If stepping on Mars sounds like an impossible thing for you, keep in mind that a pretty similar experience can be enjoyed at The Mud Volcanoes from Romania whose substance is very alike with what you can see on a different planet than Earth.
After our first stop in Buzau county at a Carving Camp with a little over 260 statues, we decided to spend a few more days in this part of Romania as there were plenty of things we wanted to see there for a while now, but which we only got to see in the summer of 2021.
Actually, the things we were most interested in were the mud volcanoes which are around 3 or more in Buzau, but also some interesting stones that we'll find more about when the time comes.
While my father did see the mud volcanoes in his youth, none of I, my sister or our mother seen these so we said that it's a must to convince him to follow the same road again so the whole family discovers some of the most popular things you can see while being in Buzau.
Anyway, don't you worry, I know I got you used with less popular things we explore in Romania so we only had some short stops at these before getting deeper in the wilderness of nature for more unknown and mystery, but let's better take it step by step. 😊
However, if you search on the internet about The Mud Volcanoes from Buzau, Romania, most likely you will get results with both Pâclele Mari and Pâclele Mici which are two different locations with mud volcanoes in this region, but I thought about making separate posts for each of them starting with Pâclele Mari today and coming with Pâclele Mici in one of the next Saturdays when a new travel post will be published.
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The good part is that talking about some popular sightseeing attractions from Buzau, there were made some investments that will come with a parking lot where you can leave the car, but also with a less pleasant thing to do, namely to purchase a visiting ticket before beginning your journey properly.
Prices for visiting tickets:
- Kid Ticket: 1 RON / 0.20 EUR;
- Student Ticket: 2 RON / 0.40 EUR;
- Adult Ticket: 4 RON / 0.81 EUR.
There are no taxes for either taking pictures or recording videos with The Mud Volcanoes but there is a schedule for visiting it, namely, between 8 AM - 9 PM any day of the week.
I know that there are not too many people who enjoy paying a visiting ticket for a place they want to discover but since it's important to have someone really passionate about this kind of things in order to want to spend his time taking care of the volcanoes because there are quite a few guys who have this stupid pleasure of ruining natural places, I think we can all agree that it's a pretty low tax which anyone can purchase keeping in mind that they contributed with a minimum of money to take care of this place and still be able to find it in the future if they ever return to The Mud Volcanoes just like my father did.
As soon as you move on from the place where you purchase the visiting ticket, a narrow path of a few tens of meters long will be accompanied by lots of informative panels about the volcanoes but where most of the information is shared in a funny way remembering about a story with a dragon that will haunt you if you don't keep the place clean or if you ruin the natural formations.
I think this is a very smart way of teaching kids more of what they are about to see because at least for the younger ones, I don't know how many of them will understand the meaning and importance of the volcanoes so it's nice to keep them both curious and informative during their visit.
Anyway, after you finish crossing this path, you will be welcomed by a very dry scenery with the soil being broken that shatters at every step, but also with a mutter sound in the background that you will get used to as soon as you see where it's coming from.
To make this a lot clear, we are talking about two craters of volcanoes that at Pâclele Mari they cover a total surface of 10 hectares with many holes of different sizes that bring to the surface a lot of mud along with natural gas field that for the past few years it's being exploited to the maximum by Petrom which is the largest energy company in Southeast Europe.
As you are probably expecting, this is leading to nothing good for the volcanoes or the people interested in geology or travelling to this part of Romania because the volcanoes become less and less active with each passing year and might remain only in pictures what we've seen in the summer of 2021.
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It's a little bit ironic how the place is protected from people touching the mud, formations or bringing domestic animals with them but that the soil itself is not protected from the big companies which are rather harming the sightseeing attraction than saving it.
Oh, and let's not forget about those who don't care too much about the rules and they still walk over the active surfaces of the volcanoes and leave their touch to such a special place offered by nature... 😕
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Anyway, if you are going to walk around the volcanic area, you'll notice that there are smaller and bigger regions that are throwing away mud, but also that not all of them are as active as the others which can also be translated in how big the reservation of gas is under the soil.
All these lead to either more or less mud but also in more or fewer bubbles of gas getting to the surface.
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Vulcanii Noroioși Pâclele Mari represent a protected area of high national interest that is being located at an altitude of 322 meters which is important not only for the rare geological formations but also for the animals and plants that are growing up in a salty environment.
When we visited The Mud Volcanoes it was the middle of the summer and so the weather was very warm, but a less indicated moment of visiting the volcanoes is during the rainy periods or winter when the whole cracked ground will be entirely covered by mud which will make the rare formations become more active and noisy giving you a strange feeling to be around when nature is not sleeping.
So as much we blamed the hot weather which was making us want to rush the discovery so we can go to rest under the shadow of a tree, as important it is to take a trip there only in that time of the year.
All these mud volcanoes and formations are pretty rare in Europe, but somehow there are 3 such places in Buzau and around 60 in Transylvania, but which are, of course, a lot smaller with some of them not even being noticed.
However, we managed to see 3 out of the 3 from Buzau which I can't wait to write move about in the following posts.
A more interesting aspect though, is that the people from NASA are really interested in this kind of formations which in 2009 they managed to discover with the help of a space robot that on Mars there are very similar formations with these from Romania. Hence why, we can call this little adventure as a journey on a different planet than Earth. 😊
Anyway, if you are wondering where all that mud is coming from, find out that it's all about the gas from the soil which is following a trail of a few thousand of kilometers long from the deepest sides of the soil that at the end of the trail the gas draws groundwater, dissolved marls (clay limestones) and clay, throwing them out in the form of liquid mud.
From there, the liquid mud can either come to the surface in the form of an eruption if the trail of the gas is more active or by simply flowing out of the created holes that during the time these can take round shapes or get higher just like the common volcanoes we all know.
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Along with the muddy scenery, you can notice some more interesting formations in the distance that are not covered by the liquid we already got used with, which is either white or yellow being caused by the amounts of salt left on the surface after the water has evaporated.
There are countless cycles the soil is going through of humidity/aridity or frost/thaw which during the time the layers of liquid mud are solidifying more and more until the soil becomes so dry that it cracks.
This is also the place where you are closer to nature and where the chance to grow and develop is given to the plants.
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After the rainy periods which often fill the soil with water, the cracks formed previously are getting deeper with the possibility of having the ground lowered in some areas because of the amount of water gathered in that part of the soil.
All these phases the soil is going through will lead to scenic landscapes that while are a rare thing in Europe they can be enjoyed in more places in Romania which are often resembling to the so-called sand dunes from the desert. 💛
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I don't want to make this post too long so I'll keep more information to be shared in the following posts about other mud volcanoes from Romania which even though they are so rare in Europe, they can be met pretty easy on the territory of my home country depending where you are coming from and for which volcanoes you opt in to visit first.
In order to reach these from Buzau, you have to get on the national road DN10 from Buzău-Brașov until you reach Sătuc from where you should follow the next route Berca - Joseni - Policiori. Once you are in Policiori you have to get to the right until you reach the first intersection and follow the way to the left that will lead you to Pâclele Mari.
The GPS coordinates are 45.359405, 26.714532.
SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾
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