ATTILA KOVÁCS
CHERNA MOUNTAIN, RIVER, VALLEY
SOUTHERN-CARPATHIAN IMPRESSIONS
Attila Kovรกcs
Cherna
Content So what can you find in this book? First of all: a lot of walking in snow, in mud, and on rocks, almost up, sometimes down. A lot of cold nights in a tent, a lot of silence, nomadic dinners with a bar of chocolate, and a lot of marvelling at heights and lights, plants and animals and ourselves...
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It’s About You… A few words many pictures……But still, should you find this pathetic little text about experiencing space, time-travel and initiation too much than just watch the photos! And if you had enough of the sepia colored autumn pictures and the flower stills then make the trip yourself, go to Chernavalley. Discover it yourself and write your own travelogue which will be all about you. Take some of your friends with you for a weekend. They will say
Joó Renáta felvételei
“ Wow! -- Just like Switzerland “ Then you can say “ Well, what about this place I brought you to? “
Mountain, valley, River… The Cherna mountain chain is the Westernmost range of the SouthernCarpathian mountains. In reality it is the outermost point of the Carpathians. It begins to rise North-East at Herkulesfürdő (Băile Herculane) - a favorite medicinal spa of the Romans and much later of Queen Elizabeth wife of Emperor Franz Josef, then proceeds unbroken and becomes Godeanu Mountain. The only reason why the two mountain ranges have different names is because at one time the HungarianRomanian border bisected them. Parallel to the mountain there is another range to the South-East the Mehadian Mountain - a barren, limestone mountain range. In between the two chains runs one of the deepest and longest canyons of Europe. This is Cherna - valley. The Cherna River flows through it.
Sea Bottom Opposite from the main range of Cherna Mountain is the Mehadian wall of the canyon. Geologically speaking this landscape is not that old, but in human terms you can see its great age from the several hundred meter thick limestone and sandstone sediments, which settled here in their current place over millions of years. Once a large primeval sea covered this whole area. Now you are traversing on top of it high up beyond the clouds.
Kazan Narrows In the continuation of the geological break a little bit South flows the Danube for a while then leaves the ravine about halfway after Orsova. It flows between the same rocks and the same broken off debris only the water is significantly more….There was a time when there wasn’t so much water in its bed only since the Vaskapu Dam was built. Some islands were flooded then - among them was Ada-Kaleh, which the writer Jókai named Nobody’s Island in his book Aranyember, together with town of Orsova. - This later was rebuilt in the 1970s a little higher up in the then prevailing socialist style.
Ad aquas Herculi sacras A Zsolnay tiled well inlaid in the bath, where at one time Queen Elizabeth of Hungary and Austria came to take the thermal waters.
Behind... A pavilion from peaceful times - a little modernized, behind it the remnants of the Monarchy, and further behind that the million year old rocks. And what is behind them?
Cave Paintings On the walls of the grottos - once filled with steaming hot water - which are to be found up higher over Băile Herculane visiting quests from the time of the Monarchy, maybe 150 years ago, left inscriptions. In Serbian, Romanian, Hungarian, German. These cave writings lived through at least three wars since they were written.
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Grottos.. And if you want to know more about timelessness, than go to one of the grottos near Herkulesfurdo at night. Sink into the steaming hot water. Feel the sulfur laden, otherworldly steam and repeat a long mantra at length in the moonless night. You will be amazed to know that this water has been flowing out of this mountain the same way for thousands of years. It washed the tired feet of the Roman legionnaires long ago, healed their souls and washed away their troubles and cares just like it does for you today.
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Human Soup ...but should you come here during the day then you can soak in a virtual soup of human bodies all in the water at the same time. And when you can no longer take the heat step over to the Cherna, lie face down in the cold water and if you are lucky you may even find the half of a gold earing cast in the water and left behind by an Illirian woman 2000 years ago as a sacrifice for her lost or perhaps hoped for lover.
