Camping (and not the kind that involves dressing up in costume)
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Last weekend went camping with the local branch of the Red Cross here in Deva with whom I've been doing some volunteering outside of the organization I was assigned to. Orginally the trip was supposed to be four days but it was shortened to three due to rain and it included a training in emergency first aid - in Romanian.

Day one included setting up camp - which I was not allowed to help with. After a lunch fit for a king of fried egg sandwhiches I brought along for the trip and a tomato, everyone not involved in the elaborate process of cooking a huge meal over a camp fire settled down for a nap under a tree in a meadow alongside a stream. It was a picturesque scene from one of my many daydreams - however when lying in bed pretending you're in a meadow it's easier to sleep without things crawling about under you. I very much enjoyed the shade and smell of the grass, but I did not sleep outside. It was a bit disappointing, because I also didn’t bring a book in English because I didn’t want to be rude or distracted from the opportunity to speak Romanian with people. Camping with people who didn’t want me to do any work would involve a lot of waiting.

This is the meadow where we had our first aid training which was accompanied by the grazing of some cows with a local farmer looking on.
The second day was to be a hike I almost didn't go on because I did't really understand the trail guide and I expected it to be the equivalent of climbing a steep hillside. I'm glad I did decide to go on the hike because it was actually just walking down a country road and I got to see some beautiful landscapes. We were just outside a town called Brad which is 31 Kilometers north west of Deva.

Everything was so beautiful and almost out of another time. Frequently walking down this road you'd be passed by a horse and cart or a farmer with a few cows. We often stopped for a snack of wild blackberries. It was just like all the hiking trails I took as a kid where I always pretended to be an animal or a character in a story on a journey, only now I could more easily believe it. I could have been a wandering minstrel or a traveling rouge. It was hard to believe that this was just a road in front of somebody's house, passing somebody's farm. I half expected to see a naked Paul Bettony stride around the corner at any moment.

Can you tell why I felt I was at the begining of a quest hiking down this road? I said I feel like I’m in Lord of the Rings walking down this road and many people agreed. Someone said “but we don’t have the music.” “It’s ok,” I said, “It’s playing in my head.”

I really admired the people I was hiking with because even when we started out it was drizzling a little. We even remarked upon that as we walked. How it felt good and added to the “olden time” quality of the excursion to just dismiss the rain. To say, hell with it, I’m getting wet. It was sprinkling intermittently and hard to tell the difference if it was rain or sweat. I will say, that if I was being wimpy even my camera was pain to carry, but luckily my Romanian friends insisted on carrying my water bottle and the jacket I wasn’t sure I wanted to bring on the hike.

We walked down the country road for 10 Kilometers (about six miles) then went off the road, down a hill, across a river and up another hill (this is where the climbing comes in) where there was no trail to see a cave. This was explained to me by one of my new friends who speaks very good english. She didn't want to see the cave that apparently you have to crawl into on your stomach because she is calustrophobic and she nominated me to stay outside with her. I was fine with that since getting to the cave (up the hill) sounded like a little bit more than I was up for.

I am becoming aware of the limitations of my camera. Despite my flash it was not this dark out. By the time we crossed the river it was raining in earnest. Not raining hard but raining steadily heavy drops. We who didn't want to see the cave so we waited under some trees for the rest of the group to come back. Again I was reminded of how often I’ve listened to the rain indoors and imagined myself to be a fox curled up in a hollow log, or asleep on some dry pine needles under a sturdy tree. However, this experience served to show me how silly this daydreams really are. When it rains in the forest, you get wet. Very wet. It wasn’t cold until we stopped moving and sat under our trees, but there was no doubt about it – we were saturated. Including the Red Cross jacket leant to me because I forgot my sweatshirt – and I had been so cold the nigh before I slept in the jacket in my sleeping bag. Not a chance of that again. The jacket wouldn’t be dry again for a long time.

When the others did come back it was decided that most of the group was continuing on to see another cave. Those wet-and-not-interested-in-caves like me went back to camp, where I crawled into my tent. Dried myself with somebody's hand towel they leant me. Put on every piece of dry clothing I had brought with me, and was given three swallows of ţuica because "it warms you," whence I promptly fell asleep for four hours and when someone came into the tent to see if I was Ok, he spoke English to me and I answered half asleep and drunk in Romanian.

After a while it stopped raining (thankfully or I wouldn’t have been able to leave my tent wearing every dry piece of clothing I had including my pajamas under my clothes) and I was able to warm myself by the cooking fire and eat a vegetarian dinner of bread, zacusca, tomatos and cheese – also hot cocoa and mint milk).

I feel like I was always the first in bed on this camping trip, while others stayed out till 4 am sitting by the campfire talking and playing music. Granted I wasn’t always the first one asleep. The second night however rain forced my tent-mates to join me sooner than usual and I had a peaceful – and surprisingly not so cold night of listening to the gentle rain and being thankful that for now at least I was dry.

The next morning I walked back down the trail to take some of the pictures I missed the day before while keeping pace with the group. I ate wild blackberries from the roadside for breakfast and drank of the cool refreshing stream water.

Sunday I also got to peel and slice potatoes for an amazing lunch of samale – and there was some sarmale fara carne (with out meat) my favorite Romanian dish, made special just for me! When I couldn’t possibly eat any more I was told to bring the whole pot home with me and just give it back to the Red Cross another day!
After lunch we packed up the camp and I was a little disappointed because at this point I was so in touch with nature – and also so dirty, I would have welcomed a little nude bathing in one of the clear deep pools in the stream we passed on our hike. I would have been so there if I’d only brought a towel! However we were soon on our way home and I got to take a long bath in my apartment followed by a hot cup of tea and soft mattress underneath me. Although I really enjoy the campfire, the sound of rain, the smell of the grass, and my time in communion with nature I think living in that grassy meadow by a stream is best left in my imagination.

Druid Laura