After visiting Rîu Sadului for the Burduf Challenege event, beginning of July, we paid this lovely village another visit one weekend later with a main purpose – to spend two days at a shepherd’s cottage up on the mountains surrounding the village and to get in contact with their daily routine and to enjoy the beautiful view around.

Rîu Sadului is a small mountains village in the Mărginimea Sibiului area, an area known for its shepherds and delicious cheese, among others. Some of them spend a few months every year up on the mountains with their herds, where sheep get all that fat and tasty mountain grass for their diet. This is why this small, wooden cottages have been built during time – to accommodate the shepherds and their sheep so that they don’t have to go back to the village every night.

Unfortunately, choosing a shepherd career is not so much in the trends in our days, as younger people prefer the modern city life instead of the hard work they would have to do daily in the village. Still the cottages are there, there are even some sheep left and some people who still carry on the tradition.  So we thought that our weekend would be a road opener for people looking for a different kind of tourism, away from big cities and crowds.

For us it was a family trip, having our daughter and some other friends with us. We took our tent and sleeping bags and hiked for about 2 hours from Rîu Sadului to the cottage where we would spend the night.  The hike is an easy-medium one, with not such a big ascent, but still a bit challenging for our 4 year-old.

The view is truly magnificent and on a clear sky you get to see all the mountains around.

The lady taking care of the cottage and her son were very welcoming and willing to get to know us, as we were to get to know them. We cooked together, had dinner together and heard all their village stories. Simple, but hard life, always on the run, with no day to rest or vacation. The day starts very early in the morning and for the next 12 – 13 hours there is always something to be done. The son is the one who takes care of the sheep all day and he enjoys it, as he says that he’s alone on the mountains, enjoying nature and not being disturbed by anyone.

If you’re looking for a similar experience, you can contact My Transylvania for more info.