Spears of light breach the thick mist of the morning that often covers the valleys of the Trascău Mountains. From place to place, old cottages and shelters with hay roofs rest silently on the gentle ridges around, surrounded by stray clumps of birch and oak trees. We step slowly over the meadows filled with flowers and butterflies, as to not disturb this bucolic atmosphere of a special fragility. We are in the land of the Mocan people, old inhabitants of these mountains and renowned shepherds. Climbing from Sălciua de Jos over the southern ridges towards the hamlet of Dumești and further to Vânătările Ponorului, we discover a unique world, where the water has created a fascinating scenery. We admire the greatness of nature in front of the spectacular waterfall that gathers the rivers of this small hollow, the water tumbling down into the abyss below. Deep in the bowels of earth, it created the mysterious labyrinth of the Huda lui Papară cave, reaching the light again further down, at the end of the Sub Piatră village. The turmoil and riddles of the depths are somewhat in contrast with the harmony and calmness of the ridges around, each step revealing new pieces of authentic rural life, harder and harder to find in our days. Just a few of the old hay covered cottages are still used by the locals that ascend here to tend to their livestock…
