Day 112: Beautiful day hike to Mt Omu

Today is going to be a short blog. I could write so much more about today, but I am incredible tired and still need to do a few other things... in short: a beautiful day - I think the pictures will speak for themselves!!!

I had set my alarm early to make good use of the day and get as much sun as possible (usually it's cloudy in the afternoon). But as usually, everything took longer than expected. At least I managed to book my bus from Bukarest to Sofia (Bulgaria) for tomorrow night, so I xan hike the Kom Emine Trail in Bulgaria. But that also means the end of a continues hike through the mountains to Nepal. It might also mean the end of my hike to Nepal in general...

When I passed a thermometer in town, I was surprised to see, that it showed only 5°C. No wonder I complained the last days, about the cold, camping in the mountains.

I hiked up a trail to Bucegi mountains in beautiful sunny weather. What a gorgeous day. After a steep climb with some cables and chains for help, I reached the plateau with stunning views. I did only overtake one person on the trail. Seems like most people take the cable car or even cars to go up! My favorite part of the day was hiking to the monument, a cross on Mt. Caraiman. Then I continued along the edge of the plateau to Mt. Costila and finally the highest point, Mt Omu (2507 m), where I descended on the trail, I had partly walked up the day before. As usually, clouds had formed before noon and before O descended, stunning views were hidden inside the clouds, which were hanging around the edge of the mountain plateau. 

A relaxed and beautiful day in Romanians mountains. This makes me even more sad about the fact, that I will not finish hiking these mountains...

Nearly on the plateau

That's the valley I came up

Looking back on my way to the monument on Mt. Caraiman - my favorite spot!

Looking onto Mt Costila

Lunch break spot - looking on Mt. Omu (2507 m)

Clouds are getting more and more...

CRAZY: a sheep flock I could just walk through. The dogs didn't even bark since they are used to all the tourists walking around

Well marked hiking trails!

Descending from Mt. Omu...

...down that valley

Day 111: Busteni and a forest walk to rocky mountains

Yesterday I had a good nights sleep in the forest above Busteni, despite some stress in the evening about bears in the region. 

I had written with Vladi, the guy from the accommodation in Bukarest, and told him where I am tenting. He totally freaked out and was worried about me, because he had just seen something about a bear problem in Busteni in the new. So he actually called the mountain rescue!!! Shortly after, they called me and wanted to know if I am fine. I told them I put my food in a tree away from my tent and asked if they think there is a problem  The guy was very friendly, said I should be fine but asked me for my coordinates, so they would directly know where I am, if I have problems. When he saw my coordinates, he even joked around that I won't see the sunrise from my campspot ;)

Then the Gendarmerie contacted me. But when I told them, I am fine, it was all right... 

I was more alert than usual, but slept very well :)

I still can't understand that everybody in Romania is so worried about the bears but totally ignores the problem with the dogs, although nearly EVERYBODY can tell a story about being bitten... Bears in towns might be problem. But also only because we take away their living space and make it easy for them to get food in town dur to many open litter bins! In nature they usually just want your food or attack if they are scared because you surprise them. They will try to get out of your way if they can. Not so much the dogs.  They will try to defend their territory or sheep flock and even attack, when there is no threat!

OK, enough of that. I will never understand this huge fear of bears, especially when they are black bears...

I got up really late today and left camp past 9 am. It was a sunny day and nice hike down the forest to Busteni. I got my first glimpse of the huge rocky Bucegi mountains and considered taking a daytime up there. I had decided to go to Bulgaria next and hike the Kom Emine Trail, which was part of my hike to Istanbul anyways. I will have to take several busses and trains to get there, but thought I should make use of the nice weather and hike in Busteni.

However, it was 1 pm until I had found a more or less cheap place in town and had checked in. So it was a little late to make it up to the mountain tops, especially since I still wanted organize a few things in the evening. I still headed towards the mountains, just with a few things, so hiking up wasn't too bad ;) I made it up to the end of the forest below Mt Omu, before I had to turn around.

