A Journey Through the Heart of the Bucegi Mountains: Exploring Sfinxul, Babele, and the Heroes' Cross on Caraiman Peak (Let's travel together #349)

I can't really remember how many times I've complained about not having a trip in the last couple of years and being forced to only write my travel posts from the memories created in the past, but it looks like the Universe has finally done some magic for me as well.

The Universe has a name in this case and it's that of my former college classmate that even if we didn't remain in the best terms when we graduated, we reconnected again after a couple of years, visited each other, and even mentioned how cool would it be to have a trip together since we both love hiking and spending time in the mountains but don't have the right people to do this activity with.

We've spent a couple of weeks planning and re-planning, as being an adult might put a few more obstacles in our way, but we already knew that this trip was going to happen sooner or later, since we were taking trips together pretty often during the college years, but mostly to the seaside.

Having a twin sister made it a trio trip at first since we were all colleagues, but my sister really wanted to show this part of Romania to her boyfriend, so he joined us at the last moment too. Nevertheless, we are all modest people with no car yet, so the possibilities to reach the mountains by train were pretty limited, Busteni being our pick this time.

We've been to Busteni countless times before and seen some of the destinations we also had during this trip, but accompanied by our parents during a Romania Tour years back when these were still a thing. But we never really cared about seeing a place twice or more times, as long as we could create new memories accompanied by different people and energy.

Plus, Busteni is one of the cities of Romania where you can observe the mountains really close, no matter where you are staying, and this kind of view is something that can make you addicted to returning often, pretty quickly.

The picture from above is actually taken from the balcony where we had our accommodation. Close to the middle of the picture, you can also observe some red details, which are the path followed by the cable cars, because you can also reach the Bucegi Plateau by cable car.

We were only 15 minutes away from walking from the cable car, and we enjoyed every single minute spent on the way to it. However, if you have a similar trip during the weekend as us, I suggest being at the cable car at least half an hour before it opens because it gets really crowded during the weekends.

When I visited this part of Romania with my family, we only enjoyed the experience by hiking, but as bears became a serious problem for Romania in the past few years, more and more people follow the path of the cable car to stay safe during their trip. Busteni is, actually, one of the cities where the locals are pretty used to the phone alerts regarding noticing a bear walk down the street like a normal thing, so you really have to be careful.

Even though we reached the cable car just 30 minutes after it was opened, we ended up waiting in a queue that was split over 3 floors, taking us 2 hours before being able to enjoy the view from up there. Happily, we all were very excited by our adventure and kept our vibe up until we were able to count down the moments when we would put our feet in the cable car and feel like flying over the mountains for the next 15 minutes.

If the weather conditions are a bit bad and it's windy outside, the journey can take up to 30 minutes. But we were blessed with a sunny and beautiful day, which we didn't even dare to ask for, considering how serious global warming is lately.

Sorry to mention the bears again, but I heard lots of stories about people coming from more parts of the world to enjoy a vacation in Romania just for the sake of seeing the bears walk down the street and feeding them. DON'T EVER DO THAT! It's not fun, it's not safe, and it's a thing that only makes things a lot worse than they currently are. Not only that the bears are encouraged to get down to the towns and look out for food, but they also risk being shot down to keep the locals safe. There is really no win here for anybody.

Actually, last month, there was a case with a girl who was only at the beginning of the hike, somewhere where the first trees can be noticed in the picture from above, when a bear attacked her. No matter how quickly the mountain rescue came, they couldn't approach and save her because the bear was becoming aggressive with them, too. When they got the approval to get a man to shoot down the bear, the girl was already dead, and so was the animal. These are cases that shouldn't happen, at least not in this part of Europe or that close to where people are living. But Romania has the largest population in Europe of both wolves and bears.

Anyway, enough with the sad stories. Even if they don't have a happy ending, we were still here for the good memories to be created and to enjoy an activity that was missing for all of us so badly.

Therefore, as soon as we reached Babele Chalet where it's where the cable car ride ends, we started walking around, meeting Babele after just 5 minutes of walking, and The Sphinx 10 minutes away from Babele.

Both The Sphinx and Babele are two famous rock formations very popular in Romania, also known for their energetic powers and historical importance.

