Transylvania, a region in rural Romania in Central Europe, is for many people linked to and associated with the fictional Dracula figure out of the 19th century books by Bram Stoker.
However, the meaning of the name, derived from the Latin "ultra silvam" or "exceedingly forested" is much more representative for the true content and richness of this wonderful piece of land in the heart of Europe.
Having known a quite vivid history, and being at times part of the Roman Empire, the Hun Empire, Hungary and Romania, or even being an independent region, it offers a rich variety of nature and culture. For Jeepers, this means endless drives on unpaved roads through hills and valleys, and great visits to almost medieval villages.
Therefore, in July 2008, we decided to set off from the Euro Camp Jeep site near Berlin, with our Rubicon Unlimited, to Romania, crossing Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary, with the aim of spending a two week holiday of off-road driving in the Apuseni Mountains.
The Apuseni Mountains are not high reaching mountains; the highest peak is at only 1,848 m and human settlement can be found even on the highest altitudes. The landscape offers a variety of steep climbing roads, ending on a plateau with a small village, mixed with great views and sights on the valleys. The area is also special in the sense that it is disputed between the Romanians and the Hungarians: one village van be Hungarian, while the next one is Romanian. In any case, the whole area is very rural, with small villages and no cities, lots of unpaved roads, and cattle and horse-drawn carts on the roads.
We decided to rent a holiday house and work with an organization called Green Mountain Holidays, operated by a Belgian ex-pat, and offering active and natural holidays. This turned out to be a big hit! Johan provided us with a binder full of detailed maps, containing off-roads tracks and routes for days and days of driving. Great! We were now free to plan loop-based trips from our cottage, and get up there in the mountains every day, packing a picknick and our maps :. In all, we probably drove about 800 km off-road, visiting among others: medieval villages on the top of a mountain, secluded and almost abandoned monasteries, deserted winter skiing slopes, etc etc …
The real wonders of the Apuseni are not above, but underground. Hidden in deep valleys are extensive limestone formations that give rise to some spectacularly eroded scenery. It turns out the whole region is like a big, white chunk of Swiss cheese, thoroughly carved by underground rivers for millions of years.
A great attraction is the Scarisoara cave, site of a large underground glacier, which is preserved summer and winter. An off-road hike of about 7 km takes you up the mountain, where you can buy and drink and a ticket, after which you descend into the funnel leading to the glacier. The off-road drive up the mountain with the Rubicon was quite big fun. Unlike home, and elsewhere in Europe, there are no restrictions or negative looks from hikers when you are crawling up the mountain in a 4x4 … Fantastic.
Farther away in the northern range of the Apusenis, lies the most beautiful of all Romanian caves. It is called Pestera Ursilor (The Bears' Cave), and was discovered less than 20 years ago. It owes its name to the remains of an ancient species of bear that were discovered here.
In terms of cities and culture, the region offers quite a lot, if you are prepared to spend some time driving. The main cities of the area are Turda, and well-known Cluj-Napoca. Turda is old mining town, offering a very visit to an underground salt mine, which was originally set-up for mining by the Romans, and which is now known to be a spa for people with respiratory problems. Cluj-Napoca is and exciting and vivid university town, offering all comfort and services one can image; in contrast to the rural villages.
All good stories must have some suspense, so we had ours in the form of a ripped off track bar bracket on the rear axle. We presume that the very bad shape of the unpaved (and paved roads), and a fully loaded and packed car, accumulated to a bit of too much stress on the Rubicon, and almost the last day of our holidays, we started to hear weird kloink-kloink sound from the back of the Jeep, when we were climbing up to the Bihor Nagy mountain pass. It turned out that the rear track bar bracket welds had been ripped off; clearly a way too week construction of Jeep here! We had to stop, because the body of the car started to rub against our tires. We made it off-road (luckily) and were towed after 7 hours of waiting. In terms of service and helpfulness of the assistance team and Jeep dealer in Cluj-Napoca: nothing but praise! The bracket was welded back on in less than a day, and we got home safely with it.
In all, this trip from Camp Jeep through Poland and Hungary, and our longer holiday in Romania, clocked off on 6450 km on the counter. Despite warnings of friends and wild stories about the dangers of Romania, we had a great and very pleasant holiday, with great people and great experiences. A really recommended trip for all, as our Green Mountain Holidays guides even cater for fly-and-drive tours with rented 4x4s.
Links:
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Cluj-Napoca: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluj-Napoca
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Green Mountain Holidays: http://www.greenmountainholidays.ro/
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Turda Salt mine: http://www.ici.ro/romania/en/turism/c_salinaturda.html
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Scarisoara Cave: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarisoara_Cave