I did shop on my way back to my room and now I am trying to figure out, how to continue in Bulgaria and if I want to stay another night, so I can do a real day hike up to the Bucegi mountains tomorrow

Lots of pictures today, since I have WiFi and electricity ;)

The first glimpse of Bucegi mountains

Busteni and the first clouds over the mountains

Hiking up the forest on a well marked trail

A short glimpse up to the rocky mountains - it looks already very autumn like!

I like taking Makros with my new cell phone :)

Hiking trail

Looking up towards the trail to Mt Omu

Looking back from where I came

Yes, I was really up there ;)

Walking back through the forest

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...

A short magical moment on the ridge

It is opening up, the lake on the left, my trail and cows on the right

Beautiful views...

... but there is always this fear of the next dog encounter

A silver thistle

The ridge on the left is where I walked to get into the forest above Busteni, which is visible in the distance on the left

My dog-save camping spot in the forest - I just hope no bear will visit me ;)

Day 109: Scared to the bones... is this the end of my hike in Romania?!

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

Day 108: Piatra Mare

It was a beautiful day, but I am totally exhausted, although I hiked only about 20 km!!! Seems like I will have to get used to being VERY slow at the moment.

In the morning I walked up mostly in the forest to the 1844 m high Piatra Mare. While it was nice sunny down in the valley towards Brasov, there were gray clouds hanging over the mountains. However, the day turned out to be nice and dry.

I was tired and slow today, since I'm not fit at all. I didn't move much within the last 4 weeks. Thus I took my first break one hour after my late start in the morning and took every excuse in form of raspberries and blueberries to stop!

There was nice hiking after Piatra Mare, some forest but also some partially open areas. I saw some bear prints and since I left Brasov, I have been on marked trails or 4WD tracks. I enjoyed it a lot and when I saw that they had planted some trees in the open area, I was sure there won't be any sheep at least in that part! Only the motor bikes, cruising through the mountains in the weekend were annoying!

However, in the afternoon I came to Mt. Paltin, where the grass was grazed again. I used the water source underneath Mt. Paltin as excuse, not to walk over the peak but to contour around. I was already done for the day and wanted to camp... But first I had 2 sheep flocks to pass. One went without problems as it was far enough away and the dogs didn't even bark. The second was directly on my way. So I took loads of time, hoping they will move down. They did partily but some sheep were still up on the ridge, where the trail was. Then I whistled already from faaar away to attract the attention of the shepherd. He didn't move. There were some dogs already barking, but they were still far away. I stood there for a long time. Finally it seemed like the sheep were moving down, but the stupid thing was, that I couldn't see them and the entire trail anymore from where I was standing... I had the pepper spray in one hand, a big stone in the other and slowly passed the herd, never knowing if I will walk into some sheep, because I couldn't see ahead. I passed without any further problems and the dogs kept their distance from me. Puh!!!! I have to admit, that it is just no fun hiking in those mountains, when I have to be alert like hell. I mean I already hated it before the incident and could never relax, but now it's really bad... I was thinking about hiking at night, but I guess it doesn't make it better, running into sleeping dogs at the huts at night ;) I am also not so sure anymore, if the pepperspray will really help all the time, since it was very windy on the ridge today. Maybe it works once they are so close, I can touch them or they already bit me... my trust in that stuff isn't that big anymore.

Once I descended the grazed Hills into the forest, I set up my tent. Tomorrow I will have to face walking up the next sheep hills and of course I will have to walk the same way back again in a few days...

Piatra Mare (1844 m)

Nice hiking trail

I left Romania in summer, now it is autumn

Raspberries :)

Day 107: Brasov and around the 7 ledder canyon

I'll call today "Day 107" since I continued hiking in Romania. I started from Brasov, not the point where I had to stop because I was bitten by dogs, but I am heading that way. I want to have a more or less continues route, so I walk to the Northeast instead of the Southwest. I'm certainly not going all the way to exactly the point where I left my route (I really don't want to end up facing those dogs again without a pump gun ;)) but I will go close to there, before turning around and continuing my original route to Istanbul. 

