Your ideal holiday - help making haystacks, harvesting potatoes or milking cows

Maramures, a valley in Northern Transylvania, totally surrounded by mountains, is probably the most traditional area of Romania. It’s said to be “one of the last places where rural European medieval life remains intact”. Famous for its traditional wooden churches, ornate wooden gateways and timeless villages, Maramures is an ideal location for alpine walking, hiking, climbing, skiing, caving, paragliding and kayaking. Stunning local pastoral landscapes and picturesque villages offer photographers and artists some wonderful opportunities.

Sighetul Marmatiei is an ideal location for exploring the beautiful and unspoilt Maramures region. Outstanding scenery, beautiful walks along the river Isa and up in the hills, through the forests or to local villages, visits to historical wooden churches, museums, traditional festivals and also many shops, restaurants, cafes, bars and clubs are awaiting visitors. Nature lovers won’t be disappointed, as the huge, unspoilt, dense forests high in Carpathian Mountains are still populated by wolves, wild boars, bison, chamois and lynx.

If we convinced you to go and visit Maramures, there’s a hostel we thoroughly recommend: Cobwobs, Sighet! Run by Rob Larcombe and his wife, Cobwobs is a great place to stay even if you’re not a hostel person, as this one isn’t a “typical teenager warehouse”, but more of a home stay than a hostel really. Rob provides excellent travel guidance (where to go, bus schedules etc), lots of written information on the area for those who like the explore independently and organises guided tours throughout the region and even to the Ukrainian market town across the border (if you’re visiting in winter, skiing and sleigh trips to nearby runs Cavnic or Blyzniuky in Ukraine – both medium difficulty). Trekking (with a local guide) in Sighet or in Rodney Mountains can also be arranged.

For those of you who are up for something different, Rob also runs farming groups. Depending on how many people are staying in the hostel, if there’s a group of six or twelve, Rob often takes guests to an old deserted farmhouse, which has very basic facilities, but is useable. There is also an adjoining hay barn used for sleeping.

We usually get the group up to the valley by lunchtime with a view to them helping the local farmers who are bringing in the hay. We don’t let them loose with the scythes, but with hay rakes, which they use to build large mounds of hay, which eventually everyone comes together to turn into haystacks. It’s a very nice thing to do and most groups want to stay for two or three days Other activities include mushroom picking, fruit picking, learning traditional dance in the evenings and sitting around fires until late into the night drinking either tuica or beer. The locals often visit when there’s a group staying and will bring food or drink in return for help with odd jobs needing doing in the local area again mostly around agriculture. Travelers who stayed in the valley have helped out with roof repairs child minding cutting wood etc.

Running farm groups is a new initiative, but it worked very well last year and Rob hopes to carry it on in years to come. If you’d like to visit Maramures and join a farming group, do contact Cobwobs!

cobwobs-hostel.freehostia.com

photos by www.mereuta.com

Share this article:

Transylvania