Muntii Mehedinti trip

To another planet

Until recenty I was convinced that any extra-terrestial travel was very remote and distant in time. Any probability of making such a trip was very low.

An autoportrait under stars, idea borowed from Ioan Stoenica, Romania.

Big Dipper floating above Cerna mountains.

A camp at night iluminated by moonlight.

Plains at night, ilumunated by moonlight.

Camp at night by moonlight.

Moon floating above Mehedinti plateau.

Alpenglow on Mehedinti crest seen from Cerna Mountains.

Crovu Mare, Mehedinti Mountains.

Moon above Poienile Porcului.

Autumn colours in Mehedinti Mountains.

Between Poienile Porcului and Crovu Medved.

Banatian Black Pines profiled on limestone cliffs.

Evening light on rocky plains, Mehedinti Mountains.

After sunset light goes soft and contrast is reduced. This is the best time for taking evening pictures.

Sheep dog.

Bucolic scene.

Old proverb says that: Horses were put on Earth to make landscape beautiful.

A horse drinking from a fountain.

A torso of a beech tree on rocky plains, Poiana Beletina.

Poiana Beletina with Varfu Lui Stan in backdrop.

At dusk on rocky plains.

At dusk on rocky plains.

At dusk on rocky plains.

Moon above rocky plains.

Plains at moolight.

Morning light, Crovu Medved.

Crovu Medved at dawn, twilight edge is clearly seen from this altitude.

Than it came. I befriended a romanian photographer, who had pictures on his web album, which looked like they were taken in totally different world, a world appart from that I already knew.

A photographer at work at dawn.

He discovered a part of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania where landscapes somehow bear a resemblance to the strange world I red about in books about fareaway places and adventures. Instantly I was trapped, longing to see with my own eyes those large rocky fields, shining red at sunset and glow purple at dusk. I wished to visit those high places where there were strange-looking depression in earth, called crovs, with flat bottoms adorned with solitary beech trees.

Crovu Medved at dawn, with twilight edge perfectrly seen from this altitude (1.100 m).

I wondered how could these lofty places look like in moonlight. Should they make me thinking I am on another planet? With clear nigt skies, which appear black to the eye and dark blue on a photograph, they could bear a resemblance of moonscape or even marsscape. From the bottoms of the crovs there was no way to see the surrounding world, thus a feeling of isolation and remoteness of the place was increased. 

Monlight on plains.

It took us nearly a year of planning to make my dream come true. And it was worth of the effort for sure! During one week we visited charming places in the Cerna Mountains and in the Mehedinţi Mountains.  All went better than we expected. For me it was a real discovery journey to another planet.

Now, after the trip, I know that extra-terrestial travel is possible, when you are tuned into it. Only when you prepare your mind for such a journey you can make it. Otherways there is no way how to do it. There are no money and no space-ship available which can carry you there. It is less a place, which allows you to feel being on a different different planet at low-cost budget. It is a state of mind instead.