After a long period of rain, the forecast showed good weather in the mountains so we had decided to leave Brasov, heading for a hiking tour in Făgăraș Mountains.
We planned to hike two of the 14 mountain peaks in Romania over 2500m: Dara Peak (2500m) and Hârtopul Darei Peak (2506m).
We left Brașov on Friday afternoon and drove to Sâmbăta de Sus, where we left the car and hiked up to the Valea Sâmbetei Hut.
We followed the forestry road and shortly, we saw a small bear cub that, scared by our presence, ran into the forest to his mother who was waiting for him. How do we know that? Because, after the bear left, we discussed and we agreed that we had all seen some big brown thing moving up in the forest, but didn’t feel like telling each other in the heat of the moment.
We have seen thousands of bears during our bear watching tours and learned a lot about brown bears, to know that the mama bear is one of the most fierce animals on Earth. So we were very happy that the cub ran away before his mama came looking for him.
Just before leaving the road and entering the forest, we saw several wild orchids (Dactylorhiza saccifera).
We were amazed by the beauty of the waterfalls and the scenery that surrounds us.
After 2 hours through the forest, just before 9 pm we arrived at Valea Sâmbetei Hut. We had dinner and talked to old and new friends. There is something special about dinners in a mountain hut, surrounded by like-minded people.
On Saturday morning we had breakfast, prepared our backpacks and we started to climb. The weather is good so we set off.
We had to climb to Fereastra Mare a Sambetei (the Big Window of Sambata). The mountain shows us his beauty: the rhododendron makes us stop quite often for pictures.
We arrived at Fereastra Mare a Sambetei and, after a short break for more pictures, we headed towards Dara Peak.
The weather is still good. Although, some black clouds appear in the sky, they do not scare us and we go determined to the top. We see in the valley the Refuge and the Urlea Lake, we pass by the Urlea Peak and in a short time we reach the Dara Peak, 2500 m.
After the pictures from the peak we also hike up to the Hartopul Darei Peak where we take a short break (2506 m). We enjoy the scenery, take pictures and descend back to the hut.
We decide to follow another route so we go down through Cheia Bandei. And luckily so, because here we have reached the paradise! We are among whole valleys of rhododendrons.
We arrived at the hut in the evening, glad that we had a perfect day.
On Sunday morning we walk down to our car and, on the way to Brasov we made new plans for our next hiking tour in Carpathians .
