Did you ever think that a simple stone could change your mood on a single touch? Or heal any pain you feel? Find out that they exist, and not only that they have a very weird shape, but they also grow up and are well known as Living Stones.
Along with the mud volcanoes and many other interesting spots we discovered while visiting Buzau county, we finally managed to also reach a less common place you will see during an outdoors journey, entitled Babele de la Ulmet. Even though I am a seeker of unknown places and especially these which represent something unique for the country but also for the whole world, somehow I missed finding out about these until I was purchasing some postcards to send abroad to my friends met online. However, the postcard I decided to send to @nickyhavey, was coming with a collage of some 'must-see' places from Romania, one of them being today's article subject. That was also the moment when I found out about these rocks and decided to google and gather information if they are accessible to the tourists or not. I kept my enthusiasm silent for a few months until the moment of the yearly road trip around Romania came and I could start working with my sister on the traveling plan of what we should visit in 2021, making sure not to miss this place which is extremely unique and rare.
So the plan was pretty simple: since we are living close to the middle of the country, we could literally follow any single direction we wanted because the distances were more or less the same, but since we also wanted to see the mud volcanoes that are also in the Buzau county, we decided to hit the road on that direction.
Since there were around 250 km to be driven from our homeplace to Buzau, we decided to split the ride and have a few more stops before starting to properly explore this county that is one of the very few places that we weren't visiting before.
The days passed pretty fast being filled with lots of journeys from simple walks in the forest to lakes, waterfalls, and other presents offered by the wilderness of nature, until we finally entered the Buzau county and started exploring everything it has to offer, one by one.
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On the 3rd day since we kept exploring less sides of the Buzau county, we knew that it's going to be a special day because the moment of following all the way up to Babele de la Ulmet finally came, which for me was the most waited moment from the whole roadtrip that included tens of new places explored.
We weren't able to go too far with the car because the stones are placed on the top of a hill which is part of a village so there are not too many paved roads, most of the locals moving from a place to another either by walking or by driving a horse-drawn cart, so we decided to leave the car somewhere between the houses of the villagers from where we started walking.
The path we followed was pretty inclined which included hiking 90% of the time until we reached Babele de la Ulmet, but happily, as soon as you leave behind the houses of the villagers, there will be a short section with less hiking but also some benches where you can rest, drink water or even eat something because from that point it will begin a more 'serious' hiking part that will get you exhausted pretty fast. Happily, the locals arranged the whole trail up to the rocks with some fences and stairs which will contribute on a more pleasant hike, along with the forest that will overshadow the entire route. Honestly, I have no problem hiking when the sun is up on the sky, but when there are around 40°C outside and you are wearing long pants and you are fully dressed in black... it's not that fun anymore, lol. Anyway, even though we didn't really meet other tourists on the way, we still had one more travelling partner in our team, which was a dog that kept following us since we got out of the car that seemed very friendly and that he knows very well the trail being used to always welcome the tourists and show them the way.
He was actually always walking in front of us and every time we were stopping for either a break or to take pictures, he was stopping too and only start when we were ready. He made sure that we all reach the top of the hill where the stones were waiting for other tourists, rested for a while, and then he left, bringing another group of tourists when we were leaving. How smart and cute these animals can be! ❤️
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I know that perhaps many of you are interested on what these stones really are and that my introduction came out a little bit too long, but to answer in just a few words, the rocks are called 'trovants' which means 'living stones'.
Even though this might sound unreal or funny, we are talking about genuine stones that do grow up 1-2 cm every few tens of years, which is the main mystery for many geologists and scientists who studied them for a long while.
I won't lie saying that I wasn't surprised of what I was seeing because I was, but our first experience meeting this kind of stones was around 6 years ago when we were in Horezu and reached an open-air museum with such living stones. Anyway, it's a little bit hard to compare the two places even though they basically come with the same kind of stones because the one from today's post is a lot ' richer in stones and unique formations which in the other case wasn't that visible, but there is no doubt that both of the places worth a visit if you ever get the chance to. Hence why, not only that you will think that nature created a miracle in the middle of a wild place, but there are also lots of interesting stories shared by the locals of the village where the stones are the main subject, saying that the rocks have incredible powers. While many people out there wouldn't even dare to dream on having such a place on their territory with healing powers, Romania proves one more time that it doesn't matter how many unique and rare places like this one has, not even in 2022 we can have the right people in charge who could promote and make these places more known. That's really sad...
Anyway, Babele de la Ulmet, also known as Living Stones, represent the main subject of a lot of legends, some of them being more credible because of the formations' shape which is very similar to UFOs.
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More than that, some locals are saying that there was one rock who changed its position and fresh green grass grew over the night to cover the place where it originally was, strengthening the statement of living stones.
Honestly, I don't know how much to believe in the legends as most of the places we visit are having at least one strange legend which even though might sound unreal, it still gives you a different mood while being there and exploring the surroundings, but what I do know is that I was really surprised to find some of these rocks that were even a few meters wide, which were having perfect balance on some of the weirdest positions where I doubt a common rock would stay without falling.
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A more realistic explanation on how the trovants appeared is given by the scientists who found out that they are basically composed from many sand layers connected by a carbonate cement that changes its shape because of the underground calcareous waters that are very active in this region.
Even though I don't know much about pearls, the scientist are saying that the whole process of seeing a trovant being formed is very similar to this of the pearls.
Actually, the whole growing up process of the stones, starts from the ground where the mix between sand, water and cement is made and slowly brings to the surface a little bit more of each stone we can see these days, some of them being already complete while some can't be entirely seen just yet.
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Even though it's the 2nd time when we get to see such rocks in Romania, there is no doubt that no matter for how many times we will meet this kind of unique formations offered by nature, the experience will always be different just because even the stones themselves are very distinctive from each other, coming with unique shape, structure, colour and even stories.
Hence why, while being in Costesti where we first saw this kind of stones came with stories from the locals as the Living Stones represent the UFOs some aliens landed on Earth a while ago, or such as being the main reason why lots of bad things happen to people due to the bad energy they share around.
At the opposite pole though, the Living Stones from Ulmet, are well known for having healing properties that could take away any pain or sadness by simply touching one of the rocks or spending time close to one.
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A thing though that we did notice back to when we traveled to Babele de la Ulmet but which wasn't marked in any way, is that some of the stones have a specific shape and they are known as the Doplhine, Microphone, Column, Whale, and so on, but you can easily miss them if you don't pay enough attention.
Perhaps, next time when we will return there, some placards will be attached with the name of each of the stones that will make the journey a lot more interesting and educative, especially for the younger travellers.
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A thing that not many people know about, is that depending from which way you are coming to the trovants, the GPS could either show you the place we visited or the forest located just a few minutes away from this one which also has lots of formations but more hidden between the trees.
Because of some personal reasons, we couldn't continue our journey to see that part too, but coming from the village with the name Ulmet, there was no need to pay any visiting tax while if you come from Buzioru you should purchase visiting tickets which are around 5 RON / 1.01 EUR per person.
Anyway, Babele de la Ulmet are located just 44 km away from Buzau city, and they can be easily reached if you follow the next route: DN 10 from Buzau until you reach Sătuc (Berca), and get on the county road DJ 203L on the way to Pârscov – Cozieni – Bozioru for the starting point through the forest, or on the communal road DC 78 until you reach Ulmet for the route we followed.
As soon as you reach the village, you can either leave the car in a parking lot or on one of the paths between villagers' houses from where you will walk around 45 minutes until you reach the gorgeous formations offered by nature.
SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾
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