Todays bus ride was shorter than expected. Not only because the bus arrived around 1:30 pm instead of 4 pm, but also because there were 3 really nice people on the bus, who spoke German and we had some nice conversations. I even got some phone numbers the daughters if one lady. They speak German and whenever I have a problem or need somebody to translate, I should call them. That's what I really like about Romania - nice and caring people!!! 

Because I was in Brasov early, I decided to walk the 9 km to the store, where I got new hiking poles. It was nice to move again, but sadly my walk wasn't going through the old town, but along busy roads and into the industrial area. After I got my hiking poles, I decided to leave town instead of staying in a hostel. I guess most people would have looked around town, but I am just not a very "cultural interested" person. I rather wanted to get jnto the forest. After a quick stop I'm the supermarket, I walked another 14 km before I set up my tent. Most of it was again along big roads, but the end was up a lovely valley. I was surprised to see so many people heading the other way. But when I saw lots of trail markers and even signs with distances, I realised that it must be a popular hike. There were also lots of ziplines everywhere. The trail goes through the 7 ledders canyon. Sadly, it wasn't open anymore when I got there but luckily there is a trail going around it, which I took. It is do nice yo be in the forest again!!! I found a lovely little rock outcrop, which is flat, hidden and the perfect campspot. I am wondering if there are bears around, since there were lots of signs along the trail, giving information about bear protection in this area. 

Oh, and I passed several barking dogs today, all behind fences or on a leash, but they scared the crap out of me. Not the two friendly stray dogs I saw but I am sure I will get close to some heart attacks, once I am in sheep country again :/ 

It was a lovely day and I am glad to be out here again, but the temperature at night is much colder than when I left and I guess it will take some time to get back to my evening routine of setting up camp, writing diary, blogging and eating.

View from the bus - clouds hanging over the Fagaras mountains in the back!

A little waterfall on my way up the valley 

The 7 ledder canyon - sadly closed with a door!

Tonight's camp spot

Update: The long way back to Romania

Today, I started the long bus ride towards Romania, sitting in the bus all day today and tomorrow. Very sad, since after days of rain, there is a beautiful blue sky and it would be perfect hiking weather! But I guess its my own fault, that I am too impatient! On the other hand, I just checked the weather on a mountain (2544 m) that I will pass through soon, and it's snowing!!! Time to get going to Istanbul, before there is even more snow! 

The bus came already late today. At first I thought there is no electrical socket and no internet, but it's both there, which makes the long bus ride more bareable and I even managed to hand in my doctors receipt  ia internet to hopefully get them reimbursed. But now I am seasick, so I can't really make much use of the free internet. At least the fact that I am riding a very colorful, purple dominated bus, makes me smile. It also makes it impossible to end up in the wrong bus after a break ;) which is good, since there are only Romanian people in the bus and the bus drivers don't speak much German and don't bother to give information in German. But since most passengers speak at least a little German, I just have to ask somebody to translate. Do I have to mention,that basically nobody is wearing a face-mask?! The bus isn't very full (yet?), so I have 2 seats to myself, which is VERY nice!!!

I'm not sure if I will stay a night in Brasov on Friday, or if I directly continue to my hiking route. I guess it depends a bit on weather, my mood etc. If the bus is in time, I would try to get my hiking poles. But it's cutting really close before they close, since its on the other end of town. It's also far away from any forest to hide or a cheap hostel (at least one I could book before). So this might not work out. Sucks, since I'm not waiting for Monday, when they are open again, just to change my hiking poles! I'm anyways afraid that I will have the same problem with the new hiking poles again. So far nobody could/wanted to tell me, how the segment that came off, is fixed or could be fixed...

My bus to Romania - very colorful!

It is currently snowing on Moldoveanu Peak (2544 m) - not much but winter is coming...