The Mountains of Romania - A Walker's Guidebook

Definitive guidebook to walking and trekking in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, one of the wildest parts of Europe. Covers all the main ranges in the southern Carpathians, and the Eastern Carpathians and Bucovina’s monasteries. Complete information on getting to grips with Romania.

Chapter One: The Mountains of Romania

‘Theirs is not a country you can visit as a detached traveller; their own talent for friendship immediately engages the stranger’s sympathy and interest and soon one feels irrationally committed…’

Dervla Murphy, Transylvania and Beyond

With excellently waymarked paths through a great sweep of mountains, a number of whose summits rise over 8000ft, a comprehensive system of good mountain huts, an easily-tackled language allied to Italian and French and a low cost of living for western travellers, Romania is by far the most rewarding country in eastern Europe for mountain walkers – and indeed one of the best in Europe as a whole.

More than just beautiful mountain landscapes, a mountain walking holiday or expedition in Romania offers a chance to discover a European scene now disappeared further west. With its wealth of ancient Orthodox monasteries, village festivals and locals in traditional costume, rural Romania offers a European cultural travel experience quite as stimulating as mountain ranges further afield. Romania has become one of the cheaper countries in Europe in which to travel. Combined with its easily-understood language, the extreme friendliness of the local population and the sheer beauty of its wild mountain scenery – all this means that exploring the mountains of Romania can be some of the most enjoyable and rewarding travelling that could ever be undertaken.

Whilst mountain walking is popular in Romania (as is climbing and skiing) the great area of mountains and its low density of population (23 million in a country greater in area than Britain) means that few paths are busy. The unique attraction of Romania is its ability to offer truly wild mountains in close juxtaposition to very civilised life; I have seen wolf in a forest clearing at dawn in the Fagaras and at lunchtime sat down to a good meal with a bottle of Transylvanian dry white. Many is the time I have dined well in Brasov with a live classical orchestra and, with the music still ringing in my ears, encountered a bear at close quarters in a street in the small hours.

Fully one third of Romania is mountainous; the great sweep of the Carpathians contains some of the few remaining large stretches of wilderness landscape in Europe, the domain of bear, lynx and wolf. The walker can have the choice of a walking holiday in the finest mountain scenery with pleasant mountain huts to stay in, or, taking a tent, depart to the far-flung reaches of the country to discover remote summits with valleys and villages little changed in centuries. Many areas of the Carpathians rise sheer from the plains, giving remarkable views across vast areas of Transylvania. Particularly remarkable in this respect is the western Fagaras, with views across to Sibiu. This same is true of the Retezat, northern slopes of the Bucegi and the Piatra Craiului ridge; the views you have are of farmland and forest far below, rather than just other mountains.

This book aims to be a complete travel information package to the wilds of Romania. It is written not only for the dedicated mountain walker, but also for the traveller who wants to discover the wild and hilly provinces of the country, where indigenous folk music can still be heard, and the inhabitants still wear local costume, do their farmwork by hand and travel by horse and cart. It is also aimed at those who find themselves in Romania, perhaps on business or engaged in volunteer work, who wish to spend a few days in the mountains or enjoy a day walk from a railway station or ‘cabana’ (mountain hut).

This book aims to be a complete information package for a walking expedition in the Carpathians, rather than a comprehensive guide to the country; the Rough, Blue or Lonely Planet Guides best serve the latter purpose, and include information on three of Romania’s major cities which the mountain walker is likely to visit: Brasov, Sibiu and Cluj (the access points respectively for the Bucegi/ Piatra Craiului/Fagaras, the Retezat and Cindrel, and the Apuseni). This guidebook does, however, give information on towns and places of interest in the vicinity of the walks, and the Introduction and Appendices provide practical advice and information on visiting the country.

How to use this book

Chapters 2–12 deal with the various regions of the Carpathians and give information on a number of itineraries, ranging from day walks from a settlement or a particular cabana to point-to-point mountain traverses of more than a week. The directions are mostly for well-established paths, with a high standard of waymarking organised by the local Salvamont (mountain rescue) organisations. These waymarked paths were laid out as walks from cabana to cabana, often along ridges. This guide therefore follows this pattern of high ridge walks connecting the major summits. Many of the chapters can be linked together to make a grand tour of Romania’s mountains. Each section has information under ‘Access’ on how to reach the area from Bucharest. This should be read in conjunction with a sheet map of the country.

Chapters 2–8 mostly have itineraries from cabana to cabana (though you may prefer to camp wild). Later chapters deal with wilder regions with much less accommodation available. Here you will need a tent, although you will not have to use it every night. Almost every area covered in the book has some kind of accommodation, as is evident from a glance at Appendix A. It is possible to stay in a cabana overnight and explore these remoter regions in day walks. Most local walkers adhere quite rigidly to itineraries which in any one day start and finish at a cabana, largely because lightweight tents, stoves and dehydrated food are only just becoming available.

Chapters 9–12 are arranged so that a number of separate massifs are covered in each. However, as can be seen from any relief map of Romania, the whole Carpathian area is elevated. In general the Carpathians are densely forested hills, running all the way from Germany, east through Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine as well as Romania. Each chapter deals separately with one mountainous section. However, each chapter also has a complete itinerary, linking all the sections together. In some cases it is possible to walk from one massif to another through the forests, along waymarked and signposted paths. Maps for these are not available, and it is difficult to find them in Romania. You may well not want to walk from one massif to another: if it is possible to catch a train or a bus, this is explained in the text. It is possible to explore Romania’s mountains by car (see ‘Road travel in Romania’) but this is probably not as satisfactory as doing a self-contained backpacking expedition.

Chapter 13 covers the monasteries at Bucovina which, although not situated in the Carpathians proper, are none the less in wonderful walking country.

The key to a successful expedition to Romania is preparation. Time spent poring over a map of Romania with this book before you go is well spent, picking the range or ranges you want to walk across. The day stages and walks outlined below are merely suggestions – with a bit of planning you can map out your own itinerary based around what you want to see.

If there is anything in this book that is wrong – no doubt some of my research will soon become out of date – please write to the publishers. Information used in subsequent editions will be acknowledged.