Harghita

Beware of the bears, every sign and internet review tells us.
Stay in after 7pm sunset for your own safety, says the park ranger running the campsite. "Yes there are many many bears in the forest, but only 3 who tend to come to this camp" he says when asked about them...
Bears are not tourist attractions. Bears are a real danger. Bears are deadly. Bears live in this forest!!

"How do we get to the lake please?“
"oh you just walk through the forest"
🤣
"Oh OK! Do we get any sort of protection, or a lift in the minibus perhaps? Bear spray... A whistle?"
"No basically just walk through the forest. If you come accross a bear just be very careful to face it, but not look it in the eye, walk away fast but NEVER run, make loud noises but DO NOT shout. Beware of the deadly bears but make sure to stay completely calm and relaxed. If they attack you, stand tall and proud but if they touch you drop into the fetal position and cover your face and neck. Understand?"
"ok"

So I sang 100 green bottles, to make sure the lovely friendly deadly bears heard us coming and were not startled by our sneaky appearance... It must have worked because we were the first walkers of the day and the fresh clear bear prints we saw has evaporated by the time we walked back (ie they are purely water marks not mud, aka they were fresh only seconds before we got to that bit of road!)

We were comforted by the 2 big dogs who chose to befriend us all the way down, and one all the way back 🥰 but it was arguably even scarier when one just stopped in its tracks and then ran away 😅😅😅

Sadly/luckily no bear sightings but we did find a few pieces of evidence!Read more