New friend

We had read about the mud volcanoes and salt lakes near Sibiu, so we headed off to find them today, starting with the mud volcanoes. The guide book and the map were not very clear as to the exact location of these natural wonders, so we drove to the general area where we thought they ought to be. We stopped a couple of times and “asked” the locals in sign language and by pointing to our map. They pointed us in the right direction but with the language barrier, some things got lost in the translation. Finally, one farmer said he would show us where they were. So he tethered his horse, got in our car, and off we went. He explained that you cannot get to the volcanoes by car, so we parked at the side of a dirt road and took off on foot, with our new friend in the lead.

He loved to talk, and the fact that we don’t speak Romanian didn’t seem to slow him down! He gave us what we assumed was a history of the fields and what has been happening with the methane gases coming off the volcanoes. We walked across a couple of fields, a small stream, some train tracks and found ourselves at the foot of a small hill. Here our guide pointed to a few patches of mud and indicated this is what is left of the volcanoes. They used to be mounds of mud pouring out of the earth like volcanoes, but they have stopped doing that now. All that is left is small areas of muddy sand. So we went back to the car, drove our friend back home with lots of thanks and set off toward our next natural wonder – the salt lakes.

Again we drove to the general area where the lakes ought to have been, and although the countryside was quite beautiful, we did not find the salt lakes. We did find a small patch of water with what looked like large salt deposits around it and figured that must be it. Yasmin and Roya actually said that based on our luck with the volcanoes, this was probably the salt lake after all!

We did have a relaxing drive through the beautiful countryside, went for a long walk in the fields, made a new friend and got some fresh air. All in all, a good day!

NM