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To Be Up High……. Now you are alone. You look down on the landscape beneath. It’s like looking down in an ancient Greek amphitheater on the comings and goings of the heroes below. It all opens up in front of your eyes like a map in 3D. It stills your mind. You can see for hundreds of kilometers. This is Nirvana. Out of the woods.
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The Place‌ Find the perfect spot. The best place in the world. And when you found it, you are going to realize that you will not feel home there either because you arrived here as a stranger from the big city. You are an outsider who does not fit into the landscape. At best, you can be a guest whose presence the mountain accepts and tolerates for a while.
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Exile‌‌ Why do you choose to be an exile on the mountain ? Far from everyone, shivering at night in your tent, feeling miserable. And during the day you sweat or are drenched in the rain alternately; carrying your backpack full of its poor content. A backpack which is too small on the inside to put everything in it you need but to large on the outside for you to carry.
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Seeing Differently At first go with a group. It’s ideal to have three or four companions. Always nice if there is a first-timer among them. True, he will probably bring with him the rain but it’s worth it because he/she looks at the view of the land differently. Also, hopefully he won’t mind lying down in the wet foliage on the ground to photograph a single flower for minutes at a time.
Checklist Only items really needed should be in the backpack: food for three days: mostly oily seeds, some water not much - we refill the containers by the spring. Wool sweater instead of cotton, because cotton makes you sweat while wool lets the moisture out, it airs better. It may sting at first but you’ll get used to it. Other things are a pair of hiking boots, raincoat, matches, compass, maps, a Swiss army knife, a little palinka (brandy) in a flat metal flask, some good quality chocolate. These are essential. And of course a camera. But maybe not ? You decide.
Leave Before Eating….. Be gentle on your knees - a walking stick is a must. Don’t eat or drink coffee before starting out. You’ll have breakfast after an hour once you’re up on the range, where you can look down and enjoy the space and the scenery below. If you are lucky eagles will circle over the canyon. If you are unlucky it starts to rain….
Pulse‌ At the beginning your heart will feel almost like giving out on the steep forest path, but later it becomes used to the stress and you feel like you could go on for days. Walk with careful steps over the roots protruding on the deep incline of the trail. Later your steps will adjust automatically to the terrain and you hardly even need to look down -your feet seem to have an intelligence of their own.
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Far From Eveything….. In front the 1781 meter high Oslea Romanesca and behind you Godjan’s 2000 meter range in early May. To the North there are two more mountains: Szarko and Retyezat - they close you off from civilization entirely. While to the South the Mehadian Mountain does the same…..And if you chance upon bear-tracks you may wonder what the honey eating bear was doing up here so high. And what are you here for ?
What’s Behind The Mountain ? Probably, another mountain. And a lot of grass - donkeys roam freely grazing in one of the valleys of Godjan. One of them has a bell on a collar around its neck. Maybe, someone will come for them before winter sets in‌
Space‌. Space, shape and valley are always feminine. Mother earth, motherland, mother nature, birthplace. Time, wind and river are masculine. To roam the mountains and valleys of foreign parts is like conquering a beautiful woman.
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„Szer” Above the ravines of Cherna-valley up on the sides of the mountain there are villages, called „szer”, of about 8-10 houses far from the world. Romanian peasant families live in them. They get their electricity from small electric dams and plants they have built on the rapid brooks which run through around here. You can reach their houses only on steep hiking trails which they use. They say the Romanian state pays them a stipend so they won’t move away. The same way as once before the inhabitants of these „szer”-s (villages) received a wage from the Hungarian king so they stay and defend the borders of the kingdom.
Shepherd’s Trail….. In Erdely the tourist trails often cross almost impossible terrain to traverse. There is no way to anticipate how steep they are. In the sides of the canyon on the other hand there are shepherd’s trails. These have been used by the folk who lived here throughout the many centuries. They follow a perfectly logical course, easily discerned, their steepness is almost always the same and they are wide enough for a horse to have climbed up and down.
