ROMANIAN CARPATHIANS 2008(organised by Greentours
2nd – 16th July 2008
£1720 per person (single supplement £130) (land tour £1495 Bucharest - Bucharest)
Led by Owen Mountford and Oliviu Pop
Botanically probably the least known of the great mountain ranges of Europe, though home of the more romantic or notorious of Europe’s princes, Matthias Corvinus and Vlad Þepeº (the Impaler) readily fix the Transylvannian Alps in our minds. Below the precipitous crags of the Bucegi and Piatra Craiului are slopes clothed in beech forests with snowbells, willow-gentians and helleborines, and the chance of Spurred Coral-root and Lady’s Slipper. Further up spruce and Stone Pine dominate with Clematis alpina, and above are the limestone pastures of the high mountains, with Globe and Vanilla Orchids, and multi-coloured rock gardens holding numerous Carpathian specialities such as Dianthus callizonus. Rock-jasmines, eidelweiss and a bewildering variety of saxifrages adorn cliffs. The forests and crags of Cozia support endemic roses, Jove’s-beard and the huge bells of Symphyandra wanneri. Finally we take in the great mountain wilderness of Retezat with its numerous glacial lakes, where beds of alpenrose are decorated with endemic knapweeds and tufts of Aconitum tauricum.
For further information about this tour, please contact Greentours on 01298 83563 or email enquiries@greentours.co.uk