Lazarow World-Hike-About

We commenced at the cable station below, headed through the dense forest and reached the upper-valley and then onto the lakes and further up from that position. To our right is the cascade (not in view, see below). Reaching the waterfall from the forest and then onto the glacial valley. A different perspective of Balea Lake, the other side. One of the benefits of international travel, particularly when staying outside cities, is the quality and variety of people one comes across. This can be broken down into two categories: Those we meet on trails and others in the suburbs, particularly guesthouses and places that have communal dining rooms and kitchens or outside lounging areas. We meet locals who are on holiday and internationals who are usually hiking and exploring. Perhaps it’s the common interest or, similarity in pursuing goals and activities but generally, we are blessed to meet so many people who are considerate, interesting, some stimulating, and who provide ...

We obviously love the outdoors, the wilds and living close to nature. City life is wonderful for many but not us. So as a compromise, all of the pictures are from high positions, mostly above 3,000 feet of accumulated gain, while some of the scenes are of towns and cities. A nice compromise, if you will. Jenni nears a peak after scaling the crags at Craiului Mountain Park. Somewhere on the Bucegi Mountains, early autumn. Spectacular park, Bucegi Massif. Reaching the peak, Vanatarea, in thick mist, Fagaras Mountains. We thought of sharing some insights from our budding trip in Eastern Europe, our second this year in the region. It's also our second autumn of the year, a favorite season of ours, the first being Argentina during March/April. We never travelled much during this time of the year in earlier periods because of the High Holy Days. A few years back we visited South Africa for the holy days, two years ago Greece, and last year Johannesburg and Cape...

As we return from the peak, Postavarul, we approach the ski resort...most attractive. We’d completed hiking in the great mountainous region of the Fagaras by Friday afternoon. We needed a rest after some grueling and steep hikes and climbs. We arrived back at the pensione and set about preparing, mainly Jen, who takes care of the culinary requirements, exclusively. I make the tea. The food choices for us have been rather limited on this trip—even the salads have lost some of their consistent crispness and taste. By the time we reached course two, a mix of vegetables in heavy sauce, the food did not taste appetizing or we began to feel rotten. Thereafter, my stomach went into free-fall or -flow while Jen held the fort for a while. Thirty-six hours later I began to nibble on dry bread. Jen went the same way, delayed by about 15 hours. We did much sleeping until Sunday morning when we headed for the second largest city, Brasov, for the New Year. The previous Wednesday night, at a...

A mother's dream position, one way of looking at it. Mountains block out the sun early in the late afternoon. We thought of introducing the Piatra Crailui Mountains by trying to get to the crux of the matter or in its case, some of the peaks. We’ll show more detail later but two hikes exhilarated us enormously; actually, they were thrilling, gave us pause for contemplation and rank as some of our finest experiences in mountain climbing rather than hiking. To reach Cabana Curmatura, we ascended some 2,350 feet and from that point, over the afternoon and the following morning, climbed the craggs to reach the ridges and peaks. We’ll go into more detail in follow through blogs. We spent the night in a cabana situate below the ridges. There are times that we walk around, whether in the mountains or towns, and wonder where we are. Sometimes it feels like we should pinch ourselves to determine whether we are dreaming. While not every day is ‘peaches and cream’, in fact, som...