I guess the summer is
just a season. The season that certainly brings some expectations,
heat that is, but not necessarily turns out warm as expected.
So how on Earth did I
find myself freezing on the top of the mountain, wind sending chills
trough my clothes while the drizzle was getting stronger... in the
middle of the summer.
Well, first lets give it
to the height, that certainly has the greater portion to do with it.
After all Bucegi mountains are more than 2.500 m tall. And secondly,
I've reached the top by the cable car, the one we didn't know even
exist until we were almost right in front of it.
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The mighty Sphinx |
We had a plan for a nice
hiking day. After all it was a middle of the summer and the day
before was nicely warm, but the clouds covering the sky actually
seemed as even more perfect weather for our adventure. We left our
place in Busteni early in the morning to firstly head out for
breakfast, and while we were stuffing our food away under the
umbrella of small village shop/bar, the first shower of the day
arrived. But we were to hyped to feel discouraged by it.
 |
The view at Bucegi from BuÅŸteni |
Also, never trust google.
According to google maps namely, it would only take us
around two hours to reach the famous rock shaped like Sphinx, which
was our final destination. Judging by the distance of some more then
6 km that almost sounded about right... but only if you completely
ignore the altitude that intersect 1000 m.
Looking towards the top that mission clearly seemed impossible and as
we were already planing which train to take in the evening, we
mutually agreed at what time we'll turn around if our plan fails.
But here comes the cable
car. Firstly noted by the signs and later on as a proper machinery,
while waiting in the line for about an hour we've decided to purchase
a one way ticket up and then spent our afternoon on a nice hike down,
way less exhausting and more reasonable than what we originally
planned. Although looking at the high steep mountains rising right
above us I didn't feel very sure how there could be a nice path
leading down.
 |
The rare moment with the view to the valley |
So soon we were up in the
sky, passing trees of the forest, up and up, higher and higher, until
there were less and less trees, the terrain was getting steeper and
another thing we've noticed, or rather prevent us from noticing
anything, was that mountain was covered in clouds. If I could see our
final station when the gondola crossed the ridge, it
completely disappeared from the sight once we moved closer.
 |
selling roasted corn in the cloud |
Exiting we were hit by
the cold of the reality surrounding us now, and as soon as we put on
all the clothes we had with us (including my sleeping robe as a
scarf), we bravely stepped outside.
 |
trying to withstand the weather conditions |
Disappointing, yet not
surprisingly there was no view, but on the other hand, that's not
exactly what we came for. The top of the mountain around was scattered with huge weirdly shaped rocks, most of them
looking like the mushrooms (or the cloud from the atomic bomb), while
the greatest and grandest one took up the shape of a proud resting cat
(if you have a lot of imagination of course), and is now known as
Romanian Sphinx.
 |
The Romanian Sphinx in the cloud |
Discovering around was
certainly fun, but feeling as if cold is biting us to our bones and
with the light drizzle turning into proper rain, we somehow agreed to
head back inside, warm back up to the functional persons and hope the
weather will improve at least to a dry state.
 |
one of the ''mushroom'' stones |
The bar, from where you
probably have amazing view at better times, was cosily warm, and
before we knew, we were all sipping on a nice portion of hot
chocolate with cream, right there, in the middle of the summer.
 |
hot chocolate on a summer day |
Once we felt as humans
again and the weather reached it's finest (which still seemed pretty
bad), we headed back outside, mentally knowing exactly what to
expect, and hit the road that would lead us back down in the
valley... or so we thought.
