You like hiking but you also have an eye open for the traditions and history ? You would like to explore a wonderful world of limestone, gorges and plants, but also get in touch with the monastic life in Carpathians ? This hiking tour offers the possibility to visit remote monasteries but also some of the biggest and most important monasteries in the country, to hike or climb in the National Park Buila-Vanturarita.
Area: Căpățânii Mountains, Buila-Vanturarita, Cozia massive.
Level rate: Moderate (with few difficult points)
Dates of departure: June – October 2010, on demand
Nr. of team members: 2 – 12
Trip duration (days): 7
Required gear: Backpack, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, spot light (preferably frontlamp), good mountain boots, waterproof and warm changing clothes, water can, sweets.
1ST DAY. Welcoming you at the International Airport Bucuresti – Otopeni. Introduction, short presentation of the trip and leaving the airport, heading for Căpățânii Mountains.
- Difficulty: easy hike
- Hiking time: 3 h
- Transfer time: 4 h
Schedule of the day:
10:00: Leaving Bucharest heading NV on A1 highway across the Romanian Plain (Câmpia Română). We keep NV through Pitesti (the city of tulips). Pitesti , also known as the city of tulips is seated in the high part of the Romanian Plain at 300m ( 984ft) on the terraces of Arges river at 116km ( 72mi ) northwest of Bucharest . The road takes us in the pre-mountain hills of the Arges county (Subcarpati / Muscelele Argesului). Crossing “Dealul Negru” (The Black Hill) we are almost in Râmnicu Valcea (ancient roman fortress) on the banks of Olt river.
12:30: A short break in Ramnicu Valcea to eat and to visit the first typography in the country.
13:30: Leaving and heading towards Cheia village(20 km dist,6 km length).From hear the trip takes us on a forestry road on the banks of Cheia river.
14:00: We stop at an old monastery (Ezer nunnery) from XVII century.Near by is the holly cave of an ancient monk.
14:30: Leaving.
15:00: After a while we make a little detour to visit Pahomie monastery, situated under a protective rock wall.We take a two hour tour (hiking) to Patrunsa monastery. As the name in Romanian suggests, it is located deep in the mountain.
17:00: From Pahomie we leave for the final destination of Cheia chalet situated on the right side of the river with the same name.
17.40: Arriving at the spot and preparing our accommodation.
Highlights of the day:
Râmnicu Valcea, situated in a beautiful area near by Olt river, well known in Romania as a clean quiet city. The town’s development was secured by the flourish commerce exchange between Transylvania and Walachia on the Olt’s transversal valley.
Capatanii Mts, Buila-Vanturarita Masiff , are spectacular limestone mountains, +2000m ( +6500ft ) , cut by beautiful gorges ( Bistrita, Oltet, ). Along with Parang Mts, Lotu Mts, Latoritei Mts, Cindrel Mts, Sureanu Mts, those mountains makes the Parang group of The South Romanian Carpathians ( Carpatii Meridionali ), that lies between Olt and Jiu rivers as the eastern and western borders, and Transylvania and Walachia in the north and south. A lot of the most valuable historical and cultural sites are situated on the south end of those magnificent mountains.
Pahomie monastery, build in 1520 near a spring that comes out directly from a lie wall. It is a beautiful place filled with history of forgotten times.
Ezer monastery, build by Radu the Great and his son Mircea the Old in late XIV century is a immaculate site and a delight for the eye.
Patrunsa monastery, a beautiful church build in 1740 is now surrounded by a prosper little cleric community.From here you can see the whole mountain and the valley beneath.
From “Cheia chalet” location, a very spectacular view of big walls with tough climbing routes and lots of caves to explore, wild river and undisturbed forests.
Accommodation: Cheia Chalet – 900m
2ND DAY. Hiking in Buila-Vânturarita Mountains
- Difficulty: demanding hike
- Hiking time: 8,5 h
Schedule of the day:
- 8:00: wake up, breakfast and briefing
- 9:00: living Cheia location and easy ascending up a little affluent of cheia river in to the forest
- 10:30: a little break at Comarnice abandoned sheep farm. We are steel in the woods so it is a good opportunity for those who like nature to observe the fauna and flora of these dense and wild Carpathians forests.
- 12:00: we get to the alpine area and the slopes are steeper. The whitnes of the limestones is pleasing we began the first portion of the Buila-Vanturarita ridge at it`s highest point, Vânturarita peak, 1885 m. From now on the hike is alpine and hard.
- 14:00: we arrive at a sheep farm in what is called Curmatura Builei. It is a low point in the ridge and a little peak is separated fro m the rest – Tucla peak. From the top of this peak you have the fealing you are a top of a layng dino. We will have the opportunity to see how the cheese is made and taste the final product directly at the shepherd.
- 14:20: we continue the trip on a large high plateau until we get on the end of the ridge. At this end is the valey of Bistrita river
- 15.30: we are living Curmatura Builei, after getting back from the last part of the ridge, on a trail that goes under the ridge and then crosses the meadows we saw from the top. In a while we will enter again in the forest.