Buna Ziua….? ….muntye ? You may understand this much after a while from what the old gentleman is saying, but no more, because they speak a very ancient dialect of the Romanian language. But you should answer enthusiastically all the same: Da. Da. But don’t ask which road to take they will probably lead you astray. Not because they don’t wish you well but because they use different trails than what’s on your map which circle the mountain peaks and the deep ravines.
On horseback..... Bigger loads are taken up on the trails on horseback smaller ones in a backpack. Children go to school two days a week since they must hike up and down the steep mountain side for hours. Perhaps one day you may find yourself coming across a family climbing up the path carrying a newborn wrapped in a holiday garb and bound. The next time you come this way the baby may already have grown up into an adult.
Kokos Kálmán felvétele
Hegedűs Zoltán felvétele
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Sanctuary.... If it rains too hard and you are soaked through and through ask to be let into one of the houses so you can warm up. You could ask for a mug of hot tea. They will give that freely but do buy a piece of cheese from them out of politeness. Be careful they don't charge far too much for it! If you
have chocolate with you, give some to the children! In vain you might feel yourself to be the civilized stranger who comes here to these natives who are shut off from the outside world, because you will find they have an antenna dish attached to the side of the house and inside you can hear the sounds of a washing machine going. They get the electricity from the small dams and electric plants they have erected themselves.....
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Man Made Landscape The mountaintops are all grass covered.....they have been used for grazing for over a thousand years who knows what nationality the shepherds were. Forests remained only in the steeper mountainsides but there is plenty of those around, too. This is a man made landscape where there is a balance between rock, forest and meadow. In spite of this you will rarely meet another human being because you will
only come here in the spring or autumn but not in the summer. In the summer the mountains belong to the shepherds not to the tourists. The city folk who may come out here for a breath of fresh air and a picnic know this and they never go further then fifty meters from the highway to set up their grills and cook their spareribs.
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Beech Trees If by chance scrub pine would grow out on the mountaintops they cut it out with an ax or burn it. Small newly formed beech trees are thwarted in growth and become shrubs because the sheep graze all around them. Finally in the middle of a shrub where the sheep can no longer reach a long beech tree shoot might grow. The shepherds will leave some of these to grow for firewood later on. In the end lightening will strike into these solitary fully grown beech trees.
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Devil's mill You'll find numerous places in Erdely with waterfalls. People here called them the " devil's mills " at one time. What is the relationship between the devil and the mill ? Maybe that it keeps grinding and revolving incessantly like samsara, the wheel of life with no possibility to get off.
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Nestor..... You may pitch camp on Nestor,s field no problem! At some point he will tap on the tent for his meager, little money which he is asking for using the campsite. Then he will proudly show you the mill he built with his own hands, if your boots got soaking wet he will take them and dry them on his stove, if he notices you having difficulties with the firewood he will quickly cut it up for you in no time at all with his long handled ax. And if by chance you give him ten times the amount because you forgot the exchange rate he will bring it back next day. If you have a son your best bet is to send him off to Nestor for a year to tend the sheep, he will make a man out of him
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Wild East Those, who are not shepherds, are the descendants of shepherds. Most of the time, they are kind and helpful. If you hitch-hike, they stop to take you, even if you don’t, they stop and offer to do so.
Vanturatoarea Over the jungle the morning clouds and the wood-note clog in the valleys just like the thunders during the night-time rainfalls. The water of the Vanturatoarea waterfall pours down from a height of a ten-storey house sometimes in larger spouts, sometimes in smaller ones, meanwhile you can walk behind it.
Lake Iovan Lake Iovan is artificial, but the mountains are not. The snowy peaks of Godean over a dammed part of Cherna in favour of a hydropower plant. If you go for a discovery tip by canoeing, be careful, because the shore is very segmented and it is not always evident where the exit is in a bay.
Godean Oslea Romanesca from the main range at the end of summer. Prepare yourself for a long walk, the cirques are gigantic. Cranberries ripen under your feet, you can feast on them all day long. You will not meet any tourists, only shepherds and cranberry pickers.
