Responsible Travel in Romania - apuseniexperience.ro · the area: Cetatile Ponorului (Ponorului Fortresses). Three huge sinkholes, with depths around 200 m and diameters over 100

A pack, a trail and yourself is everything you need. Think of it as Zen on foot: you eat when you’re hungry, you trek and you sleep when it’s time to rest. Despite the effort, roaming freely on the trail is satisfying in a way few things in our normally hectic lives can be.Crafted for the avid trekkers, the itinerary follows an imaginary line from north to south of the Apuseni Mountains, passing through forests, deep gorges, mountain pastures and karst plateaus, all in one: a true lost world. You’ll enjoy breathtaking views; gentle winds and great mountain people who live close to Mother Earth and always happy to share their view upon life with you, without asking you: “Why on Earth are you climbing the mountains?”

Trip details:Start/end: Oradea or Cluj-Napoca

Trip length: 8 days/7 nights, Activity level: moderate,Group size: min 4-max 15,Availability for 2018: March 23th; April 13th;27th; May 11th; 25th; June 1st; 15th; 29th; August 10th; 24th; September 7th; 21st; October 5th; 19th.Price: from 1045 euros/personBeyond trekking: traditional way of life, mountain culture, traditional crafts, and cave visits

During this trip you will trek and discover typical landscapes ofoApuseni Mountains: forests, glades, caves,underground glaciers, karstic springs andwhirlpools, sinkholes.discover and learn about the occurrence,omechanisms and the way a karst systemworks and interacts with the naturalenvironmentinteract with local people, listen to theirostories and learn about their lifestyle

Responsible Travel in Romania

www.apuseniexperience.ro [email protected] 410068 -Romania, 1 Decembrie Square 4-6, room 8 Tel./fax: +4 0359 410556

Apuseni Experience is a trademark of EcoTransilvania Ltd.

The price includes:Local transfers by car including transfer•from and back to airport.3 meals per day (starting with dinner on•first day and ending with breakfast ondeparture day).Accommodation: 7 nights in mountain•cabins and guesthouses ranked with 2**(daisies, according to Romanian legislationfor rural tourism); rooms have 2, 3, 4 beds with ensuite or shared bathroomsguidance and all expenses related with the•guidecosts related to trip preparation•team equipment•all entrance fees to local museum or caves•craft demonstration fees•

TREKKING THE LOST WORLDThe price does not include: personal drinks and refreshments, insurance, souvenirs and other personal costs.

Note: We are always open to our customer’s demands and needs. Therefore, the itinerary described above can be adjusted accordingly in what regards the period and the activities included. Please contact us for more details.

Contact persons: Mihai (Mike) Olenici / Mobile: +4 0747 962 482Paul Iacobas / Mobile: +4 0745 602 301E: [email protected] Experience Responsible Travel Programme

ITINERARY

Day 1: Arrival and warm-up.Arrival at the airport and transfer to Stana de Vale mountain resort (1102m). Accommodation in a local guesthouse, dinner and rest.

Day 2: Stana de Vale mountain resort –Varasoaia Glade After breakfast at guesthouse we will pack our rucksacks and will take a 6 hours trail along the mountain ridge. On our way we will reach Bohodei Peak (1650 m), a bellevue place from where we will admire the impressive landscapes of the central part of Apuseni Mountains, from where we will descend to 1300 m altitude, in Padis Plateau. Packed lunch on the way.Padis Plateau is the ideal destination for backpackers willing to discover the exceptional natural attractions of the area, given by the presence of numerous caves, potholes, gorges and canyons, ice caves, bellevue points, sinkholes and karstic springs in an area of only 36 sqkm. For the first night, we will stop at Varasoaia mountain chalet, close to the entrance of V5 pothole which is the deepest cave in Romania. Check-in, dinner and rest.

