Thinning out

Very scenic trudge around the Zarand area in the Southern Carpathians up icy tracks and across snowfields. The views of the white and stark landscape were stunningly beautiful and the sun was so fiercely bright that I now know what it must be like to be a skier squinting in the height of winter and acquiring a pounding headache.

These mountainous regions of Romania are some of the poorest in the European Union. The further you drive from the inter-city highways the more traditional are the lifestyles. As we drove along the track to where we started walking we passed many wooden homes that do not have electricity or running water and where the predominant livelihoods are subsistence. People tend livestock, knead dough in special wooden troughs and ferment tuica, the fierce Romanian spirit, in barrels.

It's not surprising that rural areas have suffered from a drastic depopulation as people have moved to cities or overseas for work. There are many abandoned buildings or homes that are only used for a few weeks per year by relatives visiting from the city. Stalwarts persevere in what must be a difficult existence, especially in winter.

In the hills are high summer pastures and wooden homes that are occupied more and more rarely. At this time of year the hills are largely deserted except for snow-covered haystacks, watchful buzzards and agile roe deer.

The visit made me try and compare the material wealth and lifestyles of people here with people in Aceh, Cambodia or South Sudan. Statistically the UN would say Romanians are wealthier but others may have a lot more materially. And the brutal winter makes life seem very harsh for a few months of the year. You couldn't succumb from cold in Cambodia but you could so easily here.