It was a relatively nice
path, going pretty straight on the top of the mountain, and we even
had a chance encountering other people hiking their way up. However
we also gathered information that the road will not take us where we
expected and that it will certainly take much longer than what our
map app has said.
 |
edelweiss |
We soon realised that
we're heading in completely wrong direction, mostly because of lack of
visibility, as clouds were enduring right there and at some points
you couldn't even see 10 meters in front of you. So we weren't only on
a mission of finding the right road but also trying not to loose each
other.
 |
the meadow of wild flowers |
We headed straight trough
the meadow, which wasn't the best idea as none of us had particularly
proper shoes and soon our socks and footwear were wet trough
and trough. But we were far from giving up. We continue following
smaller paths, hoping we'll find one we were so willing to take,
crossed a steep meadow filled with colourful flowers, for some moments
even got the view down in the valley (which seemed very, very far
away), and found ourselves among the mountain scrubs. The uncrossable
mountain scrubs. No matter which way we tried to pass them we always
reached the dead end and soon decided it's a bit to dangerous to
blindly wonder among them since we saw how deep could potential fall
possibly be.
 |
view to the BuÅŸteni far below |
After two hours of
stubbornness we had to agree to our defeat and headed back up towards
the cable car, ready to take it down as well. However we unexpectedly
ended on another path, and once we had the cable of the cable car in
our sight as well, we realised this was actually the right one.
 |
the beginning of our descend trail |
Still totally pumped for
the adventure we headed right to it, passed the sign saying it will
take us 2 to 3 hours to get down. It started as the narrow steep
trail, but before we knew what we got ourselves into, we encountered
some rocks that you basically had to climb and after such steep
descend there was no chance of us returning back. There were chains
and wires to hold yourself safely, but looking down, the potential
slip would mean what we certainly wouldn't want to experience. And
remember our everyday walking shoes and our summerish outfits.
However, it was also
really exciting. I myself love to climb and even though I can't
imagine taking this path up, I actually had a lot of fun going down,
especially at the dangerous parts that gave you chills and trill.
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mountain goat |
We also had a chance to
fully experience the mountains. We saw a mountain goat somewhere by
the side, we enjoyed the beautiful flora, sat and snacked by the
crystal clear river from which you could drink, surprisingly water
wasn't that cold. We saw a huge pieces of deep frozen ice, crossed
the most rocky parts and made it to the forest, and while strolling
on the path, overlooking the river valley... noticed a bear.
Well, my colleague noticed
it and at first I wasn't even sure about the message she tried to get
to me. ''Tanja, there's a bear!'' I was completely confused at where
to look. My first feeling was that she's calling me back to her, as I
was few steps in front, to show me the bear from her sight. The other
friend saw it as well, and soon they started showing me towards the
river and finally, I noticed it, not so far bellow us.
 |
the bear |
I've never seen a bear
in the nature before. We've been told there are many around and I
remember stories from when I was a kid that certainly give you chills
and not want you to ever encounter one, but still... I just saw a
bear in the nature, and the excitement of it overshadowed the fear.
Holding to the camera this entire way down, my first idea was to snap
a picture of it. Setting the zoom and everything else to get the best
shot possible, I was totally caught in the mission, when the friend
who first noticed it continued silently shouting to me to get back
down and stop showing myself. Out of her fear I started realising the
situation is pretty serious, and there we were caught on our little
path with clearly no idea what to do.
 |
signs about encountering the bear at the bottom end of the path |
The bear was minding it's
own business, not noticing or at least not carrying about us, and the
other friend suggested we move on, even though the one who spotted it
first kept on saying that we should stay still and hidden. As the
bear made a move and it was in the opposite direction of where we
were going, we decided to give it a go, and once we were out of the
sight, run till the next obstacle on the road (maybe the rocks were
gone, but the steep terrain continued, now woven with
roots of the trees).
 |
meeting the cable car |
As we were making our way
down, hoping the worst is over, the last friend in the line suddenly
appeared with even paler face, saying that bear is following us.
Apparently we very much misjudged where it was heading and instead of
continuing up the river bed, it climbed up to the path and
they've seen each other face to face... and considering it was a very
curvy road, that must have been pretty close.
