It’s a hot late August evening, we enter the forest. After the first hill the trail gets darker. We spot the first fresh tracks, we are in their home. We make ourselves heard. We walk the next kilometres carefully.
We get distracted by colourful spots emerging from the monochrome undergrowth: the bright green of the musk, the deep red of the amanita muscaria, the fluorescent yellow of a fuligo septica, the white of sheep hide. When we get out of the wood, we are close to a stăna (sheep pen) and we keep our distance. More of the wood. We get to a spring that Alex recalls coming out among the roots of some fir trees. It’s wonderful. Being there. Being.
We admire the landscape of endless forests surrounding us. We are close to Mt. Ciucaş, but we do not head to the top, it will be some other time. Nevertheless, we have a stepover at Cabana Vărful Ciucaş and get a Ciucaş beer for a toast with the Mount in the background!
We descend only to go back up on the opposite slope. On the trail, between the rocks and the low fir trees, a fox flees to my passage. Light. Without looking back. I stay still to enjoy the encounter as much as possible. We go down, it’s steep, we cross a dry stream, we walk up some roots, we are tired.
Towards evening, we eventually catch sight of the shelter we are due to spend the night. Casuta din poveşti, the fairy tales house in the middle of the forest! Surprisingly similar to the one I went to last year in Italy, and found in the same way: through Google Maps. Mr Stefan, besides giving us our keys, welcomes us with the fire burning on the stove, tells us something about the surroundings, then leaves. We light a campfire outside, too to have some light at nightfall. We eat. I attempt a few little excursions in the dark, but we are on a steep slope, and I give up. I fall asleep in front of the fire. They wake me up to go back inside because, as previously mentioned, being alone outside in the wood at night is not so safe.
Morning finds us refreshed, ready to enjoy the beauty of the place we are in. Quietly, we get ready to continue the journey.
We ascend, we leave the forest, the horizon comes back to light. We travel wind-drawn ridges and faces, meet a flock, the dogs bark. Now, from above, we can get an overview, and draw our path in our minds with our finger. We can compete with our senses of direction. Over there, beyond the pond that is about to turn in a small lake, we’ll have to get back in the forest to reach the car. We have some music to accompany us and to keep bears away, who, we warmly hope, don’t like techno-house music. More alert than on our way up, I find numerous tracks, footprints, droppings, that testify their recent presence in this area. A closely-avoided encounter.
