Day 16: Jess is a Wanderer conquered Brasov's Mount Tâmpa and it was a sticky, sweaty, steep old climb!
Having still not recovered from being cooped up on the train for 14 hours two days ago, we needed to blow off the cobwebs and it seemed fitting to climb Brasov's famous mountain. It's possible to go right behind the 'Brasov' sign, reach several peaks at the top and enjoy some spectacular views.
The trail starts right next to the cable car (which will take you to the top in about five minutes for less than 20 lei). Follow the red arrows and you will get to the cable car drop off place within an hour. Alternatively, about 3/4 of the way up, there are different signs pointing to - not entirely sure - but one option was 20 minutes away and one option was four hours away. They both went the same way so we followed to see where we would end up. Not sure why we didn't follow the simple 'tourist' trail but, you know... we do these things and when we're sweaty and dying half an hour later we're not sure why!
As we walked, more signs appeared and gave options of where to go. The red arrows are for easier trails and the blue are the more difficult with yellow in the middle. We took a mixture of trails and eventually found the top. It was a long old slog that left both of us struggling for breath and stumbling over the non-existent path in places. We were like a couple of elephants bounding around in the heat without our big ears to keep us cool. I also kept veering off the path in search of different views which made the journey last unnecessarily longer than it needed to. Haha. The view of Old Town and the surrounding city was most incredible and we could literally see for miles. There was a viewing deck which we sat on and actually had a little nap in the sunshine. It was perfect!
After conquering the summit, we walked along the top, hung out behind the famous sign and then headed back down the windy trail leading to Old Town. In all, we walked almost 10km and then treated ourselves to some well-deserved cider whilst watching local performers show some traditional folk dancing.
That's it for Romania as we're travelling all day tomorrow on our way to Bulgaria.