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This fast paced 130-mile-ride starts in Schaal
(Romanian: Soala), a small, but 800 year old Saxon village about 20 km
South-West of Medias. From Schaal we ride throughout the next days each
20-30 km from one village to the next through this century old
cultivated landscape. The settlements are usually guarded by an old
fortified church, where the inhabitants were seeking refuge in times of
attacks by Tartars and Turks. Wurmloch/Valea Viilor and Birthälm/Biertan,
where we will stay one night, are probably the famous most fortified
churches in Eastern Europe. During the first four days we still ride
quite a lot through forests, the hills are steeper here and consequently
more forests remained. After day 5, once we have crossed the Harbach-Valley,
the landscape gets more and more open and the hills are smooth. Now we
let the horses run fast - they would get really upset if we would not
canter and gallop the long ridges and valleys. After crossing the river
Olt, we get close to the Carpathians now. We spend a last night in a
small hotel in the village of Grid and climb up the next day into the
forests of the Carpathians, they have changed now from oak/hornbeam
forests into the mixed forests of the Carpathian Mountains. Our ride
finally ends in Sinca Noua.
 IT-RORT05
Rates: Include all meals, lodging in country inns and guesthouses,
8 riding days.
11 days/ 10 nights $ 2,175 Single: N/A
-- based on € 1,395
2008 Dates:
05/10-05/20 06/07-06/17 07/19-07/29
08/16-08/26 09/06-09/16 10/11-10/21
availability & reservations
Meeting: Bucharest
Airport: Bucuresti Otopeni
Transfer: Included from
Bucharest
at set times
Tack: English
Horses: Shagya Arabs,
Arabs, Kisberi,
Gidran, Hungarian half breeds
Pace : 15
to 20 miles per day, 4-7 hours per day - not suitable for novice,
participants have to be competent in all speeds and able to fully
control a horse at canter and gallop
Level:
Strong Intermediate
Min/Max: 3-8 riders
Note: A donation to the Conservation Fund of the area (min
Euro 40) is expected from all riders.
Delta now flies direct from New York to Bucharest.
Itinerary
Day 1 Saturday
Arrive in Bucharest mid afternoon, where you will be picked up and
transferred to Şoala, a journey of approximately six hours. Spend the
night in Şoala at a guesthouse.
Day 2 Sunday
Today you have an introduction to the ride and meet your horses. Then it
is an early afternoon start with about 3 hours riding through the
forests and hills. Overnight in Mosna.
Day 3 Full day ride to Bierthan, where you visit one of the
most famous fortified churches of Eastern Europe built in medieval times
to protect the villagers against invading Turks. Overnight in a
guesthouse.
Day 4 Today is a full-day ride over the hills to reach
the open spaces and meadows beyond. You have the opportunity to visit
some projects of the Mihai Eminescu Trust, an English organization under
the patronage by Prince Charles. This Trust has done some fantastic work
in the conservation of Saxon villages in Transylvania. Overnight in a
guesthouse in Mălấncrav.
Day 5 Full-day ride to Neustadt, through oak and hornbeam
forests. Later you will visit a nearby lake, (the only lake in Central
Transylvania). This is a good place for bird watching. Your overnight
accommodation is a guesthouse run by the Evangelic Church.
Day 6 Half-day ride to Selistat a remote village in the hills.
You will pass through more open land today, with the forest being less
predominant.
If you are lucky, you may spot a Bee-Eater, Lesser Spotted Eagle,
Honey-Buzzard or a Golden-Oriole. Take a detour towards the village of
Schoenberg and have some fantastic canters over the meadows. Overnight
in a guesthouse of the Evangelic Church in Selistat.
Day 7 Full-day ride through the villages of Lovnic and Cobor.
The latter is a small village with Hungarian inhabitants in the middle
of a fascinating landscape. Then you ride further to Ticusu Veche, where
you stay overnight in a privately run guesthouse or with some other
private farmers. This accommodation is very basic.
Day 8 Half-day ride from Ticusu through beautiful oak
and hornbeam forests into the Olt River Valley. At Halmeag, you cross
the River Olt and continue to the village of Grid. Here you overnight in
a small hotel at the edge of this small village.
