Făgăraș Mountains

07/13/2014 - 07/20/2014
kuba10
by kuba10

Itinerary:

Day 1 - travel by train from Prague to Budapest

Day 2 - travel by train from Budapest to Simeria, Sibiu - transport to mountains, Cabana Suru (1 450 metres)

Day 3 - Şaua Surului (2 116 metres), Şaua Garbovel Vest (2 140 metres), Şaua Scarii (2 146 metres)

Day 4 - Vârful Șerbota (2 331 metres), Şaua Cleopatrei (2 430 metres), Vârful Negoiu (2 535 metres)

Day 5 - Lacul Bâlea, Cabana Bâlea Lac, Transfăgărășan, Cârța - camping De Oude Wilg

Day 6 - Brașov

Day 7 - Brașov, castle Bran

Day 8 - travel from Brașov to Budapest and from Budapest to Prague

 

DAY 1-2 - Budapest, Simeria, Sibiu, Cabana Suru

It was a long way by train from Prague to Budapest and then from Budapest to Simeria. It took us around 15 hours until we arrived to Sibiu. In Sibiu we found a guy with small van, where all 10 of us were luckily able to fit. He took us under Făgăraș Mountains, so we could start ascending until we arrived to Cabana Suru (1 450 metres), where we built our camp.

DAY 3 - Şaua Surului (2 116 metres), Şaua Garbovel Vest (2 140 metres), Şaua Scarii (2 146 metres)

We had to keep ascending until we finally reached the main ridge of Făgăraș Mountains. We kept on the ridge and enjoyed beautiful scenery with wild horses and even donkeys all around us. We were walking all the way from Cabana Suru through Şaua Surului (2 116 metres), Şaua Garbovel Vest (2 140 metres) to Şaua Scarii (2 146 metres). Şaua Scarii is perfect place for camping, there is bivaque, where you can sleep under roof, but we chose to sleep in our tents outside. If you want to enjoy surrounding mountains, it is better option. We experienced even storm with hail, that was a little scary, but we survived.

DAY 4 - Vârful Șerbota (2 331 metres), Şaua Cleopatrei (2 430 metres), Vârful Negoiu (2 535 metres)

This day was the most demanding one. Firstly we had to climb to the top of Vârful Șerbota (2 331 metres). We met 2 shepherds with their dogs. We had 2 options how to continue from Șerbota and they advised us that one of them is very dangerous, so we took the other one. Romanian mountains have kind of mysterious atmosphere I have not experienced since. Maybe it was because of shepherds, that seemed to know "something more", or clouds that were lying between peaks and very often spread all over us, or two big storms that hit us.

Șerbota offers perfect view of whole Făgăraș ridge and our main goal of this trip the second highest mountain in Romania Vârful Negoiu (2 535 metres). We descended on rocky plateau and had to climb up again firstly to Şaua Cleopatrei (2 430 metres). There were parts where we had to climb on our fours (which was a little difficult with heavy bags). From Şaua Cleopatrei it was quite easy and we reached the top of Vârful Negoiu very quickly. If we had more time, it would be nice to keep going on the main ridge until Vârful Moldoveanu, the highest peak in Romania. Maybe some other time...

Big storm hit us when we were descending from Negoiu and we felt very uncomfortable, but you have to be prepared for that in mountains, luckily we escaped with no harm.

DAY 5 - Lacul Bâlea, Cabana Bâlea Lac, Transfăgărășan, Cârța - camping De Oude Wilg

We continued to lake Bâlea and had good lunch in Cabana Bâlea Lac. Well almost everything tastes pretty good after couple of days in mountains. This is the place where famous road Transfăgărășan meets Făgăraș Mountains. The fastest way how to get via Transfăgărășan to village Cârța was hitch-hiking, so we stopped nice man in Dacia and he took us to the village. The village is very poor, but camping De Oude Wilg is the opposite. It is very nice and clean and it is owned by couple from Netherlands.

We made a little barbecue, because there was a nice grill and it was perfect celebration of our Făgăraș expedition.

DAY 6 - Brașov

Next day we moved to Brașov that is surrounded by the Southern Carpathians and is part of mysterious Transylvania region. The city itself is surrounded by mountains that makes it very cozy. It is known for its sign Brasov that looks like Hollywood sign. German colonists played a key role in development of the city and it is quite clean and nice place. The old city is very well preserved.

DAY 7 - Brașov, castle Bran

Bran Castle is situated not far from Brașov making it perfect one day trip. It is often referred as "Dracula's Castle", the home of the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula. There is, however, no evidence that Stoker knew anything about this castle, which has only tangential associations with Vlad the Impaler, voivode of Wallachia, the putative inspiration for Dracula.

We spent the rest of the day visiting old fortress in Brașov that offers the best view of the city.

..we had great scenery of Făgăraș Mountains on the way back in train...

....something to entice you...

And video with great shots covering the ridge we climbed.

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