Piatra Harcană

A salt mine was just outside Cluj-Napoca, my final destination in Romania. The pictures looked good so decided to make a small detour to check it out. Seems half of Romania also had the same idea - another popular spot. The mine started operations in the area in 1271, and the deepest part of this mine was mined between 1690 and 1890.

I’m not a huge fan of being underground, but knowing that this giant mine has been stable for the last few hundred years, I figured it give it a go. Once I walked down a long gentle staircase and along a tunnel I arrived at the ‘Rich’ stairs. Sounds like where I should aim to be. Going down these enters the biggest cavern. It’s 13 stories high open area with walkways around the damp rock walls.

I get the feeling of claustrophobia and fear of heights all at once. There is a lift that goes down but the queue is insane so I walk to the other end of the cavern and take the 13 flights down wooden stairs. Once I arrive at the bottom a theme park awaits. There is a Ferris wheel, mini golf, badminton, table tennis and more. Very little about the mine is here, it seems it’s just an all weather amusement park underground.

Looking down to the lower cavern (another 13 stories down) I can see the lake and some cool light installations. Another elevator has a huge queue so again I take the stairs. These narrower stairs are jam packed with very little movement. I eventually get to the source of the problem. A very fat man going up completely blocks the path to anyone going in any direction. I manage to squeeze against a corner to manoeuvre around him. Everyone else seems to just wait confused. Not to judge 👨‍⚖️ but I’m amazed he made it this far up the stairs given the amount of sweat flowing from him.

The lake looked better from above, and I didn’t feel like renting a row boat for a solo paddle. With the stairs still clogged I waited 40mins for an elevator back to the main cavern. Was worth the wait as a guy who started the stair climb at about the same time
I joined the queue came out as I got out of the lift.

I’d honestly had enough of it by this point. The hundreds of people, with each kid screaming to hear their echo was giving me the shits. I walked up the other 13 floors to make my way out and high tailed it to the car. I think this is probably good for kids wanting to play the attractions downstairs but I was more interested in the history, which was lacking. It was still an impressive sight to see - a candlelight musical performance would be amazing in here (with no kids).Read more