Day 9 Full day ride into the Carpathian Mountains to the
village of Sinca Noua, where the trail ride finishes. Overnight either
at the riding center or at a nearby guesthouse.
Day 10 Today you take an excursion by bus to the
Lipizzaner stud of Sambata de Jos, (the largest Lipizzaner stud in the
world) and the Sambata de Sus orthodox monastery. Overnight at a
guesthouse.
Day 11 Transfer back to Bucharest in time for your departure
flight.
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Slide Show
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Right in the middle of
Romania, only 50 km west of Brasov, lays Sinca
Noua (New Shinca), a picturesque village between
the Persani Mountains in the Northeast and the
Fagaras Mountains in the West. The Sinca River
flows from Poiana Marului via Sinca Nou into the
Olt River, which reaches the Danube River after
its journey through the Carpathian Mountains.
The first inhabitants of Sinca Noua moved to the
area in 1762 from Sinca Veche (Old Shinca), some
10 km further North. It was about 80 families
who were hiding in the deep forests of the Sinca
valley to escape from forced Catholicism and
military service in Maria Theresia's army. They
settled near an old orthodox wooden chapel that
was build in 1572 and is still a very important
site for the community.
Today, Sinca Noua is inhabited by 1,800 people,
4 of which belong to the Hungarian minority, 2
are Saxons, and about 200 belong to the Roma.
Their main occupation still is agriculture and
livestock breeding, but in the recent past,
eco-tourism has also become an issue of
interest.
People in Sinca Noua are very friendly people
who are still deeply rooted in their traditions.
Especially in winter, during Christmas Eve and
St. John's Day (January 7th), this becomes
obvious: the whole village, young and old,
participates to the festivities of the two-week
long "Turco". Also, weddings are still
celebrated the old way by the people in Sinca
Noua, for three days and three nights with
little breaks - just as in the old days.
Sinca Noua gains its picturesque quality with
sheep, goats, horses, cows, and water buffaloes
jamming their way through the main road every
morning and evening to the communal pastures
outside the village. In the beautiful
surroundings you can also easily find tracks of
wolf, bear, lynx, wild boar, or red deer, and
with a little luck, you might even see one of
them.
The town hall has declared Sinca Noua to be the
first "ecological village" of Romania and the
local council has elaborated a sustainable
development strategy for the village over the
past years. This strategy includes measures to
strengthen the small-scale, traditional
agriculture by certifying as organic agriculture
and building a local processing food industry
(everything from organic bakery to organic
butchery), the development of eco-tourism, the
creation of protected areas, and the
implementation of an environmental education
plan for the local population.
This curved mountain range divides Romania
from Northeast to Southwest and lies on a
distance of more than 900 km. It ends at the
"Iron Gates", where the Danube crosses through
the mountains and separates Romania from Serbia.
The highest peaks reach over 2,500 m and are
mainly located in the Southern "Transylvanian
Alps". In the Eastern and Northern Carpathians
several high, rocky mountains also break through
the forested hills. In the East and Southeast,
the Carpathians border on the hills of Moldova
and Dobrogea, and in the South and the East they
border on their foothills. All these adjacent
hills range between 500 and 1,000 m.
Romania has a moderate,
continental climate with hot summers and cold
winters. In the southern plains around
Bucharest, summers often reach 40° C or more,
yet in the mountains, temperatures are cooler.
Winters can be cold and with lots of snow,
whereas the Southern Carpathians are usually
less extreme than the Northern Carpathians.
Along the border of Ukraine, the climate is much
more continental. CNN provides here a weather
forecast for Brasov.
We use mainly locally produced food in our
kitchen. People in Sinca Noua generally don't
use pesticides or artificial fertilisers, and
the livestock is still kept the old way, that
is, outside on the pastures. Our own vegetable
garden delivers fresh onions, salad, zucchini
etc. Other food such as milk, potatoes, lamb,
and veal is bought from the farmers in the
neighbourhood. We support the village on their
way certifying their whole agriculture as being
organic.
Conservation contribution
We ask all our visitors for a donation of 40+
Euro per week for our regional conservation and
development fund, which supports sustainable
projects in and around Sinca Noua. Furthermore,
we are personally involved in a number of
conservation projects.
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