The next day saw us heading for Zarnesti and our dedicated
wildlife watching part of the trip. Besides the occasional sighting unlike
other trips our luck seemed to have run out on this one for casually seeing
lots of good wildlife without purposefully looking. We hoped to find a couple
of birdwatching sites on the way to Zarnesti, given our track record over the
previous two days we didn’t hold out much hope.
Just north of the town of Rotbav,
we managed to find the unmarked track to the old station halt, behind which lay
a complex of heavily stocked and fished carp lakes – (Romanian for carp is
Crap). We were fortunate here to find several good birds, once we’d negotiated
detours around all the kennels of guard dogs – some on chains and some not.
This meant much of what looked the most interesting areas we could not access.
We did manage to see lots of marsh warbler, singing river
warbler, marsh frogs, great reed warbler and fieldfare carrying food to their
nest, little bittern and purple heron. After spending an hour or so here we
headed for our destination at Zarnesti in order to be there for late afternoon
in time to be taken on an organised bear watching trip.
Our route to Zarnesti took us through Brazov where we
experienced the best to date of our ‘Romanian driving incidents’. We had been
given fair warning about Romanian driving prior to our trip and thus far this
had proven true. Such was the highlight of our driving experiences I will save
it for a blog of its own!
On arrival at Dan Marins’
Transylvanian Wolf abode we were
treated to tea and homemade traditional Romanian cake. The directions given to
find the accommodation was invaluable – we’d never had found it otherwise.
Our first evening was spent fruitlessly couped in a hide
while a tub full of chocolate was deposited outside in the hope the local bears
would visit. The beauty of wildlife watching is nothing is a certainty and once
again, we managed to sustain our 100% record of not seeing a bear. Things
probably didn’t help that it began to rain and the wind got up. Also, forestry operations
were still taking place just before sunset which probably did not help. We returned
to our accommodation a little disappointed but this was soon satiated by a
fantastic spread for a late evening meal all laid on by Luminita Marin – a superb
cook and host along with husband Dan.
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| (c Rotton yarns) |
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| (c Rotton yarns)
|
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| Camberwell beauty
(c Rotton yarns) |
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| Globeflower
(c Rotton yarns) |
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| Heart flowered marsh orchid
(c Rotton yarns) |
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| Ragged robin
(c Rotton yarns) |
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| Roe deer
(c Rotton yarns) |
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| Silver studed blue
(c Rotton yarns) |
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| Slow worm
(c Rotton yarns) |
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| Spreading bellflower
(c Rotton yarns) |
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| Yellow bellied toad
(c Rotton yarns) |
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| Dusky cranesbill
(c Rotton yarns) |
Breakfast the next morning picked up where the previous
evenings meal had left off – amazing with enough spread to make a substantial
packed lunch with to see you through the day ahead in the field with Dan. Once
suitably gorged, we set of for a day in the lower alpine hills – stunning scenery
and the plants were amazing. One that sticks in my mind most is the hillside
cover in Globeflower, all about to break bud. In the UK this species is a rare
plant restricted to a few sites. I have visited one of these near Bakewell,
where I was fortunate to see a few plants eking an existence in the dappled
shade of some scrub. The scene on that mountainside once again put it all into perspective.
We visited many sites with Dan. Some we had seen described
in ‘where to watch’ guide books but I’m sure we’d never have found any of them
had we not been with Dan. They are just in such obscure locations with no
obvious indication of their presence. After
a busy day in the field our banquet of an evening meal once again proved
scrumptious – Luminita is an amazing person! Breakfast the next morning
followed the usual pattern. We were also given enough again to make our packed
lunch for the day’s journey ahead to Brazov.
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