Whilst staying in the Romanian City of Piatra Neamţ we visited the Bicaz Gorges which were excised by the waters of the River Bicaz.
As we approached the 8km long gorge with its 400m tall limestone cliffs, we wondered how the pine trees could cling to them. We found two spots where we could safely stop for photographs which had the inevitable stalls selling a wide variety of souvenirs.
After a few kilometers we arrived at Lacul Roşu or Red Lake, a natural dam lake located just west of the gorges, formed after a landslide in 1838. It didn’t appear very red to us, but it is said to get the name from one of its tributaries, the Roșu Creek, which brings iron oxides and hydroxides in the soil, which tint the water and the lakebed. We wandered down to the edge where rowing boats were moored up as the summer season had not yet started.
Turning left along a path we found trees, flowers and benches in various states of disrepair. It was peaceful and picturesque with the lake on one side and pine trees on the other. It was a pleasant walk but as the lake is 8km long, we turned around. The path in the opposite direction was more commercialised with lots of children’s attractions and food stalls. As this area is near to Székely Land, which is home to a large Hungarian-speaking minority, signs were in Hungarian and Romanian.
We then drove on to the 127m tall Bicaz Dam which was the third largest dam in Europe when it was constructed in the 1950s. Although we stopped for photographs, it was hard to capture its sheer scale.
Continuing onwards over the Poiana Largului Viaduct we headed for viewpoints over Bicaz Lake, the largest inland reservoir in Romania. It seemed like a long drive for very little reward and then having turned around we stopped again further down where we could see several fish farms on the lake. Lots of construction work was taking place and one new place close to the shore, with a rather bright red roof, which was surely going to obscure the view for the places a little higher.
This was a pleasant half-day trip from the city but not one we would choose to do again.
