Colibita – The Lake of Summer Escapades

One of my most favorite of the 10 little trips we took this summer to venture in  our small but beautuful country, is the one we took to Colibita Lake. I have discovered this amazing lake, lying at 800 meters surrounded by lush pine-covered mountains when we were planning a school trip with my class about 6-7 years ago. Although we never made it to Colibita that time, because nobody had a driver’s license and it proved to be pretty complicated getting there by public transportation, it remained on my to-see list.

Colibita lies 120 kms North of Targu-Mures, my hometown, at about 2 hours’ drive in Calimani Mountains. I have rarely been on the road that leads towards Bistrita city, then Colibita lake, so the drive itself was somewhat new – among grass-green hills and very nice roads. What’s more, once you get closer to the lake, you have to cross a Gorge, with is pretty amazing in itself and you just know that you’re going to a beautiful, seren place.

Once you get to the barrage, you can get a clear view of Colibita lake. Although I’ve seen it on photos, I never thought it would be so big and so amazing. It really is quite big – none of the lakes that surround my city are this large.

The one thing that bothered me was that there wasn’t any free space where one could set up a tent and just be in nature and next to the lake, because all the lands were private properties and you couldn’t exactly camp in the wild wherever you wanted. After going halfway through the lake to find some peace and quiet and an unspoiled land we could set camp on, and after the road got a lot bumpier than ever, we settled for the idea of camping in the actual camping site, for which you had to pay. Although it was a symbolic fee, I couldn’t help but feel anxious about how many other people were picking the same accommodation, and would that (music from cars, loud laughing and chit-chat) ruin our whole experience.

With this risk in mind, we set up our two tents, took advantage of the wooden table and benches, started a fire and after a short swim in the cold water, began to cook. We were five: three boys and two girls (one of which was a black dog named Ében), and I can say that all of us were actually surprised that there was no disturbance that evening from anyone in the camp.

The next morning we woke up to this view:

We woke relatively early, because we wanted to go on a one-day hike in the mountains. After some debate, we choose The Stone of Orban as our final destination and began our ascent following the red dot. Our first stop was the viewing “platform” of Stânca Hălău at 1210 meters. The view was (decide for yourselves):

But we decided this wouldn’t suffice and continued our path towards Orban’s Stone (Piatra lui Orban).

The path wasn’t marked so well, but we still managed to find all the red dots painted on the tree (although some weren’t all that easy to spot:

Our final stop was Orban’s Stone at 1463 meters. The view was exquisite. Colibita is just as beautiful from bird’s view as it is from in front of the lake. Loved it!

Related posts:

Tihu Peak – Calimani Mountains The Saint Mountain of the Szeklers Old Man’s Cave and Izbândiş Spring Recent Travels – Future Writings