Continuing my journey

 I will continue to recount the continuation of my travels during my time as a high school student. I had an inter

esting time while I was in high school. I traveled with the teacher and my parents through beautiful and interesting areas.

In these interesting trips, we learned and got to know about our country, history, traditions and culture.

In the summer of 2000, my chemistry teacher announced to the whole class that we were going on a trip with our geography teacher. Who wants to go and let her know, who wants to go. Not everyone wanted to go on a trip, some in our class and some in his class. It seemed to me that this trip was opportune to get to know us better and spend time together.

The teacher informed us the day before that we were leaving, to have food with us, money, water and change of clothes, that we had plans to bathe in Lake Sfânta Ana.

Our first location was the volcanic mountains of Racoș and the second location was Lake Sfânta Ana. Romania is a beautiful country, with splendid areas and new discoveries. I realized that I had not discovered all of Romania. There is much more to see. It takes time and finances.

He told us to all be at the Railway Station at 8 in the morning, to buy tickets, and whoever is late only goes with us. My sister Alex went with us on this interesting and adventurous journey that would later happen to me and a colleague of mine.

The long-awaited day of June 3, 2000, was approaching. My sister and I were happy to go on this trip with my classmates and the geography teacher.

We woke up around 7 in the morning, ate breakfast, dressed in sports clothes, took some food and water with us, and train money and other expenses.

We hurried to my train station with my sister so we wouldn't be late. By the time we got there, several colleagues and the headmistress were waiting for us. A few of my colleagues and the geography teacher hadn't come yet. There was still time. I arrived early.

Meanwhile, the other colleagues and the geography teacher arrived. I bought train tickets to Sfântul Gheorghe-Brașov-Racoș. I changed 2 trains. I arrived in Racoș at 10:30.

 The CFR station from Racoș is right on the bank of the Olt. Before leaving the station on the road that passes through the village, we crossed the railway lines to admire the Olt River.

We return to the station and enter the village. I looked perpendicular to the road I came to, we can see, a few hundred meters up, tailings dumps from the quarries that were there. We headed for that area. We turn left about 200 meters, until the intersection from where we turn right, uphill, on a recently paved road.

We were thirsty for water, we took a colleague of mine and went to the store in the village. It was not far from where we were going to the Racoș Geological Complex. We couldn't announce that everyone was already in front of us. We are left behind.

We crossed the street and ran to the store to buy water. We started joking and laughing about them, what they would say when we were absent from our group.

I don't know how we got lost, we took the wrong path. We were a little scared. It had been 15 minutes since the offense. And we went back to the store we started from. We asked someone where the Complex is, he showed us the direction we came from.

From a distance I saw a few pillars and a yellow stripe mark appeared. We climbed these paved roads a few hundred meters until we reached the vicinity of the quarries that can be seen somewhere to our right. We left the asphalt and we deviate on the first road on the right that appears in the direction of the ascent.

In the distance I see the teacher, the geography teacher and our colleagues were waiting for us, they were very worried. When they saw us, their faces lit up, he took care of both of us. It kept my and my colleague's morale up.

We tried to explain the situation to him. We couldn't let her know. That they were far from us.

We continued on the asphalt directly to the volcanic crater. But I preferred the route I did because this area still hides many interesting parts. We also passed a disused building, on the wall of which we noticed from the marking and from the intersection that we turn left on the first road we noticed. We enter the former basalt quarry. I immediately noticed somewhere in the left some basalt columns left untouched.

Suddenly two of my colleagues disappeared from the conductor's sights. The headmistress called them by name. But they did not answer her call. Suddenly two voices were heard from above, when my two colleagues were there. They were upstairs. The teacher and the geography teacher were scared not to fall from above.

He shouted at them to come down. A few of my colleagues followed in their footsteps. The headmistress shouted at them to stop so that nothing would happen. My colleagues were just upstairs, downstairs. A few more mishaps followed during our trips.

The headmistress shouted at them not to climb so that something would not happen. After all our tricks we did, our teacher started to tell us something about the Racoș de Jos Geological Complex, it is a protected natural area.

