E3: Vârciorog to Băile 1 Mai: Day 89

A day continuing westward through farmland, trees and scattered settlements.

As I had another long day planned I rose at 6 am and made use of the coffee machine in the kitchen area of the group of cabins while the sky's grey clouds gradually lightened. The first section was over fields making frequent right angles turns before entering woodland, a pattern repeated throughout the day. In the wooded areas I saw one deer and many of the red and black firebugs on the track, elsewhere I saw a black squirrel and two woodpeckers. Early in the morning there were many birds around twittering, crows cawing and what might have been a couple of Eurasian Hobbies in the sky. Unlike on previous days I saw four horse drawn carts, three loaded with wood and the fourth containing a family. They were the same type of narrow carts that I first observed in Bulgaria. I wondered if they were using horses rather than a tractor or other vehicle as they were poor or because they liked horses or maybe it was easier to access the trees to be cut with a narrow horse drawn cart. They do not appear to be felling whole areas of woodland, just selected trees, maybe for firewood. Although there were two villages on my route neither had a shop or bar that I could see. A significant part of the route was on roads, the rest on good tracks which my knee appreciated and thete were not too many steep hills to climb up and down. From early on today I could see a distant urban area, Oradea I thought, or maybe satellite areas. As I grew closer the plain beside me became wider and more urban.

Băile 1 Mai was a contrast to other places I had visited in Romania in that I entered an area of tidy parkland with elegantly designed lanpstands over tarmaced paths. Tired and hungry I stopped at a Mini-market and bought a baguette with chorizo and mozzarella which I ate on a park bench.

The building in the above picture was the old casino, a historic building. Băile 1 Mai and the adjacent suburb of Băile Felix are "Spa" resorts associated with thermal springs. Spa treatments are advertised and there are aquaparks with water slides for children. There are many hotels and pensiuneas. At my pensuinea the owner praised Britain's King Charles for his support for Romania, where he has a house. We agreed King Charles appreciated more traditional things. He also told me we were now out of season, July and August were his busy months. He would have closed on 15 September but he forgot to cancel the place on booking.com.