- 17:30: arrive back in Cheia Chalet
Highlights of the day:
Buila-Vanturarita ridge, with a length of almost 14 km, with spectacular views and strong sensation to offer.
Hiking on Buila-Vânturarita Mountains.
- Difficulty: hard hike
- Hiking time: 7 h.
Schedule of the day:
- 8:00: waking up, breakfast and briefing
- 9:00: leaving for the down stream of Cheia river. The entering point in the deep gorge is not far from the chalet. We enter the realm of limestone boulders fallen like pebbles and fast running waters with care. On the tour we will have to jump from boulder to boulder, walk thru cold water and put on climbing gear for short descents.
- 13:00: we get out of the gorge and we take a long break
- 13.30: we take-off to go back to the chalet. After a short walk on a forestry road, we climb a steep slope before getting to the first high point that dominate the gorge we just left. From here we have a very beautiful view of the trail hanging dangerously over the river below.
- 15:00: arriving at the starting point. The end of this part that is called The Goat Trail we might spot some black goats that live on the higher ground of the mountain.
- 16:00: easy activities like easy climbing on the nearby rock called Santinela Cheii
Highlights of the day:
Cheia Gorge, separating big walls and having lots of caves it is spectacular in its appearance. It is wild and fascinating.
4TH DAY, Hiking: in Cozia Mts (~9 hours)
Schedule of the day:
8:00: waking up, breakfast and briefing
9:00: living the chalet and crossing the river we climb a steep slope that is a shortcut of the forestry road we came on at Cheia. We arrive at a tunnel and continue our trip until we enter the forest and had randomly towards Olanesti gorge
11:00: we arrive at Olanesti gorge and take a break for site seeing
11:30: we live the gorge and had to the bold mountains that can be seen in the background. They seem close but it will take a wile to get there. The slope will be moderate and the climb mostley thru the woods.
13:30: we get to the alpine zone.The hike takes us now on easy terrain even we are at over 2000 meters.
15:00: we begin descending slowly until we get to the forest and from there to the chalet
Highlights of the day:
The alpine area of the main Capatanii ridge, a calm terrain area that is very gets over 2000 m and has a beautiful panoramic view. Also on these area black berries grow in large quantities.
5th DAY, Hiking in Cozia Mts
- Level rate: It’s a rather easy hike.
- Hiking time:~ 6 hours
- Transfer time:3 h
- Height difference: +600 m.
- Sightseeing objectives: Beautiful view over Parang, Retezat, Latoritei Mts. The glacial lakes of Parang.
- Cozia mountains, a small but wild mountain.
- Calimanesti, a little resort well known for its curative spring waters.
- Stânisoara monastery, a monument from XVIII century
- Turnu monastery, build in 1676 near hand carved caves of a monk that lived there long time ago
Day schedule:
- 8:00 waking up, breakfast and briefing
- 9:00 leaving by car. First we get on the way back to Cheia than Ramnicu Valcea and from here to Calimanesti – a little turistic town well known in the world for its “wonder” springs. From Calimanesti we had on a forestry road with the car to Stanisoara monastery.
- 12:00 from Stanisoara we begin the hike to the Cozia chalet. The trail takes us over some steep slopes and wild terrain. Spoting black goats and wild bores is not unusual.
- 15:00 arriving at Cozia chalet. We take a break for tea resting.
- 16:00 living Cozia chalet. We get down on Turneanu – a ridge that descend from Cozia peak (1668 m). The little towns below are a nice scene as well as the Buila-Vanturarita ridge that it just on the opposite bank of Olt river that flows between.
- 18:00 we arrive at Turnu monastery, our final destination.
Accommodation: Guest-house Caciulata.
6TH DAY
- Difficulty: easy hike
- Hiking time: 4h
- Transfer time: 3h
Schedule of the day:
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8:00 waking up, breakfast and briefing
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9:00 we live by car to Lotrisor gorge. The Lotrisor is a small river that flows into Olt river. Its gorge are at some points very high. Here are also climbing routes of all difficulties
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9:30 we will leave the car at the entrence of the park an start hiking on the forestry road that takes us deeper in the hart of the mountain Basarab.
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10:30 we arrive at Lotrisor waterfall. Here we take a break and prepare to do a little rockclimbing.
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12:30 living the Lotrisor waterfall and heading for a tour of some very famous monasteries.
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14:00 Cozia monastery
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15:30 Ostrov monastery
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16:30 Cornetu monastery
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17:00 from Cornetu we will get on boat and descend on a few rapids of Olt river.
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18:00 arriving at the hotel
Highlights of the day:
- Cozia monastery, build in 1387-1391 by Mircea cel Batran
- Ostrov monastery, build in 1521
- Cornetu monastery, build in 1666
- Lotrisor gorge and waterfall, a spectacular view of untamed nature
- Olt canyon, ancient trade route and bridge between two parts of Romania
Accommodation: Hotel in Cozia
7TH DAY SATURDAY
Return to Bucharest
Timing upon flight schedule.