The Racoș Geological Complex represents an important geological area with an area of ​​95.2 ha and is integrated in the Natura 2000 Site. Homoroadelor Hills since 2007. Today the protected area preserves the Quaternary volcanic manifestations visible in the three quarries.

Racoș Geological Complex includes the following tourist attractions: Nature Monument Basalt Columns from Racoș (MTTC Quarry); Emerald Lake (Brazi Quarry); Stins Volcano (Dealul Hegheș Basalt Slag Quarry). Their visit is made only on the marked road or a guide approved by the custodians of the area.

We traveled very little and after overcoming an isolated column, we reach the part that declared the Basalt Nature Reserve from Racoș.

Columns about 15 meters high, as if forming a natural organ. We bend under these columns to admire them closely.

We turn for the first time on the path indicated by the red arrow, descending between two small walls. The wall to our left, in the direction of the descent, has a beautiful brown color and looks like a high calcareous rock. Very little is left of the lake with crystal clear water. I was on the Brazi quarry site. The lake has an unnatural green color and was located in a huge crater. Steep walls, made of colored stones form the shores of the lake. We walked along the lake, admired the walls mirrored in the water, we reached his tail. Stones of interesting size and shape are scattered everywhere. Somewhere, I came across a porous stone.

After leisurely admiring the lake, I returned and followed the path given by the yellow arrow, approximately on the contour line. I immediately reached above the basalt columns and noticed the access road to them as well as the lone column. A little further on we left this road that leads to the final part of our route, to the volcanic crater and we moved away, in a gentle ascent, towards some telephone antennas and a reddish peak that was observed somewhere above. We reached the edge of the volcanic crater from where we admired, over a huge abyss, a reddish tower of wild beauty.

Somewhere to the right, huge walls complete a unique landscape; I was on the top edge of the crater of a volcanic that tens of thousands of years ago was probably nervous and throwing lava. I also photographed to the left, to the normal access road to the crater.

Everything is reddish. From here the slag was exploited for many years. We moved to the right in the direction of the ascent until here we found a place where you can go down to the crater, next to a wall made of black slag.

A detail of this wall is presented by interesting lava flows have petrified in the geological eras, which generally have the layers that we could admire. I reached the crater without difficulty. The landscape is reddish and if in many other arid places in the country, we tended to say that we have a selenarian landscape then here we will tell you that we have a Martian landscape.

At the base of huge slag walls I noticed areas of gravel. I noticed that in some places a beautiful carpet of green moss appears. Compared to the direction of descent to the base of the volcano, we turned to the right and found that we were actually on a step to reach a huge wall, and we were at its top.

We returned through the crater and climbed a visible path, on the rubble, to reach the normal access road in this perimeter. We then descended that road, impressed by the black walls of the volcanic crater. Large slopes, black rubble made of slag complete the landscape.

Here you can see the traces of human intervention but the charm of the huge walls is unique. Somewhere, huge cannons seemed to have detached from the edge of the crater and were sliding slowly down the valley. It is very difficult to break away from this place, but we make our way back, this time following the access road to the crater. Right at the entrance I found that this road is blocked by some huge stones, probably in order not to enter by car.

After leaving the area of the volcanic crater, we descended the slope of a hill. The green meadows stretch towards the valley.

We didn't need any guidance because we had our geography teacher who knows everything about this wonderful place. We still learned from our teacher that Racoș Volcano is the oldest volcano in the region and seems to be inactive.

On the way back we took the same route we came. We arrived at CFR Racoș Train Station, we left for another beautiful destination, Sfânta Ana Lake. I took the train to Brașov, then to Tg Secuiesc. We got off at the station in Bixad village from there we walked through the forest and through Bixad village. It was 1:00 p.m. No cloud in the sky. It was beautiful and warm. Good for bathing in cold, crystal clear water.

Lake Sfânta Ana is considered a place of adventures, but also of tourist relaxation, they come from all over the country here for nature, but also for bathing in crystal clear and cold water.

It's a great place in Romania that you have to visit, whether you do it on foot or in the comfort of your personal car.

We got off the train at the station in the village of Bixad, passed through the village and then walked to the lake. The route we took lasted about 2 hours, is of medium difficulty, and we went through the village and the forest, and the views are beautiful.

