2020, 30 May

On a sunny Saturday morning in May, we grabbed our backpacks, which included enough food and drink for a day, and then drove to the well-known village called Rimetea. We parked and then set off to climb the motif that rises above the village, offering a wonderful view.

Rimetea, is one of the most beautiful villages in Transylvania, is a settlement wedged between Piatra Secuiului and Ardașcheia in Alba County, in the eastern part of the Transylvanian Central Mountains. The beauty of Rimetea and the surrounding landscape attracts many tourists to the site every year. Perhaps due to its closed location, Rimetea is one of the few settlements that has preserved its millennial traditions and unique folk culture even through the storms of history. This venue also hosts the Double rise festival, named after the specifics of the venue. The sun rises twice in Rimetea! This is due to the fact that, viewed from the village, the sun has risen behind the Piatra Secuiului, so it seems to appear and rise twice.

Our trail started from the center of the village, at the blue cross sign, which is well signposted. We climbed up the stepped pastures above the village, left the box of mountain rescuers and soon arrived at the foot of the mountain. This is where the so-called Great Ditch begins, which rises steeply and in which stone streams make it difficult to ascend. About halfway up the ascent we find a spring, whose water is drinkable.

INTERESTING: The water of the spring exploded in 2005 after a major hailstorm and carried hundreds of tons of rubble down, scaring the inhabitants of Rimetea.

We ascended 600 m for a total of about 3 km. This road, despite its difficulty, is the most popular hiking route to Pietra Secuiului peak. Resting, we soon got into the saddle, from where the view had already begun to take shape.

Our first peak was Castle Rock Peak , which is 1113 m high, (vf Colții Trascăului), From here, during the Tatar invasion, the heroes successfully defeated the enemy for several months. There is no trace of the former proud castle today, and instead of heroic heroes, paragliders prefer to take possession of the summit.
Ao approach this summit, you need to turn onto the path marked with red lane but you also need to deviate from it immediately. There is no signposted trail leading to the summit, but there is a well walked path. Be careful not to fall off the edge of the cliff !!! Along the way, we passed a peak called Roman Garden (vf Grădina Romei), which is 1090 m high.

USEFUL INFO: You can get to Rimetea from here by following the red lane Great choice for a round trail from Rimetea, in the scorching sun, as it leads in the woods for a long time. Very slippery in rainy weather.

To reach the Piatra Secuiului peak, which is the highest peak, we had to return to the saddle on the path marked with red lane. From here we switched back to the blue cross.

Attention! Two roads marked with blue crosses also branch out from the saddle, to the Piatra Secuiului peak!

After a harder ascent, we reach the top of Piatra Secuiului which is 1129 m high. From here we got a perfect view of the village below us and the whole valley.

We headed south from the top on the ridge, following the blue cross.

To descend are two options:

1. difficult: a very steep slope with rocks
2. easy: a more sloping one that gets around the hill

Both routes are marked with blue cross but many warning signs are laid out, making it difficult to confuse the two.

It was very exciting for us to come down. We saw the rain fall farther so we chose the steep slope to get down the mountain as soon as possible. Just as the tiny slippery stones had run out, it began to drip. True to a good tourist, we had raincoats, which we quickly hid in. We had to be very careful to find the red triangle in the rain, which leads back to the beginning of the hike.

USEFUL INFO: the red triangle  sign branches in two and the upward part leads to a cave called Kőluk or Grota Studenților.

We missed this, due to the weather, we tried to get back to the car. The rain was quickly rushing over us, and soon the sun was shining again.

Before leaving for home, we even bought langos, a traditional Transylvanian food, from the locals.

If you haven’t been here yet, be sure to come. If you’ve been here before, you’re sure to come back.

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