Day 3. Varasoaia Glade –Padis Plain – Balileasa Glade – Glavoi Glade – Cetatile Ponorului mountain chalet. After breakfast at the chalet, we will go on a 5 hours hiking for discovering a part of Padis Plateau. We will leave Varasoaia Glade, will pass by Varasoaia Lake – a typical karstic lake – towards Padis Plain, our first stop of the day. Here we will visit the permanent exhibition organized within the Visitor Centre of Apuseni Nature Park. We will find information about the karstic landscape of the area, the history of tourism in the area, about local flora and fauna and about measures taken for conservation of the biodiversity of this unique place. Further on, we will follow our way towards Balileasa Glade, an uvala (a karstic depression shaped like a valley formed by the unification of several sinkholes) where we will observe the negative impact of overgrazing upon the vegetation present here. Leaving Balileasa behind, we will reach Glavoi Glade, the main camping place in the entire area, a crossing spot for numerous tourist trails and then, we will arrive at Cetatile Ponorului mountain chalet, somewhere in the middle of an old spruce forest. Check-in, dinner and rest at the chalet. Packed lunch during our hike. Day 4. Cetatile Ponorului chalet – Poiana Ponor – Cetatile Ponorului.This day will be dedicated to a hike that will reveal to us parts of the complicated surface karstic system of Padis: Poiana Ponor (Ponor Glade) and Cetatile Ponorului (Ponorului Fortresses). In Poiana Ponor, the waters from Padis collected in underground galleries come to light through a karstic spring, form a creek of approximately 800 m length which, further on, disappears in the underground through some strainers in order to come out later in Cetatile Ponorului Cave. We will then leave Poiana Ponor and visit the most spectacular karstic phenomena of the area: Cetatile Ponorului (Ponorului Fortresses). Three huge sinkholes, with depths around 200 m and diameters over 100 m, a cave portal 70 m high and a wild creek passing through, these are some of the highlights of today’s trip.

Day 5. Cetatile Ponorului chalet – Lumea Pierduta Plateau – Casa de Piatra.Today, we will leave behind the central part of the mountains and will head on towards, Ghetar Plateau, another typical karstic plateau, famous for hosting the largest underground

glacier in the world – Scarisoara Ice Cave – as well as a series of human permanent settlements (one of the highest human permanent settlements in Romania, at 1350 m) of motzi, who are the native inhabitants of Apuseni Mountains.

On our way we will visit a small karstic depression known as “The Lost World” and named so due to its wilderness in the past. Even nowadays we will have the feeling that we are passing through a jungle, when visiting the entrances of the main attractions of the plateau: the Gemanata, Negru and Acoperit Potholes, impressive for their dimensions and morphology. Then we will follow the trail towards Casa de Piatra/The Stone House, a motzi hamlet formed only by 16 families. Here, electricity was introduced only 5 years ago and locals still preserve elements of archaically life. We will check-in at a local guesthouse where we will have the opportunity to interact with the locals and their life style, including the excellent local cuisine dominated by traditional meals based on organic ingredients.

Day 6: Casa de Piatra – Calineasa Glade – Ghetar plateau.We will hardly part our hosts for heading towards Poiana Calineasa/Calineasa Glade and Platoul Ghetar/Ghetar Plateau.

Calineasa, a large glade situated at an altitude of 1350 m, is a place where hundreds of motzi from down valley villages meet in summer while they bring their animals for pasturing or come for woodwork. Life here is simple, with people living in wooden huts, without electricity or running water, preparing dairy products (various sorts of cheese) and cutting woods from the vast spruced forests.If we’ll be lucky and have good weather, from Calineasa we will admire the main mountain ridge of Bihor Mountains with its highest peak, Bihor Peak (1848 m). Then, we will head on to Ghetar passing through Ocoale, the permanent human settlement situated at the highest altitude in country: 1350 m. Here we will learn about the local traditional architecture and the way these people leave at this altitude where winters last around 7 months per year. We will arrive at Ghetar where we will check-in at a local guesthouse and will enjoy a delicious dinner prepared in the most authentic local style.

Day 7. Ghetar plateau - Arieseni.After breakfast at the guesthouse we will head on to Scarisoara Ice Cave, hosting the largest underground glacier in Europe, with its 100.000 cubic meters of ice dating from the last Ice Age, approximately 3500 years old. On the way, we will stop by the Tourist Information Centre arranged as a local museum established by an enthusiastic local association or we can buy wooden hand made traditional objects or hear the sound of tulnic (a local version of alpenhorn used in the past by the mountain isolated communities as a communication instrument). After visiting Scarisoara Glacier we will head on towards Arieseni, one of the most important tourist locations where we will be hosted at a local guesthouse, enjoy the farewell dinner and prepare for departure on the next day.

Day 8: Departure.Breakfast and transfer from Arieseni to the airport.