Follow the Mountains : Day 110: A beautiful day, dogs and the end of my solo hike through Romania

What a gorgeouse day!!!

The morning started VERY foggy and cold. At night it rained even more and around midnight I woke up from a strange noise close by. I was a little afraid, it might be a bear and got out my cell phone to play a video I recorded the day before, where dogs are barking - but I didn't need it :)

I had set my alarm to 4 am, but when I woke up, it was cold, wet and there was dense fog. So I delayed my departure. But thinking about the dogs, I finally got up before 6 and got going. It took me a while to walk up the hill, packed in my rain gear and trying not to loose the trail in the fog. At least I managed to avoid the dogs at that part. But I was cold and my feet were wet and freezing. When I came to the pass below Paltin, I took a break. I couldn't see anything in the dense fog and didn't know if there might be a farm close to the trail, since I hadn't been walking there before. But after a while the sun came out and I continued my way, walking over a ridge. And what a beautiful moment!!! The fog in the valley and only a little bit of the ridge was visible in the sun. Sadly, it didn't last long, so I continued und hiking in dense fog. I whistled "Pippi Langstrumpf" until I couldn't stand it anymore, hoping the dogs will hear me, before I end up running into them. For a long time, there was nobody there. However, the sheep droppings indicated that there are sheep around.

Then I heard sheep, dogs and a shepherd but couldn't see them. I continued slowly, whistling and playing music on my phone, hoping they can locate me and get out of my way. Then I saw a dog in the fog, who didn't move or bark. I stopped, whistled and shouted. This made other dogs bark and soon the shepherd came towards me through the fog. He walked me through his dogs and sheep. He tried to talk to me, insisting on "writing" things on his hand, like I would understand it then. It reminded me of the guy in the train in China, who was writing the Chinese signs in the seat ahead of him, thinking that would make it easy for me... We managed to find out that I am from Germany and he is 53 years old (looking much older!) and me 37 years. But whenever I tried to ask e.g. for his name or how many sheep he has, using hand and all my creativity, he didn't really react. A nice guy, but I was glad when we had passed the sheep and I continued on the ridge.

It was still foggy and I could hear bells again. But this time they were from cows. The sky opened up and I could actually see the route ahead of me, which made me very happy!!!! There was a little lake and yes, cows on my trail. I slowly approached them, knowing that sometimes there are dogs, which usually aren't very aggressiv. And yes, there were 2 dogs laying a bit away, barking when I came closer to the cows. What should I do now?! Nobody who could help and the cows were spread out so far, that I couldn't walk around. So I got some more stones, my pepper spray and continued. As I had walked away from the cows to get more stones, the dogs seemed like to have calmed down and not noticing me, sneaking through the cows. Puh!

I followed a well signed trail over and around hills. Always very careful at spots I couldn't see ahead. Then out of the sudden 2 dogs came running at me from far away, being accompanied by more dogs, coming from all different directions. At the end there were again around 9-10 dogs facing me directly, barking angrily and showing their teeth. It felt like a repetition of last time, when I was bitten. Just that there was no shepherd to help! They were all facing me from one side, even the ones who came running at me from my back, so I calmly spoke to them and moved slowly backwards, always facing them. I had stones and my pepper spray ready, but with 10 dogs and only a few stones, it doesn't make sense to use them and I was afraid, if I make them angry, they might attack. The pepper spray would only be my last resort, in case they really start attacking!!! They did their usual charging, coming really close once in a while, but I looked away (that's why I am not sure how many there were), talked to them and moved backwards. It took a while and I wasn't at all on my trail anymore, when the last dog let go of me!!! That was the moment I decided, that my solo tour through Romanias mountains is over. I know now, that I can handel it (which was very important to me before I could say I stop this hike) but also know, that I won't have fun being afraid every day and having situations like that all the time!!!! I think I would continue if I wouldn't be alone. From all I experienced and heard, these dogs don't seem to be so aggressive against 2 or more people.

I'm not sure why I thought I can come back and continue my hike like nothing happened. Maybe I was naive, hoping my fear just disappears, or I wanted to get over the fear by coming back. But looking at it objectively, I should have known, that my hike ends here. I would really love to see more of Romanian mountains (today was beautiful) and now I will miss a big highlight - the Fagaras - but there is no way I could enjoy it. Now is just the question, what I do next and if my project "Hiking to Nepal" ends here with this decision. Many things to think about!!!!

The last bit of today's hiking was beautiful sunny, but I had another 2 places with dogs to pass. After todays incident, I was really careful and just moved, whenever I saw a shepherd. This took over half an hour of yelling and whistling at one place... I wasn't sure if I would end up camping there, because I refused to pass that spot, seeing 8 dogs and hearing sheep, but not knowing where they were or seeing the shepherd.

Now I am camping in the forest above Busteni, feeling save between the beech trees. I have no idea, what's coming next. Maybe (if the weather is nice) I'll take a room and do at least a day trip into the mountains on the other side of Busteni. Then I am thinking of hiking in the mountains of Bulgaria, where the dogs don't seem to be so aggressive. I certainly want to do something in this area, since I took a nearly 30 h bus ride to get here. So I am not planning to head home directly!!!! But I will also have to see, what to do in the long run: return to Germany, work, hike, travel? I have no clue. I thought I would have at least a rough plan for the next years...