They also inspired a lot of legends, mystical theories and conspiracy theories about how they were formed, where some people still believe the Bucegi Mountains hide ancient tunnels, secret chambers or even alien relics beneath them.

Anyway, I wrote an entire article about them a while back, and as no one enjoys recycled content, I suggest you check out this post in case you want to find out more.

After our two quick stops, we decided to take a break to eat, as a real hike was going to happen pretty soon, and we needed our batteries fully recharged. So, even if we only had one sandwich each and a couple of sweet snacks, I think we can all agree that any food tastes a lot better when you have such a view in front of you.

I used to hear this a lot from my parents as a child, and the more I grow up, the more I feel it on my own, too. There are a few things in life that can be compared with the experience of having the whole world at your feet and enjoying some food with an endless scenery ahead.

There are more mountain paths and hiking routes to follow once you reach the Bucegi Plateau, but the one we were interested in was reaching Crucea Eroilor de pe Muntele Caraiman (EN: Heroes' Cross on Caraiman Peak), which was also going to be a new thing for everyone of us.

Sadly, there are many mixed thoughts when reading online, as some people mentioned this being 30 minutes away from The Sphinx, while others said about 1 hour or 45 minutes. The truth is that the most accurate answer is 1 hour. Surely, it can get longer or shorter than that depending on your hiking pace and how many breaks you take, but that's what you will also find written on the information boards once you reach the plateau.

While a few years ago I'd literally run away from hikes in the sun, with no forest at all, I think everyone enjoys this kind of hike lately because you have a wider visibility around you you are also a lot safer out there.

Plus, most of the path follows a slightly inclined angle, with just one or two short sections that involve a steeper hike to follow.

In both cases, we had no rush during the trip and enjoyed every single minute of it, taking pictures, sharing stories and reconnecting with each other, but also with the mountains that felt so close, yet still so far.

After around one hour of hiking, we reached the place from where we could finally see Heroes’ Cross on Caraiman Peak. There are two ways to reach it from this point, either on the Jepi Valley, which is known for more risky paths and it's recommended for trained people, or via the chains you can see on the left of the image.

I've met this kind of chains during my trips before a lot, but as we were here for the experience and not really to reach the cross to the point of touching it, we all agreed that we could call it a successful hike from this angle, without making our way down to it anymore.

In fact, there is not really a reason to make all the way down to it unless you want to enter the cross, because yes, it has some sort of a museum at the bottom of it with the history and reasons why it was raised. This happened as a tribute to honour the Romanian soldiers who fell during World War II, and the monument was built between 1926-1928.

The total height of the cross is about 40 meters, and it's placed at an altitude of 2,291m. Guinness World Records acknowledges it as the tallest summit cross in the world, situated at such an altitude (record confirmed around 2013–2014).

On the right of the cross, you get a great view over the Busteni city, but also a great place from which to take lots of pictures, as we did. Even if it was our 2nd break that day, the Bucegi Plateau is absolutely stunning and comes with lots of perspectives that I doubt anyone could ever get enough of.

However, after taking a break here, we made our way back close to where the cable car was, where we enjoyed another break and time close to the mountains before making our way back to town.

Sadly, we didn't expect such good weather conditions as the time when we checked this out, there were announced between 5 and 14 degrees Celsius, which resulted in some serious burns that we are still dealing with one week later since this trip took place. According to ChatGPT, I suffered severe 2nd degree burns, which are not fun, especially since it's not the 1st time I get sun burns, but surely the first time when things are so serious and follow a strict treatment to heal my face and arms.

A round trip with the cable car is 200 RON / 40 EUR, which is quite an exaggerated price everyone complains about because no investments or upgrades were made since 90's, but the thing that the Bucegi Plateau is so desired by tourists from all over the world, as well as the single safe option to reach the mountain without meeting bears, it makes the owners of this kind of businesses take advantage of it a lot.

Another disadvantage, along with the price, is the schedule of the cable car, that it is open between 8.30 AM and 4.30 PM, a way too short amount of time to enjoy the mountains, especially during the summer season when the schedule should be extended at least 2 more hours from my point of view.

Anyway, this is how last Saturday looked for me and my friends, and I already can't wait for the next similar experience. No matter when it comes, I'm ready for it.

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences.
At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe.
Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game reviews, lets plays, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 750+ blog posts.
Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, owning a YouTube channel for each of the two.}

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