Somnesul Rece

This past Saturday Nancy's friend from work took us for a drive up into the hills west of Cluj. There are a series of dams and lakes in that area. It was very scenic with the trees all changing colors. The afternoon was sunny when we left the city but by the time we arrivied at our destination the sky had turned overcast so the brilliant colors of the hill sides are not as evident in the pictures I snapped.

We stopped at a house on the side of a slope. Below the house ran a medium sized stream. The name in Romanian is Somnesul Rece, the Cold River. A little further along its course it joins the Somnesul Calda, the Hot River to form the Somnesul Mic, or the Little River which runs along the main valley into Cluj and beyond. Most of the dams that provide hydro electic power in this area are located on the Calda version, leaving the Rece stream unmolested. And full of trout. That's my imagination, anyway.

We walked along the stream for some distance and everywhere there were likely pools waiting for some one to work their fly rod. Romanians love to fish, but the ones I've watched usually have great, long telescopic rods, perhaps twenty feet long that they fling out into the water. I have not seen anyone fly fishing. This stream would be perfect for it. As we walked along there was spot, downstream of a boulder, where the water curled around and eddied. I noticed a flash of orange and then I made out the shape of two nice size fish.

I have never been particularly successful at catching fish. I enjoy the sport of it though, and even without pole in hand, I imagined myself luring these two fish to my dry fly. I'm not sure that I'll have opportunity to actually fish while I'm here in Romania, but standing there over the Cold River, I successfully lured to bait, fought and landed two beauties. Oh, and the sunshine came out and I did get a decent picture. I'll try and upload it soon.

The Goat Herder

The Goat Herder

Nancy and I have moved our suitcases and our gear into the City of Cluj. We’ll be here for the next two years. I’ll still work in the little town of Luna de Sus, but we’ll live here in a ground floor apartment along Negoiu Alley. I’ll include the new address at the end of this posting. The old address still works, as that is my work location, but mail will be a day or two sooner arriving if it’s posted to the apartment.

I liked Luna, the village, with its cratered lanes either swamped in mud or clinging with dust. Nancy’s commute to work, my traveling for language training, the lack of evening transport back out to the village, combined with a living space too small and short for the both of us, made it necessary that we seek other arrangements. Cluj is a pleasant city filled with cultural and student activities. We’ll be much better suited here, but I will miss the flow of a small town.

Every morning the goat herder would walk the village collecting goats. These are milk goats and they travel to the hills above town to pasture each day. The fellow had his stick and his routine. He’d pass by a house that owned a goat. The gate would be opened and the goat would appear, most wearing a bell round her neck. He’d walk behind the animals with his stick and his words of direction, but the goats knew the route. They’d stroll the streets of town, their numbers and the noise of their bells swelling in the mornings, diminishing in the evening as they went.

The herder was a small man with a birthmark, purple and ugly on his face, but he was friendly, always greeting Nancy and I with a ‘good day’ or ‘good evening’. I wonder if he took up his occupation because of his disfigurement or did he naturally prefer the company of goats to people? And I’m not sure if any of the animals were his or if he simply tended other people’s stock. During the days he would be out with his herd on the grass covered hills around Luna steering the goats to the best grazing. It would be a quiet life though not silent. He would hear the clack of the goat bells and the baying and mawing of the goats and the turn of the wind over the hills, but conversation and contact with people would be limited to the hour collecting and depositing the goats.

It will only be by chance that my path will now intersect with the goat herder for I’ll be rarely in Luna during the early morning or late evening hours, but I’ll be reminded of him and his animals as I walk from bus stop to work. I’ll still have to avoid all the goat droppings.

Our new address in Cluj – Oh, and everyone is invited to visit our apartment, no need to worry here about goat poop, is:

Tim and Nancy Hulings
Strada Negoiu Nr. 3
Bl. G12, Sc. 1, Apt. 1
400 676 Cluj-Napoca, Jud. Cluj,
Romania