Cornelia Dörr – Transylvania, Romania II

October 9th to 19th

On the way in the Piatra Craiului National Park

When I saw the steep Piatra Craiului mountains (in German: “Königsteingebirge”) for the first time, I realized that it won’t be an easy task to hike and photograph there with all our photo equipment and maybe a tent. The steep and elongated ridge is about 25 km long and these are the longest limestone mountains of Romania. They are situated between Brasov (Kronstadt) and Arges or Zarnesti and Rucar. The most important starting points to the national park are the towns Zarnesti (Zernen), Magura, Pestera, Dambovicioara and Rucar. The highest peak is “La Om” with 2,238 m. Many impressive wild canyons can be seen in the white Jurassic limestone walls.
I started my work in Valea Prapastiilor near Zarnesti. In this canyon scenes of “Cold mountain” were filmed, a movie awarded with seven Oscars. Through the canyon a wide hiking trail leads you to the Curmatura-chalet and along to Piatra Mica (“Kleiner Königstein”, 1,816 m) at the North and up to Piatra Mare (“Großes Königsteinmassiv”, 2,238 m). On the left and right side of the path you see gigantic rocks and sometimes the canyon is not wider than four or five metres. I thought the tributary valleys were even more interesting than the canyon as they presented themselves natural without footpaths and human influences. In the wild we discovered a little brook. The water went down to the valley scenic and in cascades over the white stones.
The following way up lead us through a deep beech forest. It was nearly dusk when we arrived in the Curmatura-chalet which is located 1,470 m high and where we stayed overnight.
The next morning we set off early. Unfortunately we couldn’t see a beautiful sunrise because during the night heavy fog had come up. We climbed up to the Saura Crapaturii-saddle to get from there to the ridge. Unfortunately the path on the ridge was a “via ferrata”. It was too dangerous for us to go on because of our heavy baggage and the tripod. As it was clearing a bit we waited until the afternoon on the Crapaturii-saddle.

The light in the afternoon was beautiful because from time to time wafts of mist came through the canyon which gave the white steep rocks a softer look. Before we started our way down through the gorge we could enjoy a beautiful view to the Piatra Mica. The way down was everything else but easy because the path went 800 m in height down very steeply, vertically over slippery stones and boulders. When we saw our car in Zarnesti we were very happy about having made it finally. 

Although we were very exhausted from the day before, we started before sunrise once again to the Crapaturii canyon. During the night fog had come up again, but not as heavy as during the day before. The fog created a wonderful atmosphere as I had wished for. It is this mystic and mysterious light that I associate with the landscape of Transylvania. The gentle backlight increased the impact and gave the silhouettes of the rocks, the pinnacles and the forest between the mountains Großer Königstein and Kleiner Königstein an even darker look.
I dedicated my work during the next days to the forests because here the autumn colours were already at their height. As the summer was rather dry, the leaves of the beeches were quite brown and I was afraid that a change in the weather could blow the leaves from the trees quickly. In the Carpathians there is the biggest cohesive woodland and it is the biggest intact natural landscape of Europe out of Russia.

The forest mostly consists of natural beech and coniferous forest. These are the hilly and mysterious forests in which the carriage of the dark “Count Dracula” rushed through, accompanied by the howling of wolves. But we would have needed a more robust car to take photos of the western part of the national park along the river Dambovita, in which the forest is wilder and more natural. After driving hours into the valley we nearly got stuck in the mud because of deforestation work and were lucky that we could turn around and go back. We are aghast how rigorously areas in the national park and at its borders are being deforested. The most important topic of the WWF in Romania is to sensitise people in Romania against short-term profit making, like illegal deforestation and the illegal hunting of wild animals, e. g. brown bears.
The next morning we walked up a hillside from Sirnea and crossed shielings with traditionally put up haystacks. We passed age-old gnarled beeches until we arrived in the mountain forest. Sun slowly ascended out of the mist and the leaves of the beeches blazed golden in the backlight.

We were looking for a point from which we would have a better view over the forests. The trail on which we were, had the motto “Search for me”. After some detours we finally found an open space on a plateau with a beautiful view over the hilly wooded countryside. Unfortunately the evening sun disappeared in low stratus – as during the days before – one hour before sunset. On our way back we chose the short crosscountry option and walked back to town without a hiking trail. Shortly before we came to the first houses I took some pictures in the evening light. But soon the calmness was over when three quite aggressive dogs came running and barking at us. Luckily we could repel them with our tripod and slowly went back.

In the evening we drove to Katharina and Hermann Kurmes in Magura. The boarding house belongs to the association of ecological tourism in Romania which was founded by the Kurmes family. They gave us some advice for our work. Especially their delicious Romanian art of cooking let us recover a little – the daily walks with heavy photo equipment are very exhausting.
The next day is full moon and at the same time a holiday in Romania. We were looking for a proper point for taking photographs for the evening. On our walks during the last days through the forest and the Craiului mountains we haven’t met one single person. Except for the infrequent tapping of a woodpecker there was absolute silence. But today seems to be a special day: the young and the old are on the way, the elderly people with walking sticks or horse carriages, they stream towards the forests. We try to find out what makes them do such a walking tour. They tell us that they want to pilgrim to a pilgrimage chapel in the forest. By the wayside they celebrate and have a picnic. Towards afternoon the convoy moves back to the village. We, however, are still busy with our full moon photography, because it is quite difficult to find a proper point of view for that. Somehow I can’t achieve the pictures that I have in mind. We try it from the path on which the pilgrims walked on today. Not all pilgrims took their waste home properly and so it is now scattered in the forest. In general the waste problem is a big problem in the whole country. I had the thought: “Hopefully the waste doesn’t attract bears”. The sun already set and the moon slowly rose when suddenly we heard the grumbling of a bear behind us. As it was already too dark we couldn’t see the brown bear. So we decided that it would be better to go back.
The next evening we started a new try to take photos of the full moon. But unfortunately it was too foggy in the evening and so again I didn’t get any good results.
For our last walking tour in the national park we drove to Cabana Plaiul Foii. Although it was again quite misty with no good light conditions we decided to hike from Cabana Plaiul Foii to the rock arcades that were made by erosion. The way up was again very steep. Again the light wasn’t very good although in the afternoon there were a few sunrays. But I wasn’t satisfied with the photographic results.

From the next day on to the end of our trip we had wonderful clear autumn weather. The mountainous massif and the autumn coloured forest presented themselves as on a picture postcard.
On October 20th we went on to the National Park Cheile Bicazului and Hasmas Mountains in Romania. On the way we visited the biggest bear park of Europe, which is situated near Brasov. The park has an area of 50 ha which is covered with forest, hills, brooks and dens and so conforms to the natural living environment of the bears. The bear park is not a public zoo but the last refuge for tortured and abused brown bears of private keeping in Romania. It made us very sad to see bears whose eyesight and sense of smell had been destroyed with acid solution just to make them obedient to human beings. It is horrendous with what an incredible atrocity some people deal with their co-creatures. It is highly appreciable with how much dedication Mr. and Mrs. Lapis founded that project that is funded by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). We want to thank Mrs. Lapis that we got the permission to take photographs.

Please note that blogs reflect our photographers' opinions and not necessarily those of the directors of Wild Wonders of Europe.