Monday 22 September 2025 – The utter correctness of our decision to ignore the extreme hike that was scheduled for the day became apparent almost immediately we got under way. Before that, though, we had a pleasantly leisurely start. The bathroom was a clear winner in the “Best Bathroom So Far This Trip” competition, and since breakfast didn’t start until 9am, we were able to take things nice and easy. At a few minutes after 9, we got down to the rather attractive terrace outside the building, to find a forest of upturned chair legs, but people fairly soon appeared and got things in order

and we had a decently eggy breakfast to set us up for the day’s walking.

We were joined by the family cat.

Romania seems to be a very cat-friendly country. Wherever we’ve gone, cats have been in evidence. There has been the usual plethora of dogs which spend their day (and night – Ed) barking at nothing – we suppose that this is just such a part of the local way of life that no-one really notices – so it has been lovely to see cats being such a part of the pattern of life here.

Although we weren’t doing the Well ‘Ard hike, we still had some 8km to cover to get to Zărnești, and set off a few minutes after 10am.

The overall direction of the route was downhill, descending some 300m in the 8km. However, although I felt fine walking along the straight and level, there were a couple of very gentle uphill stretches to start with, and it was immediately clear that my body hadn’t replaced the energy sapped from it by yesterday’s exertions – my legs felt leaden and uncooperative, such as when being asked to walk past a pub. However, these gentle uphill gradients were short, few and far between, and we could enjoy the great views in the lovely weather – glorious sunshine and temperatures around 20 Centigrade.

Măgura is a textbook example of a “Kalibash Village”, a uniquely Romanian development. Farms are scattered along ridges with these dramatic views over the Piatra Craiului mountains. The emphasis is on harmony with the land and self-sufficiency in the community. Just as well, frankly; it’s bloody miles from anywhere and the local shop

doesn’t look as if it keeps a ready supply of life’s necessities. The library is small, but perfectly formed

and there are no tarmac roads. It’s a lovely place, very strung out, with well-spaced houses. It was a 2km walk through the village from the church end, passing a couple of interesting buildings, such as this fairly modern place with a very traditional turf roof

and this barn, which had a very unusual texture to its walls.

On closer examination, the texture appears to come from wooden tiles

which are of an unusual shape. If of clay and on a house, I would call these hanging tiles, but these were clearly nailed into position.

It was right at the far end of the village that our route left the dirt road and headed off into the valley.

The sign says that it’s 15 minutes to the Zărnești gorges. The path leads clearly downhill and we were prepared for it to be steeply downhill. Just as well, as it was probably as steep in a couple of places as anything we’d encountered yesterday.

Being the misguided macho man that I am, I tried to cover this 100m vertical descent without using my poles. However, there were a couple of places where I really needed them, so I was glad to have them with me. It wasn’t all steep downhill

but most of it was, right down to the dirt road that leads to Zărnești.

The overall gradient we walked down (ChatGPT calculates for me) was 1 in 7, which doesn’t sound very steep, but I invite you to consult my knees for a second opinion on that.

At the bottom is a riverbed, which seemed dry, with a dirt road beside it.

The area is part of Piatra Craiului National Park, and had we done the Difficult Bastard Hike originally planned for the day we would have headed off up there, to toil up 600m and then down 900m over 15km – er no. Bollocks to that. We went down the dirt road instead. It seems to be popular as a destination for a stroll; we passed several people just walking about, and you can clearly get a car up the dirt road so you don’t have to walk too far.

We passed some mystery buildings

labelled “Danger!” and with other ominous signs outside.

We also passed the point where the Difficult Bastard Hike would have rejoined our route.

The national park has an information centre, with info boards telling you about some of the lovely wildlife you might find there, and

also some for which care is recommended. There was plenty of poo lying around on the track, of various sizes and consistencies. Because this wasn’t actually in the woods, we assumed that none of it was bear shit, but we could have been wrong, I suppose. Some of it clearly came from a couple of cows that were grazing in the margins.

As we approached the end of the dirt road and the start of the tarmac that leads into Zărnești

we were adopted by a friendly little kitten

which I think was hopeful that we could feed it. It certainly did the kitten thing, running around us and between our legs. It would have been ironic to have made it down two mountainsides without falling, only to be tripped up by a bloody kitten, but we made it intact into Zărnești and eventually the kitten stopped following us.  It was a cute little thing, and it seemed harsh to ignore it, but there was nothing we could do for it.

Zărnești is an attractive town, with a few local quirks: driveways with decorated gates;

a relaxed attitude to piping rainwater away from the houses;

some interesting chimneys;

a stork’s nest;

and several rats’ nests.

One restaurant has a quirky entrance

and another house has a very fine grapevine growing all over it.

Our accommodation, Maria’s Dream House, was by the roundabout that houses the town fountain

and appeared to be closed, as we might have expected – it was not yet 1pm. However, Jane optimistically rang the bell and the door was opened by the charming, vivacious and moderately polyglot Ioana. Her languages didn’t include English, so we used a mobile phone app to understand what the deal was, and a very nice place it is, too.

We had free rein in the kitchen, which could have been fantastic had our bags, with their useful supply of Twinings finest Earl Grey, turned up. So we satisfied ourselves with Nescafe and mint tea and settled down to relax until the bags arrived and we could have a Proper Cup Of Tea, after which it was time go out for a bite to eat.

We got a nice surprise when we did, too. Jane had identified a candidate restaurant. It was identified on Google Maps as “Pizzeria Family”, but had a real name of Orașul de Sub Munte – “The Restaurant Under the Mountain”. We walked up through the town, which is handsome

with its not necessarily oil-driven transport

and passed the church, dedicated to St. Nicolas,

at which point we decided, hungry as we were, that it might be worth looking in. The very elaborate door

seemed to have swung shut, but we dismissed this as merely caused by a gust of wind and looked in. Inside was a chap in overalls and

a quite extraordinary interior – beautifully decorated. The church is 600 years old, but has been renovated more than once; the main part in its current state dates from 200 years ago.

The chap inside was delighted to allow us to see the church and particularly its museum, which was in the 400 year-old chapel beside it, featuring some remarkable original frescoes.

Serendipity is a wonderful thing; we hadn’t known about the church and might not have looked in and might therefore not have met the deightful chap inside who was so proud of the church’s wonderful treasures.

We carried on to the restaurant, where we had a very fine meal, of mici (Jane) and pizza (me). We got chatting to a neighbouring couple, who were American but had Romanian family connections, which was a nice distraction from the service, which was, well, strange. The lass who was supposed to be looking after the tables seemed to be lost in the teenage thing of it being NOT FAIR that she had to do all this stuff; but the food was very good. And they had gin. So we had a nice time there before stumbling back to Maria’s Dream home, where we could have another Nice Cup Of Tea.

We have a very relaxed schedule for the next couple of days. Tomorrow, if all goes according to plan, we will be whisked to Putna, some 400km further north. It’s a six-hour journey (at least, if our experience so far is anything to go by) and will deposit us in the area which is the main objective of our visit to Romania. The hiking bit is only a bluff really, and you’ll have to keep your eye on these pages to find out why we really came to Romania.