Nose horned viper

Nice fishy snack

Another gliding snake!

I should perhaps start part two by clarifying that ‘soon’ can mean ‘any time before, during or after the next ice age’ as far as I’m concerned. Now that’s settled, lets kick off with the most venomous snake in Europe shall we? The nose horned viper is found throughout southern Europe and the Balkans, and this particular individual was found along the river Olt, not far from yet another Romanian monastery. Apparently they particularly like piles of rubble, which may explain why this one was sunbathing on a rubble bag when we wandered past a little closer than we maybe would have liked.

I love seeing snakes in the wild, it’s something I’ve never managed in the UK but several times in Europe we have come across snakes sunning themselves on rocks, disappearing into the undergrowth or best of all catching fish in rockpools in a Bulgarian river. I never get bored of watching them (from a respectful distance of course) and just don’t understand people’s desire to label them as ‘slithery, slimy creatures’. They don’t slither, they glide, and if you ever see the sort of movements they manage in the water when chasing fish then you’d understand the beauty of these animals.

Heading down to the mine

Party island in the salt mine pool!

Surprises in the salt mines

Turda Gorge & Salt mine

The salt mine at Turda is like some sci-fi dreamland come to life. I don’t know what I expected an old disused salt mine to be like, but it wasn’t this! They have somehow turned the whole thing into an underground fairground including a boating lake, crazy golf and even a full size ferris wheel. The lighting does an incredible job of showing it all up but the best part is simply the walls. The patterns in the rock, the reflections of the crystals makes it feel genuinely like another world. It even has one particular cave known for having the best echo anywhere! I literally don’t know how to describe this place but fortunately phone cameras are a thing now and they sort of capture a glimpse of an idea of it all. 

The only sad thing is the story of how it was all dug out in the early days, horses being led down the tunnels to walk in circles in the dark working the machinery day after day. Eventually they would go blind and be discarded in the usual way people treat objects that are no longer of use to them. I often wonder which came first - do people start off believing that animals are no more than objects to be used, and so use them; or do they make themselves believe that in order to justify how they treat them?

Guard Dogs

Tuna making a tactical retreat to the motorhome

A favourite barking spot

Dogs on the border

Mountains and Dogs

Talking of animals the size of horses, meet some mountain guard dogs. I appreciate the photos may not be the best, but you do not mess about getting down on one knee up close to these guys! Jump out the van, snap a couple of photos, get right back in again. With most dogs you can sort of tell that if you’re calm and friendly they’ll eventually reciprocate, some are more timid than others, some will bark in an attempt to disguise their fear. These guys just look at you, judge you, and if you’re lucky decide you’re no threat and leave you in one piece. You are under no illusion that you’ll be making friends. A little later on we accidentally walked past their house on a meander through the woods and, well, my advice is do not do that!

Other than the guard dogs pretty much every dog we met in Romania was friendly, or at least understood the concept of friendly and was willing to give it a try. Approximately half of all the dogs in Romania seemed to want to sleep under the motorhome at one point or another, so many nights were spent attempting to get to sleep while the dog or dogs a few cm below our heads were joining in the all night barkathon. They were particularly fond of the tactic of giving us a 30 minute or so break, just so we’d start to think maybe they’d gone to sleep for the night, before startling us back awake with a vitally important rejoinder to their distant neighbours latest discussion point. We didn’t mind all that much though, so we continued to meander our way across Romania, feeding stray dogs and being treated to their appreciative barkings in return, finding along our way stunning mountains, spookily lit castles, some unbelievably impressive storms (including one that blew right through the middle of a local music festival) and one very shocked looking squirrel.

Oh, and right at the end, as we reached the Danube and spent the night looking across towards Bulgaria we found the mosquitoes. Or more accurately they found us. All of them. Bugger.