Ceszna Ceszna ravine (Cheile Tasnei) is one one of side ravines of the Cherna-canyon. The thousand-year old Hungarian border used to be here, the ravine can be entered because Hungarian border-wardens exploded a path in the rocky wall. Otherwise noone would come to this place. Black pines grow on the most improbable steeps.
Look where you step.....
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Under Vlascu Mic a man is breeding vipers because the pharmaceutical factories will buy the snake poison. You will more than likely come across a viper or two in the open terrain also. Look down where you step, don't reach inside anything unless you made sure it's safe! Be careful when bending down over a brook to drink some water! Look out for scorpions as well although their poison is not as dangerous! If you do not want to meet the creatures of the undergrowth then learn to fly like an eagle!
Hegedűs Zoltán felvétele
Unicorn....... Should a white horse appear suddenly from out of nowhere in the forest and run by you follow it! He is a unicorn. He will take you to a magic field. Like in the legend.........
Salamandra...... It is important to receive the good intentions of salamanders. If you meet one on the road that is a good omen. Always make sure you don't step on one and never consider it to be a reptile. !
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Spirit Dog..... It is a good omen if a raven, falcon or dog joins and follows you for days gladly, voluntarily, for the adventure or for company. These dogs don't beg for food and they chase away the wolfs at night. What do you owe to the one who befriended you this way? That you remember it when he/she no longer comes with you because he got run over by a gasoline smelly bus.
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From Afar... We follow one another keeping a careful distance from the one before us, talk little and this includes you as well. Be there !
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Vlascu Mic...... View from the 1733 meters high Vlascu Mic toward the East on an October morning. Mic means small but ironically this mountain rises above the entire area.
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Don't lag behind... Because you can easily get lost. There is no cell phone reception and yelling however loud can not be heard far far away. You companions will have to search for a half a day to find your logic as to which direction you took, they'll have to ask
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around if they happen to meet anyone and in the end they will have to wait and wait and discuss it and agree on the time when to inform the ambulance. Sooner or later you will probably ask a Romanian peasant family to take you in for the night. They will feed you, care for you, put you up in a clean room and cover you with comfortable quilts. Next morning they'll take your backpack on horseback down the
mountain as you walk like some kind of lord in front of the horse. If you are lucky your companions won't kick your butt when you finally turn up and join them.
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Space – Time... If you lose the way there is no chance to cut across in a straight line. Impassable, deep chasms block your way or trail in almost every direction.. The question is never how many kilometers away is your destination but how many hours it will take.
Kokos Kálmán felvétele
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Prisacina Inside the Prisacina Canyon.. It's very difficult to reach it but to find your way out of it is not easy either. And Still... Must we lose our way ? The answer is yes There really is no adventure without getting lost but only sticking to your plans, the program in your head and the fear of missing the path......be open! Here and now you can revisit that lost feeling you had as a child that you have no idea where you are.....Well, here.....!
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Distance... You should not try to read the map a lot because it often fools you and it's only good to give you a little peace of mind about where you are. It matters not wherever you are any place is a good place. And what about the distances...? You can never follow a straight line here toward your goal – only up and down or around. This way you will always be surprised to see how much bigger the distances are than you had thought. Take this into account when you dare to come this way.
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Initiation..... The mountain will always initiate you. You will be either drenched in the rain, or you will get sick, or you will be cured from some spiritual malady which you carried around for a while, or else you will get lost. Be open to receive the message the mountain conveys you ! And if you are open you may become a shaman.
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photo: Joรณ Renรกta
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The Taste of the Mountain.... Dried fruit, chocolate, bitters, oily seeds, oatmeal cookies. The most enticing taste is of course that of the locally grown mulberries, apples, currants, mushrooms, red and black cranberries and the spring water which you find on the mountain. The inexperienced ones will bring sandwiches and canned food.
Corcoaia....
photo: Kokos Kรกlmรกn
When does a place belong to you properly ? When you swam in the water of the ravine even if it's only 10 degrees Celsius. Or when you encountered a kingfisher flying above reflected in the water beneath you, or when you sat down on a rock under the slowly dripping drops of water and you visualized the vast river which must have flown here once to cut out this ravine.
