In our previous post, we shared our experiences of the first week of the summer internship in Transylvania organised by our Foundation, but fortunately the second week of the internship also had some excitement and of course some tasks for the students, which we will give you a taste of in the following lines.

Our second week experiences

During the week, the participants covered long, long kilometres in the mountains. Their treks took them up steep hillsides, through cranberry and raspberry bogs and down rocky streams. Their task was to fill in salt pans in the mountains, make a clearing, clear a road with pines and other herbaceous vegetation leading to it, and build another clearing.

The students worked hard, but the difficult terrain and hot sun were compensated by the beauty of nature. The hikes often offered fabulous views of the surrounding hills and valleys, giving the students a chance to enjoy the scenery. Of course, there were other treasures on the way, such as blueberry picking in the forest, fox mushroom picking, the chance to see deer and roe deer, black and crossbills, a lapwing on another day and, on another bear hike, first a bear of about 350 points and later a smaller but more cautious bear.

"The most educational and interesting event for me this week was the bear cage, the first time I had the chance to see such a large wild bear in the flesh and observe its behaviour." (Sára Vágó)

To quote another student;

"... but the work has paid off. At the end of the scouting trip, the huge mountains made the scenery fabulous. The hillsides were covered with pine trees and new growth after felling, and beech, birch and blueberry trees enhanced the scenery. On the way home we saw seven deer, which we took to mean that we had done a good job and the forest had rewarded us. None of us had to be put to sleep in the evening." (Récsei Kata)

In the second week, a well-knit team closed the cases. On one occasion, Dani made chowder for her companions and hosts, while teaching the team to play the horn.

"Personally, I enjoyed the evening hooter the most. The music is close to me and I had a French horn practice in Sopron two years ago, but I haven't had the chance to practice since. So it was great to be able to play the instrument after so many years away." (Anna Illés)

Saturday was a very special day, as Kata and Jani both celebrated their birthdays on the same day, so the small group spent the afternoon celebrating together.

"Boti had offered me the night before to go out with him at dawn for a stalk. We agreed at 5.10am that he would pick me up. At 5 o'clock I was ready and sipping my coffee on the terrace when I saw a bull deer in the large meadow in front of the house, which was completely covered in fog. I could not believe my eyes, as it is very rare to see them up here at this time of year. It was a beautiful, strong specimen. Big body, thick neck. The antlers are not common, the stems are long, the spread is steep and it was a spear bull, if I saw it right. That made my day. While stalking we saw a stag, 2 deer, sutas. After stalking we went to feed and then went inside for breakfast." (Récsei Kata)

Cover photo by Kata Récsei