Caraiman & Balea

A few weeks ago we were thinking what to do in the extended week-end at the beginning of December. It had to fulfill 2 basic conditions:
1. to be nice 🙂
2. to be unique aka something new
So we’ve came up with the following: 1st of December take the cable car from Busteni to Babele and visit Caraiman cross… like the old guys are doing :). This is fulfilling the first condition anyway. The Bucegi plateau is niiice and we’ve never been to the cross. 2nd of December take the bikes and go from Balea Cascada to Balea Lake. This is unique :).
We were really lucky that the weather was excellent in this period. So…

First Day – Bucegi

We’ve woke up pretty early thinking that a lot of people will want to take the cable car from Busteni to Babele because 1st of December is a free day. But to our surprise it wasn’t crowded at all… perfect. It is a bit expensive in my opinion … 64 ron up/down, but it is the longest from Romania so probably that’s why they charge so much :P. When we’ve arrived at Babele another surprise… it was quite warm. We took some shots and headed towards Caraiman Cross aka Heroes Monument.

Somebody left the glove hanging over the lens 🙂

The route is very easy and beautiful. As we were approaching our destination the view became more and more beautiful. Can you see the black goat in the next image? 🙂

After less than an hour we saw the first appearance of the cross. It is very beautiful and I was wondering why I didn’t go there before.

A nice view over Busteni…

Form the Cross I could see a fantastic view over Fisura Albastra. Since I first saw that wall (I was 7 years old back than) I fall in love with it. Its hard to describe…

As I was taking this shot an extremely cold wind was blowing from the valley… I’m glad that I was not climbing in that area on that wind :). A few more shots from the cross…

That was the first day… a relaxing walk on Bucegi plateau and visiting a new beautiful sight.

Second Day – Balea Lake

A week ago we went biking to Poiana Brasov in order to prepare for this trip. Unfortunately we’ve arrived home frozen. So this time we were prepared with a lot of clothing :). However … the weather was really warm and left some of the clothes in the car at Balea Cascada. The road was all ours 😀 … it was really nice but a bit awkward in the same time. But… although the road is closed and some concrete blocks are blocking the road, there is a small gap and you can squeeze in your car. As we were climbing a few cars passed … anyway its dangerous because the water now freezes and can dislocate huge blocks of rock.

The view was excellent and it really was something unique 😀 … a perfect way of spending a Friday. Again we saw a black goat … I was waving to the cable car and she got scared 🙂

We’ve stooped quite a lot to take pictures because the view was breathtaking.

As we were approaching the steep part of the climb the ice on the road was more and more present. Eventually we had to push the bikes for the last 3 km. The ice was all over and it was far less easier to go forward along the bike. On some portions the ice was so smooth and slippery that we’ve barely manage to continue. We’ve arrived at Balea Lake after 2 hours and something :)… I think almost 3. The view was so nice and the whole experience in general that we’ve kinda lost track of the time. At Balea we’ve ate a hot soup took a few shots and climb down because the sun was no longer shinning on the road and it was quite cold.

We’ve really enjoyed these 2 days. The 2 conditions were fulfilled and we are very happy :). The biking trip to Balea however was the winner on my list. I really enjoyed the view, the air, the road and … climbing down for 14 km without any effort 😛

 

And a short movie