were on the same palace tour and then went out for a beer together. She was wearing an amazing outfit, to my eye, classy black top and stylish short grey skirt. When I complimented her on it she pointed out that it was her biking outfit and flipped the top of the skirt down to show that a biking shorts insert could be clipped in. I was floored - nicest biking outfit I'd seen in my life.)

The main street of old town Sibiu - one restaurant with so many hanging baskets it almost looks like a garden shop.

Back to Sibiu. It is working hard to be a good tourist town, and in my opinion it's succeeding. The main street through the old town has been turned into a pedestrian walkway lined with everything from expensive jewelry stores to local craft co-ops, there are licensed restaurants with very comfortable couches and ice cream stalls, something for everyone in other words. Buskers dot the street, which is about a km long, and in the main square at the end there are free concerts in the evening. (I am listening to a full orchestra at this very moment along with maybe 3000 other tourists!) We are not all staying in hostels; at the end of the street are several large modern hotels. Last night there was also another concert further out of town catering to the younger crowd - I might have gone to that too if I'd known of it ahead of time.

This guy plays outside our hostel each evening (you can see the WH sign above his head) and lulls me to sleep.

I'm planning to go hiking in the Fagaras Mountains soon, which I might add is giving me the hebejebes, 'cause I really don't know if I'm up to it, but I'm not getting any younger so I figure it's now or never, but I digress... today, Sunday, I had a somewhat eclectic shopping list in preparation for the hike. I wanted all my hiking food (muesli and dried milk for breakfast, gorp for snacks, etc., etc.), a light weight wide brimmed sun hat (I think I left mine in Bucharest), telescopic hiking poles, and a haircut. I hoofed it to the mall and found everything on my list! What a shopping success. I was even fortunate enough to get my hair cut by a woman with no English (one of my travelling traditions it to get my hair cut in a different language as I start out and so many people speak English here I'd been a bit worried on that front. At one point she panicked and went to get someone to translate leading to the lovely question: "Is it too short already or should she cut some more off?") Not only that, get this, I came across the exact biking skirt the Italian woman had had! Shopping City Sibiu really has it all. I was SO tempted to buy one I went back three times to look at them but the last thing I need right now is more stuff. Walking back from the mall my day bag felt about as heavy as I really want to carry for a week and it was only my food of course, all my camping gear and other paraphernalia were resting at the hostel. AKKK!

Monday I wake to pouring rain and the forecast for more of the same in the days to come. Despite being all packed up for my hike I consider waiting a few days for more palatable weather... man it's stressful being indecisive!

A few photos of roof tops and other things on a rainy day. 

I don't know who was having more fun - this kid splashing in the puddles or me trying to get a good shot of her. I didn't quite get the picture I wanted but included it anyway to show the happiness of being on holiday even on an overcast day.