Brasov : Bear watching in Carpathian, Romania roadtrip Day 7

After last evening's bear watching, I decided it was not dangerous even for wife and my 4.5 years old son to join. He had trekked up Peonari and Fagaras so the 20 minute walk in forest should not be much.
So we booked another group tour for the evening. In the morning, we decided to take the cable car up the Tampa mountains to have a bird eye view of Brasov city. The mountain top has Brasov written in pretty Hollywood style and we climbed up there for some time lapse shooting with the clouds climbing up higher the pine trees forests. Amazing views from the top of Tampa and also did couple of forest trails in dense mist. Saw a cool Landy doing some offroading up there for some research purposes and it looked so at home in those surroundings.

We did couple of short trails, had some nice local brew at the top and saw the city as the cloud cleared for a bit. Soon the clouds were back and fully engulfed the forest and the mountain top and we decided to go back in the cable car down to city centre to have lunch.

Our bookings for evening were not confirmed yet and hence we decided to go back to Bran castle to see if we could get better images. However, on the way the bear tour got confirmed so we turned around and drove back to Brasov via Zanesti to be in time for the agreed departure at around 430 from the Black Church outside of our hotel. The route the group took was same as the previous day. However, it was raining and the forest was slightly more difficult to trek - esp for kid. Hence the going was a bit slower and we reached the hide in time to see a big male languidly moving about the roseberry fields. Soon a mama bear and two cubs came into clearing but seeing the ominous male the two cubs ran up a pine tree. Surprisingly, the big mother also lifted her weight up the tree almost till its middle - they would remain there for the rest of the evening, away from our view and from the males below.

Pine forest in Brasov

Trekking in Carpathian in search of Brown bears

Unlike yesterday, we did not see the 3 cubs either who remained in the thick forests away from sight - their mommy did come out couple of times to chase away a young male. The sounds of groans and mock fights filled the air but they were running so fast through the bushes, there was no way to shoot any images or even see clearly what was happening. We did see most of the male bears from the previous evening with mothers keeping to themselves far in the forests.

We came back to Brasov and took a small walk around the main square with all lit.

After that we decided to try an Indian restaurant pretty close to the town centre - probably the worst Indian food in our lives. That being the only sad point of an otherwise brilliant day in one of the cutest small towns we have been to. The kind of town you can get lost for a week immune to the happenings in the big bad world outside ! Was also the first day where we did not drive !