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The hiking trip takes place in the Apuseni Mountains. It is a sweet landscape
with lovely authentic villages. Your trip
takes place at altitudes between the 600 and 1300 m. The landscape is very
varied with open meadows between dense forests.
The
trip starts in the Bihor Mountains.
You
walk for a couple of days in the nature park Apuseni.
There are many endemic plants and the wildlife is very authentic.
Lots
of the hiking trails follow the tracks used by the
local population since ancient times. The Bihor
Mountains are inhabit by the Moti (pronounced Moots).
They are masters in woodcarving. Further on you
walk in the Vladeasa Mountains where you have the
authentic Romanian population, the Mocani and end the trip
ends in an ethnic Hungarian village Sancraiu.
Especially the Hungarian minority kept very strong to
their traditions.
You
walk through very authentic regions, some settlements
even didn't have electricity up till a few years ago.
Special for some villages in the region is that the
whole population of the village moves to the higher
alms during summer. Unique is that they move with all
their animals and stay for 4 to 5 months in very
primitive huts.
The
region is also very well known for its magnificent caves. You
can visit the biggest ice cave of Romania.
We provide you with maps and a very well described road book. Besides the
description of the road, we’ll give you interesting information about the
region as well.
The accommodation is provided in guestrooms. The Romanian people are worldwide
known for their generous hospitality. We selected local farms where you have the
best conditions. All the houses have a fully equipped bathrooms, and the rooms
in Arieseni, Scrind and Sancraiu have private bathrooms.
You’ll enjoy daily traditional dinners, prepared with mostly homegrown
products. In the morning you have an extensive continental breakfast, at noon a
lunch packet.
Highlights of the program:
- The nature park Apuseni ( you walk 4 days in the park)
- The Ice Cave Scarisoara.
- Lake Fintinele, a beautiful 25km long
accumulation lake.
- Summer houses on the Calineasa meadow
- Coiba Mare Cave and Tauz karst spring
- Wedding Veil waterfall in Rachitele (optional)
- Padis nature reserve (optional)
- And of course the splendid nature of the Apuseni Mountains,
endless
forest, colorful meadows, lovely villages where it looks as time went by
without changes
You can
watch a short video clip by clicking the link:
We've
included a special page about the Apuseni Mountains: click
here
THE PROGRAM
Day 1: Arrival in Arieseni. There is daily a bus between Cluj Napoca and
Arieseni, (bus leaves Cluj Napoca at 17.30 and arrives
at 21.30 in Arieseni) You stay at the Gianina
guesthouse.
Day
2: Hiking trip to the
village Ghetar.
Hiking trip to the
village Ghetar. In the village Ghetar you can visit
the Ice Cave Scarisoara. The cave lies at an altitude of 1100m
and at the bottom of the cave lies and enormous bloc of ice,
75.000 m3 big. It is here since the last Ice Time. This cold
mass of ice cools the air down and seeping water freezes up to
beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. Your host Dino speaks
English.
Hiking: 14km, 3-4 hours.
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Optional:
the Nature Reserve Padis: From Ghetar you can make optional a
2-day hiking
trip to Padis. It is a limestone mountain plateau in the center of
Nature Park Apuseni known for its dozens of caves and
dolines, canyons and colorful meadows and lies at an
altitude of about 1.400m. "Cetatile Ponor" or "Fortress
of Ponor" is the most spectacular site in Padis. It consist of 3
enormous dolines that are connected by tunnel caves. The entrance of the cave in
doline one is 70m high. The biggest doline is 800m wide and 180m deep. On the
borders of the dolines is a hiking trail with several balconies from where you
have superb views. The
Padis plateau is mainly covered with spruce
and fir trees. The geo-morphic structure, the
height and some traditional human activity all
are factors that define the flora of the
nature park. Specific are the open grasslands and
silted dolines where you find a typical
wetland and swamp flora. You can reach
Padis from Ghetar in about 6 hours.
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70m high
cave entrance
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Doline 3
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Day
3
Round
trip to Casa de Piatra. The authentic village got only 2 years ago connected to
electric power. In the village is the cave Ghetarul
de la Virtop and the cave Coiba Mare. Coiba Mare cave has a fantastic impressive entrance. Depending the
water level you can get a few 100m in the cave. Ghetarul de la Virtop
can be visited with a guide. Along the way back to Ghetar you
can visit the impressive Tauz karst spring. Distance 25km, 7 hours hiking.
climbing 400m. You stay again in Ghetar.
Day 4: Trip
to Poiana Horea. You make a very nice walk on the slopes
of the Cluj mountain towards the Calineasa Meadow.
You'll come along primitive harvesters settlements,
large open meadow and through evergreen forest. Horse
and wagon spans loaded with tree trunks cross your
trails. You walk generally above the 1000m altitude.
Poiana Horea is a larger villages of forestry workers.
You stay at the guesthouse of Charly and Monica.
Distance 22km 300m climbing, 350m descending.
Day
5: Trip to Doda Pilii. The trip goes completely through the forest and over beautiful meadows to
the settlement Smida. From Smida it is short walk to Doda Pilii, a harvesters
settlement where you stay for the night at the
guesthouse of Carmen and Dan and their son Horea. All
of them speak very well English. You’ll notice the typical simple wooden houses of the Romanian
mountain people. The settlement lies at the confluence of the Firei and Somesu
Cald Rivers. Distance 18km, 6 hours hiking, Level difference 150m
climbing, 150m descending
Day 6: Trip to Scrind. You leave Doda Pilii and climb the ridge to the
settlement Dealu Botii. You'll enjoy superb views over
Lake Fintinele. It's a nice trip through scattered
patches of forest. From Dealu Botii it goes over the
plateau to the Ruginoasa hill from where you descend to
the new guesthouse Dariana in Scrind. The owners Silvia
and Gitse will take care of you. Both speak a little
German. Distance 22km, 5-6 hours hiking. level
difference: 250m climbing, 350m descending.
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Optional: hike to
the Wedding Veil waterfall and the White
Rocks from Scrind. The
White Rocks are among the highest limestone rocks in the
Apuseni Mountains (1514 m). The weather
conditions and altitude are the reason
that there are here less flowers then in
the other limestone regions in the Apuseni
Mountains, about 250 species. But there
are some special endemic plants here.
There are some rare orchids as Corallorrhiza trifida. On the grasslands there is an abundance of Crocus..
The Stanciu river drops about 30m and the
waterfall offers year round a fascinating
spectacle.
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| Wedding
veil waterfall |
White
Rocks |
Day
7: Trip to Sancraiu. You climb first the 1200 m high
Ruginoasa mountain. The steep climb is afterwards
rewarded by the beautiful panorama's when you descend to
the village Margau. From Margau it goes over Bociu and
further over immense pastures to Sancraiu in the heart of
the "Kalotaszeg" region, so called by the ethnic
Hungarians. Distance 18km, 6 hours hiking, Level difference 250m
climbing, 650m descending.
Day 8: Breakfast, end of trip. From Sancraiu you can walk (or brought) to Huedin
railway station from where there are daily several trains
to get back
in Cluj Napoca.
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| guesthouse
in Scrind |
guestroom
in Sancraiu |
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| map of the
trip, you start in the south and walk north. |
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