E3: Stâna de Vale to Sohodol: Day 85

A ridge path blocked by trees and brambles made for slow progress this morning, there was easier walking this afternoon.

View from the ridge.

By accident, not understanding what was being said to me in Romanian, I bought a punnet of raspberries in the restaurant last night, so I ate them for breakfast before a climb out of town on a tarmac road. A few kilometres up the road I turned off onto the E3 on a trail that rose through areas of trees and grass. I had concerns about this route as initially I was told by the SKV that it could be blocked, later they said it should be OK. At first it was on a reassuringly good forest track, unfortunately the E3 left this easy vehicle route, turning off onto a thin and patchy path. I was relying on the blue triangle waymarks to keep me on the right route, fortunately they were frequent....most of the time. The route became increasingly difficult as it followed the top of a forested ridge. Fallen trees blocked the path, and when one tree fell, it seemed to bring several others with it making large detours or a lot of climbing over logs necessary. Light then reached the forest floor causing brambles and saplings to burst into life hiding any path and often blocking progress. In addition the ridge became narrow with steep sides. Outcrops of rock had to be negotiated. Pushing through the undergrowth, climbing over rotting tree trunks and up and down steep slopes to find a way through was really sapping my energy. Matters were made worse by incessant, if light, rain. My waterproofs were making me hot, tears of sweat were falling down my cheeks and my glasses kept steaming up obscuring evidence of a possible path, should it exist. I was about to give up and turn back but I reasoned that there was a track down to a road somewhere ahead of me, which was nearer than the distance I would have to retrace my steps for over numerous areas of fallen trees. Consequently I continued on, and when I reached a joining track, matters greatly improved. 

Fallen trees and steep slopes each side of the ridge.

From then on the walking was easy, if muddy in places, on forest tracks which seemed to be kept open by ancient tractors and trailers cutting and collecting wood, one of which I passed. In future I would recommend anyone walking the E3 to follow the road north from Stâna de Vale, then turn west, uphill on the track marked by blue circles, this joins the E3 marked by blue triangles heading for Meziad.

Today there were many fire salamanders on the track, black lizards with yellow spots. I suppose they liked the rain.

Fire Slamander.

Meziad consisted of two parallel roads with a waterway between, lined with the single storey, red roofed houses characteristic of these villages. Tractors and other farm implements were left beside the concrete banks of the waterway. People were about along the length of this strung out village, ladies in head scarfs, men in working clothes, we exchanged nods or "buna's" as I passed. I had recorded in my notes that a shop might exist at the main junction with a road heading north. Under the concrete of an unfinished building, a convenience store did indeed hide. I was soon enjoying a Coke and a snack on a rough bench in the shelter of a concrete alcove that housed the door to the shop. A man tried to engage me in conversation while I was eating my cheese filled pastry. The lack of a common language made this a fruitless exercise. He tried a bit of mime, pointing to the sky, and up the road, but I was more interested in my pastry, especially as I feared he was offering me a bed for the night, out of the rain, which I would have had to politely refuse. I wanted to make some extra distance so as to reach Suncuius tomorrow, and continued for an extra hour or so. First I followed a narrow valley with fields of maize, then the track climbed to higher land. Here I found a desirable spot to camp, beside a quiet side path among heathland, not far from the next village of Sohodol.