Via TransilvanicaStage 3 · Vatra Moldoviței – Sadova
22 km · 8,5 hours · very hard · +1032 m
22 km · 8,5 hours · very hard · +1032 m
The stage that passes closest to us. You leave Vatra Moldoviței past Cabana Valcan, cross the Moldovița river, where big birds fish and sometimes even a black stork. A few hundred metres with the Valcan stream on your right, another bridge, then a kilometre of forest road to a small junction, where you climb the Cremenești forest road towards the village of Spărturi, its houses scattered over the hills.
Above the village, through flowering clearings and over a few gates, the road makes a huge curve along the crest of the hills. Before the sheepfold at the forest edge, turn and look behind you: there the Obcine show themselves in full. Then a long climb on skidder tracks, broken and washed out by water, to a small island of alpine meadow, with a cross raised in memory of an unknown soldier of the Second World War, found and buried there by a peasant.
From here it is ridge all the way to the Coreta and Vesnarka clearings, where there are three cattle folds. From Pietriș peak you drop on a forest road to Lake Iezer, a track full of wild strawberries ripe in July, then four more kilometres to Sadova.
At the first sheepfold, accept the shepherd's help with the dogs; you usually leave with curd cheese too. At the second, with even more dogs, the folds can be skirted downhill, following the waymarks.
Vatra Moldoviței → Sadova · traseu pietonal
Altitudes in metres. The stage's total ascent is greater than the difference between its ends, because the path climbs and drops several times.
5 camere, 100 lei camera cu două locuri. 0761 388 519 (Anișoara Strugariu).
12 beds, 100 lei for a room with bathroom on the landing, breakfast and dinner with notice. 0744 957 251 (Elena Ionescu).
40 beds, rooms from 150 lei, transport available. 0230 578 837 or 0744 390 365.
20–25 beds, breakfast and dinner on request. 0722 654 601 (Georgeta Arvirescu).
21 de locuri, produse tradiționale, transport auto. 0743 171 784 (Liliana).
120 lei for a room with bathroom on the landing, 160 lei with private bathroom. 0745 174 180.
Call at least a day ahead. In villages lodging is prepared, not found: your host puts the water on to heat and cooks only if she knows you are coming. Prices change from season to season, so confirm them on the phone.
In Sadova. If you cannot find the point, ask at the guesthouse where you sleep: everyone knows.
In the Obcina Feredeului, at 937 m, formed by a landslip four or five hundred years ago. Legend says a treasure hidden by the Tatars lies on its bed, guarded by vipers.
Another eye of water, higher than Iezer, ringed by dense spruce and hard to see from a distance. About half a hectare; nobody knows how deep it is.
It is thought to come from the Slavonic “Sad-va”, meaning “two orchards”, after the plum trees that grew wild where the Sadova stream floods.
Mănăstirile de pe etapă
Neighbouring stages
Sleep half an hour from the stage
Câmpulung Moldovenesc is half an hour from either end of this stage. You can sleep two nights in the same bed and walk the stage without a full pack, driving back at the end.
Route, waymarking, ascent, critical spots and lodging data are those published officially by the Tășuleasa Social association, which waymarked and maintains the path.
Book direct
No platform commission. Self check-in, late check-out when possible and free cancellation up to seven days before.