We moved on, continuing upward and onward; now coming upon two mules wandering along on their own with no visible owner; one had a bell collar, the other none. We approached and tried to pet a nose but got the brush off, so moved on. Far up ahead we saw our fellow hiker had reached the saddle and was following it to the left, where we too were headed. Finally we achieved the top/saddle and the vista in all directions was fabulous. We then headed west along the saddle, eventually leading us back down, but not immediately; the down trip was down and up, down and up, down and up, mostly thru forest with rocky trail. We emerged onto a broad grassy upper plain, and in the distance an abandoned mountain cabana to which we headed. It was boarded up, with trash scatted all around the area, in a storm one could probably find a way inside for shelter but we only stopped to eat some lunch; then on our way down again. Near the bottom of the grassy plain was a sheep cote and a very small wooden shack for the shepherd; as we continued downward, we meet up with the sheep herd coming back up the mountain to the cote; not sure it was the same herd as before. We took pictures, had no cigarettes to exchange for the permission.

Then on down, and up, and down, and finally (about 11.5 kms later) we emerged at the cabana and the car. We had a late lunch at the cabana restaurant, and drove back to Brasov. Entering Brasov from the southeast, we stopped at a large Carrefour supermarket (Walmart x 10) to buy groceries. A huge parking lot, hardly found a place to park; 7pm in the evening, there were probably 40-50 checkout lanes, people everywhere, a hustle and bustle you don’t see in our stores, could hardly push a cart through the narrow aisles, elbow to elbow people. Fruits and vegetables had to be weighed and tagged at the produce section by an attendant (not at the registers); some fruit, cheese, Fanta and bread was all I needed. Finally back home for the night.

Next - Bucegi Mountains