Wednesday, 11 September 2013

11th - Fagaras Mountains/Sambetei

Not much walking today, so it wasn't too bad.

The morning was spent on visiting Bran castle, close by where we had been spending the last couple of nights. Bran castle is more known by its less formal name; Dracula’s castle. It got its name as at one point Vlad the Impaler too up residency there. A beautiful castle, very unlike the large almost bombastic buildings in England this was a very compact building with a lot of small nooks and crannies, small corridors and generally fairly small rooms. Overall it was a great walk around and nice to see.

After lunch we went back to the bus which took us to our next destination, the Fagaras Mountains. It would be a 3 hour walk up through a valley where just before it would be getting steep we would spend the night at the Valea Sambetei Chalet. We were supposed to walk along a long muddy road which is mainly used by loggers, but due to the moist weather our driver took us up as far as the bus managed, which cut off almost an hour of the trek. Getting out of the bus it was only drizzling so it made the walk easier as opposed to if it had been pouring down.

The walk up was primarily by mud paths so the path all the way up to the lodge tended to be quite slippery. Apart from that it was a nice walk – the clouds were hanging fairly low so the sun never really appeared.

After a few hours we arrived at the lodge where we were separated into dorms and rooms. It was a nice place, but as there was no heating you had to rely on having a nice warm sleeping bag. Personally I didn’t have any problems with that, but others were apparently struggling a bit with the temperatures. I had no problem with staying here for two nights.

The castle sitting in the background overlooking the town.

Small narrow staircases.

The inner courtyard.

Vlad's clothing. Easily recognizable from the pictures that exist of him.

Two of these black swans were spotted after our lunch break.

Gotten out of the bus and started walking along the road.

Reaching the lodge, all we can see are low clouds.

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