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Mountain Range Never pitch your tent on the top of the range even if it has the most magnificent view in the far distance., even if the evening is windless, the stars are out and you can watch the lightening from afar. Come early dawn and the wind will get here and will blow you off the mountain....
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„Littering” You can enjoy many sports in the Cherna like rafting, trekking, hiking or canyoning but besides these there is one which is my favorite called “ littering “ for lack of a proper English word. It means sliding down the mountain in a straight line with skier's movements riding on top of the deeply fallen leaves not caring about the vipers who might be underneath. You will probably do this in the event when you get lost.
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Three Brooks... There is a confluence of three brooks where the Bedina and the Ceszna empty into the Cherna. After the October rains their water is muddy and turbulent.
Arjana..... The word might come from the Romanian for silver. Not because there was a time when silver was mined here, but because viewing it from the West from the direction of the old Roman road this more than 1500 meters high mountain rules over the Cherna. And in the spring but also in the fall, when it is the only mountain covered with snow amongst the other peaks it really does look silvery. A holy mountain that's for sure.
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Light Sculptures Every photograph is just a frame. You close off the world from your theme, making it to be the center of a new world. This is how you create.
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Micro Theme..... Lean down,,,see what grows below your feet !! This is how you become a good light sculptor.
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With Eyes Open.... In the end, how precious are your encounters when you use a digital camera? At first the camera helps you to walk around with open eyes but later it hinders you. What's more it will become your devil – you instinctively begin to look at real life characters as objects and you become angry if the exposition is unsuccessful, but also it will not warn you when accidentally you step on a living thing. .
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What we must see To the East you might be able to see for hundreds of kilometers all the way to the sea. Below us and in front we can view the 1466 meters high Stan mountain's round shape on an October morning. On the right side of the picture the smoke from the two chimneys of a coal burning electrical plant reaches above the clouds.
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The Best Place in the World...... How many “ best places in the world “ are there? For sure, not just one. Find all of them....if you can ! And when you found it you should lie down, take a rest and imagine that if the entire economy of the world collapses and barbarian hordes are plundering in the city then you have to escape to this place with a cow and a few sheep. No German or Russian tanks will come up here....or Tatar or Turk.
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What's Left Out What you have no photograph of you will not be able to talk about no matter how you try : the Zen rock gardens, the dry grass under your feet, the smell of the sulfur hotbaths , the bouquet of the wild apple tree, the mulberry, the taste of cranberries, the feverish state of mind when one is lost, the tiredness in your limbs after you arrive home.......
Joó Renáta felvétele
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Thanks...... Thanks to my companions who ever came with me to Cherna Valley and waited patiently for me while for the hundreds of times I photographed the -for me riddling – ferns.. Or else they allowed their faves or backs to be viewed by the public on the pages of this book. I'd like to thank also Joo Renata, Hegedus Zoltan and Kokos Kalman who with some of their excellent photos helped the publication of this book. And last but not least thanks to Szonja, without whose unforgiving critical eye this work definitely have been worse. And if you wish to reach Cherna Valley in spite of the scare of vipers, then.....
ensemble.art.ka@gmail.com
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Vándor Kiadó
Ügyvezető igazgató: Krasznai Zoltán Nyomdai munkálatok: Krasznai Zoltán www.vandorkiado.hu ISBN 978-963-89936-0-1
The Cherna Mountain chain is the Westernmost range of the Southern-Carpathian mountains. In reality it is the outermost point of the Carpathians. It begins to rise North-East at Baile Herculane - a favorite medicinal spa of the Romans and much later of Queen Elizabeth wife of Emperor Franz Josef, - then proceeds unbroken and becomes Godean Mountain. The only reason why the two mountain ranges have different names is because at one time the Hungarian-Romanian border bisected them. Parallel to the mountain there is another range to the South-East the Mehadian Mountain - a barren, limestone mountain range. In between the two chains runs one of the deepest and longest canyons of Europe. This is Cherna Valley. The River Cherna flows through it.