The more you discover of the Apuseni mountains, the more you want to explore because they offer many possibilities: hiking, climbing, canoeing, camping, speleological exploration, etc.
For the last day we saved the longest hike: Galbenei Gorges and Canyon. This is a circuit which should be done in about 9 or 10 hours from Padiș, because the road to Glăvoi is only accessible for high guard cars.
Very early in the morning, passing by the green house we started our last hike in Apuseni for 2018. The sunrise from the Ponorului Meadow was just amazing; no words can describe that beauty, and the photos cannot capture the colors and the gorgeous view.
The first destination was the Borțig Sinkhole (Avenul Borțig), Romania`s second largest Pleistocene cave of 54 metres depth. You can descend into it only if you have the right equipment.
After about 30 minutes we reached a small lake at the bottom of a large rock wall, supplied with water from below: the Yellow Karst Spring (Izbucul Galbenei). From that point we entered the canyon, the Yellow Valley (Valea Galbenei). For about two hours the route is flanked by hundreds of meters of rock walls, nine waterfalls and 93 caves. The passages are equipped with steel cables for hands and feet. They look like a via ferrata trail.
After admiring the huge rock walls and some of the waterfalls, we reached the Fan Waterfall (Cascada Evantai) - the most impressive, I would say, gushing out exactly from one of the caves. From there we had only a few sections of cables left, and then the trail took us back to the forest on a steady climb to the Flower Glade (Poiana Florilor), where we finally had our lunch. “Wow, amazing canyon!” we said then. “From now it should be easier.” Wrong thought to have before you actually finish a hike J I know it because it had already happened before…
We had to walk up and down for another two hours before we reached the Pleistocene cave called the Living Fire (Focul Viu). They say that every day around 2.00 p.m. the light enters the cave and lightens up the ice for a few minutes. We missed it because we got there two hours later…
Glăvoi was really close and from there to Padis we walked for an hour, a little hungry and anxious to eat some more cheese pies and to say goodbye to those wonderful people.
It had been a long day and a short holiday, but in the end all that matters is how you feel and what you have learned. As I said after the first day on those lands: we should appreciate simple and small things, and learn from those people how to live happily with what we`ve got! Beause what we`ve got is just enough!
Photos: personal archive