If our fear of falling
from the rock was gone and forgotten by now, our journey certainly
didn't stop sending us the adrenaline. We've tried to go faster, our
group split into each man for himself and no matter how far we were
going, that feeling of bear following us just couldn't disappear.
Whenever we stopped we were carefully listening to another branch
cracking behind us and scanning the sight as his brown fur was so
easy to blend with the forest.
The road kept going on
and on and way more then three hours passed while we were still in
the forest.We crossed the river again and now fully aware that
there's much more around us then our eyes can tell, decided to make
another stop. Bear seemed to be gone and probably never had an
intention to follow us in the first place, the thing just happened.
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another mountain resident |
By the time the sky
started getting darker, after 5 hours of descent we
reached back to the town, our train long gone, and headed to the
first thing that looked like a bus station, ready to hitchhike our way
home although coming here we didn't have much success.
Neither were the cars
ready to stop this time. After some waiting we managed to fetch a
comfy but probably overpriced bus, that on the very bright side, was
full of people ready to help us with our situation of missing on all
the available public transport to take us home.
 |
trying to catch our way home |
Once we arrived to
PloieÅŸti it was a pitch dark and our bus let us out at some random
location, basically by the highway you weren't able to cross. However
another person exiting at the same location was a friendly older
lady, waiting for a ride from her husband, who came to pick her up in
a fairly big car. After short discussion of trying to help us out
they decided to pack all four of us in their car and to drop us off
at the other side of town, where we'll have better chance to catch
something to take us home. But we must have appeared really beaten up
from our ruff and unexpected daily adventures, that in their best
will they gave us lift all the way to our home, and even though it
might not seemed such a big deal to them, they might never know how
many troubles they speared us with their generous gesture.
All in all our leisure getaway turned into an adventures (and even life treathing) day, that created full of unforgettable stories.
Great post. Thank you for sharing! :)
ReplyDeleteNew post - www.minniearts.com
wow... what a beautiful place, nature is very amazing.
ReplyDeleteJULIE ANN LOZADA BLOG
INSTAGRAM: @julieann_lozada
Such a stunning place, nature is so pretty :) xx
ReplyDeletewww.fashionjazz.co.za
The place looks so beautiful and peaceful! Hope you had an amazing time there:)
ReplyDeleteHilary
www.theclosetelf.com
Wow, such a beautiful place! So pretty and peaceful. Your photos are stunning too, thanks for sharing! <3 xx
ReplyDeleteBexa | www.hellobexa.com
The views are amazing
ReplyDeleteThat view is just majestic. What a lovely trip!
ReplyDeleteJessica | notjessfashion.com
Such a scarifying experience, I love climb the mountains, but meeting the bear would be a nightmare for me, always when we start our hiking I'm afraid that it could happen. Glad that you came back safe.
ReplyDeleteBtw. Beautiful pictures!
jointyicroissanty
What an adventure! I've always wanted to see a real bear in the wild (from a safe distance ofc hah) and how lucky that you managed to spot one. Beautiful spot indeed xx
ReplyDeleteNaya
www.nayatilly.com
Wow... breathtaking pics! Such a cool experience!
ReplyDeleteKisses, Paola.
Expressyourself
This sounds like such an amazing experience! How incredible that you saw a bear too! Beautiful photos too xx
ReplyDeleteHannah | luxuryblush
Hiking like a champ! And so cool you got to see a bear!
ReplyDelete-Ashley
Le Stylo Rouge
so nice post :)
ReplyDeleteOMG that sounds like amazing adventure. Clouds and fog around and you have feeling like you are on the top of the world. Also see bear outside in nature must be stunning. Thank you for sharing all of these gorgeous photos.
ReplyDeleteNew Post - http://www.exclusivebeautydiary.com/2019/09/olaplex-hair-perfector-no-3-ordinary.html
What an amazing adventure you had! It must have been challenging, not finding the right track right away and the fog and everything (not to mention the bear) but it's great you found the right track and climbed so high.
ReplyDelete