Walking on Mars? Stepping on the moon?
Nothing is impossible in Romania, nor in Buzau county which is home for some very unique and rare formations in Europe.

As the time spent at The mud volcanoes from Pâclele Mari passed pretty fast and we already saw the sun slowly wanting to go down, we decided that before we explore the volcanoes from Pâclele Mici we should first look for a place where we will spend the next few nights while we are in Buzau County.
My sister already had a list of places where we can set up our tent so we moved on pretty fast adding on GPS the camping area where we intended to sleep for the next few days, which was actually located right before the path that will take you to Pâclele Mici.
Just like we are used to seeing people taking advantage of some beautiful natural destinations that gather thousands of tourists yearly to create a small business, those who have the camping made a thing of it not to allow people cross with the cars until they reach the entrance to the volcanoes as we experienced in my previous post which I consider both a selfish and good thing at the same time.
The selfish part is that they force people to leave their cars in the camping's parking lot which costs money, but the good part is that this makes the volcanoes not get that crowded with tourists as it happens at Pâclele Mari, which is really nice because we all know what people can cause to nature.

Anyway, the conditions at the camping arena weren't the best but at least we managed to stay close to the places we intended to visit for the next few days so I'm happy with that.

Perhaps you already noticed the hill from the picture before where it's written "Vulcanii Noroiosi" (EN: The Mud Volcanoes) which is definitely a nice way to gather the attention of the tourists remembering the famous Hollywood sign everyone knows. Well, this thing of writing different names of cities, places or sightseeing attractions is not something unusual for Romania, having quite a few locations in my mind where we've seen this before.

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Anyway, keep in mind the hill shown before because if you intend to get to Pâclele Mici, you need to get closer to that hill until you notice a path that has some sort of arcade around it and it's written Aleea Vulcanilor (EN: The volcanoes' alley) which is the best indication you could get that you are following the right path to the gorgeous natural formations.

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After so many places we've been to, I would frame the route as an easy one, having just a short inclined part until you reach the top of the hill and then go down for a few more minutes, but this is not taking longer than 20-30 minutes on a slow walking pace and if you stop for at least ten times to take pictures or videos with the landscapes you will see, lol, so it's definitely worth the "effort".

As soon as we made our last steps before reaching our destination, I sort of got a deja-vu with all the green pillars and informative panels that were identical to those from Pâclele Mari, but which I was happy to see thinking that we are so close to covering another part on the map with things we've seen while being in Buzau county.
We had to pay again a minimum tax for visiting the mud volcanoes as it happened before, but which I still consider being way too little for what it has to offer and namely that those places are so unique and rare in Europe.
However, I'll mention again the prices down below:

• 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 videos of the place, the single requirement being to leave everything as you found it and not touch or destroy the natural formation, nor to break the plants that grow in this environment because there is no doubt they won't resist at home or any other place than here.

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To make a little introduction for those who haven't seen my previous post, those mud volcanoes were formed with the help of the gas which is stuck in the soil that follows a trail of thousands of kilometres until he gets outside and throws everything in form of liquid mud after it gets through a clay layer.

Depending on the speed the gas is crossing the trail to the surface, the mud can either come as an eruption as it happens with the volcanoes that throw away lava or by simply flowing out of the created holes which in time they will change their shape.

Only time can decide which of these can survive because as the mud is gathering outside, especially during the hot times this one solidifies itself which after a while will crack and form small ditches into the soil that will make you feel like stepping on the moon or any other place but not on Earth.

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Even though we've seen quite a few tens of different holes, volcanoes, or various forms the mud and gas came out from, the biggest such formation was located at Pâclele Mici which is a little bit ironical considering that mici means small and mari means big, so we sort of expected to see that at the volcanoes from Pâclele Mari, but this came as a nice surprise seeing nature proving us wrong! 😃

Having the widest volcano placed at Pâclele Mici instead of Pâclele Mari is not the single controversy because the first one covers a total surface of 15 ha while the 2nd one covers only 10 ha of the surface, so we can be sure of the thing that the names of those places don't match with their surfaces or what they have to offer, but which can be found out only by the curious ones, so I consider myself a winner knowing all these things.

The landscape of the volcanoes can be both stunning and scary at the same time, especially when you are surrounded by lots of volcanoes from where you keep hearing the mud bubbling and waiting for the right moment to get outside, but it's still a unique experience that I'd love to repeat anytime.
Depending on the quantity of gas that is resting under the soil, there are some regions where you will feel the smell a lot more powerful, but it's a good reminder to not forget where you are at and that you can become so tiny and less important in front of nature's powers which can be both nice and dangerous.
Anyway, we visited Pâclele Mari and Pâclele Mici in times of drought which is also the most recommended period of the year for this experience because if it's snowing or raining outside, the whole soil will become part of the mud and the gas will be more active that could turn out into a less accessible place to visit.
That's also why during the hot seasons you will find lots of cracks into the soil which otherwise will be filled with water and slowly become some sort of moving sludges which is not as fun to cross over as it is when the soil is dry.

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Above you can see some of those cracks I was telling you about, as well as some plants which even though they are not as colourful and beautiful as we are used to see nature, they are very rare and can only be found in this type of dry and salty soil.

The same environment is also loved by scorpions and termites which is not excluded to meet during your journey. Happily, we didn't find any even though I was really curious to see a scorpion in real life, but maybe next time. 😃

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The carousel of pictures attached is to present a more visual explanation of the things I was telling at the beginning of this post with the process the mud is going through with some of the holes formed surviving during the time and even getting wider, while some get covered and dried out.

Although the latter is not as interesting as the first ones, it's still nice to get to see nature in all its shapes and forms and assist in its process which follows countless cycles daily.

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Even though we are talking about mud volcanoes both at Pâclele Mari and Pâclele Mici, the 2nd place is not enjoying the same amount of tourists or promotion the 1st location does, which for me it was a good thing since I like not getting into very crowded places, but which is a great loss for those who are stopping after they saw the mud volcanoes from Pâclele Mari because the places are entirely different in terms of shapes, forms, sizes and literally every formation you will see that is unique and you won't find two looking the same.

I'll put that on the back of convenience since you can reach Pâclele Mari by car and Pâclele Mici only by hiking a hill for like 20 minutes, but perhaps is the proof that some places should remain not so known by the tourists.

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The formations that you will find in 3 or 4 places in Buzau county have dated for thousands of years, but they first became "interesting" to people in 1867 when a French man was searching for petrol, waiting until 1924 when those reservations became protected.

Anyway, the word "protected" it's a little bit rhetorical as that includes only the rules applied to people visiting those places, while the gas that can be found under the soil is not protected and that's how for the last few years those regions were massively exploited by OMV Petrom, making the volcanoes become less and less powerful.

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Happily, talking about some regions that are so unique in Europe, those places represent attractive destinations in the European tourist circuit which hopefully will change the things in a few years from now making us be able to find again the mud volcanoes when we will revisit them in the future.

Anyway, both Pâclele Mari and Pâclele Mici can be reached quite easily from any part of Romania if you follow the national road DN10 on the route Brașov - Buzău until you reach Sătuc from where you should start chasing the next route: Berca - Joseni - Policiori. Once you get to the latter you will find road signs to both of the destinations which are located just 2 km away from each other.

The GPS coordinates are 45.347290, 26.709576.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾

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