Today I started late again, knowing that I won't be able to walk an entire day and lots of km anyways. My goal of the day was a forest between grassy hills, about 20 km away.
It was nice sunny and I had to drop down only a little further to a pass, before walking up again along a little creek on the 4 WD, that I used to wash and for drinking water. I was happy, since I was thirsty and hadn't expected water so early. The next water on my map would have been at least 5 km away.
When I left the forest I was back in sheep country. I was still positive but walked very slow and careful, whenever I couldn't see ahead. I whistled once in a while hoping that dogs will hear me and bark whenever I get close to a sheep flock, that I might not see.
Then I saw sheep with dogs and a shepherd, directly on my trail but still far away. I whistled, so the shepherd knows I'm there. I took a REAL big detour around the sheep flock. The dogs were barking and coming towards me. I was so far away, that I thought it will be all right, but they kept running towards me although the shepherd whistled. I had a stone and my pepper spray ready, but was scared to the bones!!! They weren't really THAT close and it wasn't a dangerous situation, but I still started crying and couldn't stop anymore for a while. I was wondering, what I am doing here. I was afraid of dogs before the incident, but always told myself, that the dogs won't hurt me but only bark and scare me away, as long as I ignore them and especially move away from the sheep. I can't say that anymore!!! So every dog coming towards me now, will scare me like crazy, although it probably won't do anything - at least in most situations and countries... I think in Romania dogs seem to be much more aggressive than elsewhere, from all I heard and read, especially when hiking alone.
I thought about hiking a lower route or in another country, but decided to give it another try. But if I can't deal with it and don't have fun hiking these mountains anymore (which is very likely), I might have to do that!!!
I had planned to walk Northeast to keep the gap as little as possible, which I have in my route now. But after reading in the blog of a Czech guy, who crossed the Carpathian and hiked the exact same route I wanted to take, I decided against it. He wrote about several dog fights in the area and one severe dog attack at a place, where the same happened to him a year ago, when he was hiking with his wife and son. Instead I will walk Southwest and hope that the dogs in the Fagaras mountains aren't as aggressive, since there are much more tourists.
It didn't make sense to turn around directly, as this would have meant I would end up camping in sheep country. So I walked a little further but took a long break before the trail would have passed a farm with barking dogs, and then turned around. I guess my muscles are happy about this really short "hiking day" (not sure if I should even call it that at all). I set up my tent early at exactly the same spot as the night before. It is cool and raining, so I am glad I am already in my tent and sleeping bag. Since I have faaar too much food now, that I turn around, thus I was eating a lot :)
Tomorrow, I will walk on a ridge for about 20 km, probably all sheep country. As I know from yesterday, there is no farm directly at the trail on the first bit. But during the day there are lots of sheep flocks up on the ridge and from where I am walking, I won't be able to see them ahead. So I plan to get up REALLY early and walk that first bit before the shepherds go up with their sheep. I know it's like a drop on a hot stone (no idea if that German term translates to English) as I will probably walk past sheep all day, but it's a start. I plan to camp in the forest just before the town Busteni and if I discover tomorrow, that I just don't want to continue my hike being scared all the time, it's a good place to leave my route!!!
Mt Paltin (1900 m) in the sun
Clouds forming after noon
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