Day 29 – July 11th – Sapanta to Sucevita
We were feeling slightly apprehensive about our longer road trip today. We were to head due east of Sapanta, to Sucevita, a small village in the mountains in Bucovina Province which is famous for its many UNESCO listed painted Monasteries. Our apprehension was mainly due to the uncertainty of the road conditions – it was mountains most of the way (about 250k). The estimate driving time by our GPS was about 10 hours!
However, we enjoyed our final breakfast at the Pensiunea Ileana – we were the only two in the quaint outdoor dining area – but they served enough for twice as many – Ileana proudly told us with her smile that everything was from their garden or farm, that ‘nothing from shop’. The table was spread with cheeses from both sheep and cow, honey from their own hives, warm milk from their cow, yoghurt from their sour milk, prune jam from their tree – one of the delicacies was cheese (from the cow) spread thickly on capsicum! And coffee and orange juice. She said if they don’t have it, they trade for it – but they ‘not buy from shop’!
Breakfast was saddened a little by their news that Ileana’s husband had been taken to hospital overnight, and that things were not good at all. They managed to be just as warm and gracious in serving us, as if nothing had happened, but we could just sense that preparations were being done with the house for perhaps the moment of his passing, when the village people will come to the house and spend time with the family.
Daniel advised us to go the longer, better way by avoiding the long mountain road, but making our trip more like 400k. We headed off with Julie in charge of the GPS on our iPad which has more than proved its usefulness. We were literally tracking with the Ukraine border on our left hand side for quite some time. In fact our entire trip was basically tracking just below the border, at some points literally on the left side of the road.
The driving was slow due to so many small villages, or simply continuous housing along the road, with frequent horse drawn carts with hay or soil, or even families making their way to the village (it was Saturday morning). We were happy though but eventually came to the corner where the recommended, longer route went due south to Bistrita, and looked a fine road as per Daniel’s advice, and the not-recommended mountain road went off slightly to the left but with the ominously mountainous backdrop of the famous Carpathian mountain range filling our view. At the corner was a dis-used fuel station which now seemed to see tyres, so I went in to enquire with the one solitary male who was sitting in a small office and who had no clue of English. I had my iPad map in hand and did my best to ask about the road condition, but I wasn’t getting any confidence that he understood, until I mentioned the name of the town half way along the narrow mountain road. His face lit up and was all nods and smiles – so we took the punt to go that way and cut off about 100-150k of superior road.
So into the mountains we went. The road was terrible but the views were consistently tantalizing all the way – the sweeping beautiful valleys of lush green meadows with the hundreds of hay stacks in typical Romanian fashion, the red roofs of tiny farmhouses and the frequent beautiful Orthodox churches with their tall spires that stood so majestically over the countryside. We climbed and ten descended through beautiful forests with the most unbelievable scenery – we had to keep stopping to take photos. The road was narrow and the surface patchy, which required a degree of rally driving to constantly avoid the almost continuous pot holes or patched surface that has deteriorated since patching. There were other cars coming and going occasionally which made us feel safer and more secure that we could at least make it through the other end.
We were actually going up, over and through the great Carpathian Mountain range, and would have loved to know what altitudes we were climbing to – the views from the summits were always spectacular. Both climbing and descending into the many beautiful valleys required multiple switch-backs which seemed to be the nature of this road – we could understand why Daniel advised against it, but for us it was a very valuable and memorable experience.
We always felt safe, and we were doing very well for time, and grateful that we had taken the punt on chancing the road through the mountain range. We came to the small community of ‘Camping Moldovenesc, with our destination of Sucevita about a further 35k, which required a left turn back towards Ukraine and more mountain climbs and valleys. Just as we crossed the Moldovita River, and entered the tiny village of Moldovita itself, I just noticed a small sign to the ‘Moldovita Monastery’ and made the quick decision to take the turn to the Monastery. What we discovered was the first of many of the famous ‘painted Monsateries’ of Bucavina that have been heritage listed by UNESCO, and the very reason for us coming to Bucovina.
The Monastery was a mere 1k off the road, but we lingered there for over an hour. I will say more about the famous painted Monasteries tomorrow, but we were so delighted to stop, pay the mere 20 Lei (about $6) for entry for both of us, in order to stroll through the beautiful Monastery grounds and especially admire the 600 year old Church building that has been covered in Biblical frescoes both inside and entirely outside as well. Described as an ‘Open Bible’, there are some 12 of these Monasteries in the Bucovina area all within a radius of 50k from the central town of Suceava. However, more about this tomorrow.
We drove the final 20k or so to the tiny mountain village (through more beautiful valleys) of Sucevita to our ‘Pensiunea Figilo’, just past the beautiful frescoed Monastery of Sucevita, the reason for choosing this village for our two night stay. The Pensiunea is a very high class place, and worth so much more than the cost of $50 per night including breakfast. Dinner was delightful, and the young staff are all simply charming to us.
From our beautiful 3rd floor ‘suite’ at the Pensiunea Figolo, with its balcony with beautiful views of the Carpathian Mountains, we send our love.
KRA
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