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domingo, 20 de julio de 2008

A Day in the Country

Spring had passed, I still don't know how, and I woke up one July morning, and suddenly realized that Summer could pass exactly the same way, without me doing a proper walk on Carpaths, without me doing a nice trip by train. So I did some research and decided that the following Saturday I would be taking an early train to Buşteni, situated in the closest area of Carpaths from Bucharest (Bucegi Mountains), to take a look around.Besides, in Buşteni there's a cable train that goes up to 2.200 meters of altitude, to Cabana Babele. So my plan was taking the Hotel Silva cable train (telecabina), see around and, if the track signals were as clear as I has been told they were, to do a little hiking by myself. Then, if I wanted to come back (which I suspected would happen), convince some people I know in Bucharest to come along next weekend. Maybe sleep in the mountains, as, apart from the usual Romanian free camping (even in Natural Parks you can settle your tent) the area has a great "Cabana" (meaning "hut") system: about 20-25 stone and wooden houses scattered in different valeys in the region, where you can rest, use toilets, eat something, and find lodging. The origin of Romanian Cabanas, like Spanish Paradores, lays in the 1920s-30s, one of these great ideas that should be mentioned, I suppose, in any history of tourism.
Cabana Babele (2.200 m), and Cabana Caraiman (2.028 m)

[A "Parador" is a luxury hotel and high-quality regional-cuisine restaurant situated inside some historical building, such a castle, monastery or fortress. It allowed many of this buildings to be taken care of instaed of destroyed, and promoted local tourism, as eating in a Parador is a quite common excuse for a family or couple weekend trip]

But let's go back to the Carpaths. Of course I was delighted, of course I wanted to c
ome back next weekend: take the earliest cable train (I had suffered a big queue, although I had arrived at 10.30 -8.30 train from Bucharest, a 2-hours-trip), seek a not very sheer track (I'm not in good shape) and enjoy sights, fresh air, good company...
Well, my "calling force" seemed quite high on Monday, but by Thursday only one person agreed to come... The idea of taking the 6.30 train from Gara de Nord had persuaded the rest againt it. But hey, there's this Spanish saying, "Three people is a already a crowd", and popular saying are always very wise.

So we took off, the two of us. The weather forecast was"clear with clouds" and we soon found out to be true: luckily, no rain; interestingly, half of our hiking either surrounded by mist (
negură), or sightseeing it. This time we got off at Sinaia and walked 45 minutes up to the Hotel Alpin cable train [by mistake, I wanted to take the other one, in the center of Sinaia, but it was a worthy mistake, no queue at all]. The cable train leaded from 1400 m. to Cabana Mioriţa, on Furnica ("The Ant") Mount (2100 m).
[Prahova Valley, where both Sinaia and Buşteni lay, is situated 900 m. above the sea, aproximately]

We didn't follow exactly the path I had planned, from
Furnica to Piatra Arsă ("Burnt Stone"), then Peştera ("The Cave"), then Babele (The "Old Women") and, depending on my own tiredness and the state of my friend knee (that would suffer in sharp descents), back to Buşteni either by foot or by cable train. We got a bit lost at the beginning and changed our route, luckly, because it was too ambicious, anyway, from me, who could just follow the rythm of my companions:
1) A quite sporting guy, but whose knee was damaged and, morevover, decided at some point to carry my bag.
2) A 50-year old Romanian man
who had been a guide in Bucegi Mountains for 10 years, but 10 years had passed since, and he hadn't come bach once since. He was carrying a 30kg bag pack and wearing heavy, old mountain boots.
3) His son, a 25-year-old boy that wa
s acompanying his father for the first time, and was in such a bad shape as myself, but carrying another 30 kg instead of nothing but my camera, once Jose decided to carry all our sandwiches and water.
We met this other two in the middle of the mist, in our way to Piatra Arsă, and went together all the way to Babele, not going down to Peştera, but walking between Cocora Mount and Jepii Mountains, through a quite curious forest of bush-like dwarf pines (larch-cembra pine). Nice company, to walk and also to have a merited soup (ciorbă) together at Cabana Babele... They were staying for the night, so we said good bye and took the cable train down to Busteni. The mist ("we wouldn't see anything interesting, and besides, could be dangerous if we get lost") was the perfect excuse for both of us, who were really tired, for not walking any more, and have beer (well merited too) instead, while waiting our train back to Bucharest.

But still, I didn't stay for the night up there! So there's still new experiences waiting for me at the Carpaths... Let's see when and how!

Me, myself and my camera

2 comentarios:

Unknown dijo...

>the area has a great "Cabana" (meaning "hut") system: about 20-25 stone and wooden houses scattered in different valeys in the region, where you can rest, use toilets, eat something, and find lodging

Is this strange to you? We have these in Italian mountains too. You stop, you eat or rest, you clear up after yourself for the next comers, maybe leave some food for the hungry after you... It's just good mountain etiquette.

Pereulok dijo...

We have this also. But the Cabana is not an "empty" hut. It is like a hostel, you have beds, and a cafe where they serve you hot food, soups, drinks...

Appart from this, there are the other you mention, when you can rest and be in a safe place if there´s a storm or sth.

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