Wherever I went there were long-beaten paths. I followed the course of the paths. The view was indescribable, beautiful full of mystery. You could easily get lost if you didn't follow the path you came. You had to hold on to him. Suddenly two colleagues went into the woods because they needed to, they got lost.

I waited for them to come out, I shouted at them but they did not answer. Then, so as not to waste time, we followed them. I shouted and followed them. In the end I went out into a clearing and tracked them down. They were scared, waiting for us to come and save them. From there we went in the direction of St. Anne's Lake. It wasn't far from where we were. As we descended the valley we saw in front of me the chapel of St. Anne. But unfortunately you couldn't go inside because it was closed, but you could see what was inside.

We went down to the valley and reached the lake. We sat down to rest and decide what to do. We made the decision to eat and then bathe.

Our geography teacher told us about Lake St. Anne as we ate lunch. It was 15:00. Then we changed our clothes and splashed in the water. The water was cold and crystal clear, I could see my feet in the water.

Only the sun warmed you quickly when I went outside. While we sat on the blanket we spread out to warm ourselves in the sun. Our teacher told us more about Lake St. Anne. He told us many interesting things that we had never heard before.

I want to share with you what our teacher told us. There are interesting stories about the lake. I didn't know about that either. I was speechless at their story.

That's why I thought I'd share with you what I heard from our geography teacher. I did not know that Lake Sfânta Ana is located in one of the extinct volcanic craters in the Ciomatu massif, in the Mohoș nature reserve. Instead of the other volcanic crater is Tinovul Mohoș.

The teacher told us about the legends of the place and how the name of this place appeared. Then he went on to tell us about the lake in general.

The most interesting story is that there are some legends about Lake St. Anne. And one of these legends says: That long ago there were two young men who had to get married, the girl named Ana, who was to become a wife, did not want this because her parents forced her to marry only to seize the young man's fortune. , which was quite rough in the groom's. On the evening of the wedding, the bride ran and threw herself into this lake, her lifeless body not being found even today. That's why the lake is named after that girl.

Another legend says: Once upon a time, two tyrants who were brothers lived in those places. One ruled a fortress on the nearby Puciosul peak, the other, a fortress located on the site of the current lake. the lord of the fortress on Pucios had a wonderful chariot, won by the dice, which aroused the envy of his brother, who said that the next day he would come to visit with an even bigger chariot.

To win the rest, the tyrant has eight of the most beautiful girls in the vicinity harnessed to his chariot. The carriage being very heavy, they could not urn it, which unleashed the wrath of the master, who began to whip them. One of the girls, named Ana, cursed her vile master. The curse of the girl was fulfilled immediately, a terrible storm started, with lightning and thunder, earthquakes formed a blue and quiet lake, named after the one who threw the curse, Lake St. Anne.

The bed of Sfânta Ana Lake compared to the regular conical shapes of volcanic lakes, formed on a fast loading stage is characterized by a relatively small inclination over large areas. At the same time, as a consequence of the rapid formation of the lake, the average and maximum water depth was reduced, respectively the surface and the perimeter of the lake.

Lake Sfânta Ana is located at an attitude of 946 m. ​​Almost circular in shape, similar to a painter's palette, it has a length of 620 m and a maximum width of 460 m, an area of ​​19.50 ha and a maximum depth of 7 meters. The lake completes its waters only with precipitation, having no springs. The purity of the water is close to that of distilled water, with only 0.0029 ml of minerals, having no springs. The reduced trophic capacity of the lake water is also due to the mofelic emanations through the bottom of the lake and through the crater walls.

Lake Sfânta Ana is a complex natural, geological, floristic and faunal reservation, being connected to Băile Tușnad by tourist trails.

The day passed quickly, it was already 19:00, on the way back I used the race bus to Tg Secuiesc, from there I took the train to Sfântul Gheorghe.

It was a beautiful and tiring day but we were charged with positive energy and a lot of knowledge about the places we were. It was the most beautiful memory I had but also friends for life.

        I will continue.

                                 Written by Elena Bogus