Getting to taste nature is amazing, but when you get to face its wilderness too, it feels like a more genuine experience and definitely a great way to understand what truly matters in life.

After our first and quick stop at Mila 23 during our 12 hours long boat ride, the adventure had to continue so once everyone was back onboard, we hit the ~~road~~ water again on the way to some more awesomeness offered by nature.
Even though the whole journey was still at the beginning, with just 2-3 hours since we first jumped in the boat, everyone welcomed the ride with the same big smiles and excitement.
We were about to spend just 1-2 more hours until we will Pădurea Letea (Letea Forest) that represented our next stop, but our guide made sure to enjoy the route towards destination too, taking us on big and small lakes, narrow and wide canals, but also another region well known for its impressive population of water lilies.
If in my trip from 2019 seeing water lilies was not a problem as we've got to enjoy plenty of them, I can't say the same about the current trip where on the way to Mila 23 we were able to see just some flower buds.

Lucky or not, those from my previous post were yellow and perhaps they bloom later than August when we had our trip, so when we reached the new path of water entirely covered in white water lilies this time, some of these were already bloomed.

While we didn't get to spend too much time on the first place where we got to enjoy the water lilies, this time our guide turned off the engine of the boat and let it dance on the waves while slowly getting more and more surrounded by this gentle flower.

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It's true that for me it wasn't the first time seeing this flower, nor being in a boat just a few cm away from it, but I keep comparing this experience with the one from 2019 where even though I've got to see more bloomed flowers, the guide didn't offer us so much time admiring this part of nature as our current guide did. So there are plenty of differences and pros & cons between the two, even though the route was pretty similar.

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After we delighted our eyes with some more awesomeness offered by nature, the boat driver took us on some really narrow water canals that made the adrenaline pump a bit more powerful in our veins especially since he was driving quite fast and there were plenty of curves. The whole excitement could disappear pretty fast if we would meet with another boat coming from the opposite direction because there wasn't enough space for two boats, but happily, this didn't happen and we continued our journey with huge smiles on our faces.

Another reason of joy was brought by noticing genuine fisherman's houses that had nothing to do with those turned into guest houses we noticed at Mila 23 which were closer to the more modern times. I can't imagine how both hard and beautiful can be to make a living only from what nature offers you daily, but I bet these people have a lot of interesting stories to share with the curious ones.

As soon the green surroundings got replaced with a dry landscape, we knew that we are very close to our next stop because Letea Forest it's a fairly arid surface even though is located in a place full of water.
Despite the sand that was covering the ground in most of the place, there were still cows in search of fresh grass and even taking a bath in the water because it was a damn hot day that made it hurt to be endured by everyone.
I can't imagine how hard it is to find a small part of grass but I was happy seeing the animals look pretty good and away from the starving form everyone expected them to look like.
While more people are aware that Letea Forest is the oldest nature reserve in Romania, fewer people know that the same forest also represents the northernmost subtropical forest in Europe which explains how important it is for the place to be well-maintained during the time and let more and more generations get to enjoy a similar experience with ours.

However, even if Letea Forest is a fairly popular touristic attraction no matter for the water route you opt for, there are not as many businesses held in town as there are at Mila 23 just because people are more poor on this part and only survive from the seasonal work such as driving the tourists from town to the forest and back in town, selling a few drinks on a small bar or cooking traditional food for those who want to try some of the local dishes.

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Once the boat was parked, there was just a matter of time until our driver found some available locals to drive the cars used for the tourists and then we hit the road.

Even though 'savanna' is a fairly big word for what this means in other countries, people still like naming it this way just for the sake of being driven on arid surfaces deeper in nature's heart along with sceneries that look so different from what everyone is used with, no matter what their daily routines look like.

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While the savanna experienced in 2019 passed faster and more pleasant as during the whole drive our guide was sharing plenty of interesting stories of the lands we were seeing from the car, this time everything was different and seemed like a long and boring drive just because no one was sharing any information with us and the tourists were far from understanding the importance of Letea Forest. So here comes another minus for this experience in comparison with the one from 2019.

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Either way, the biggest win came when we were actually able to see the wild horses because in 2019 we only noticed some horses in the distance and couldn't admire their beauty. So even though it remains a mystery why we saw so few horses back then, this time we got to see no less than 30 horses both from the distance but also from just 2-3 meters away from us.

While for some might sound like not an impressive number of horses, imagine that we saw them in a fairly small area that we crossed and that the population of horses is four times that of the locals. To be more accurate, there are more than 2,500 horses living wild and free where the single imposters are the tourists who are bothering them from time to time, but happily, as wild as those animals are, as quickly they became comfortable with people and don't get scared too easily by them when getting closer to admire their beauty.

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Along with Padurea Letea which represents the single place where I got to see wild horses, there are just a few more similar places out there as there are just a few places in Europe where wild horses still exist since people tend to capture them and use them for their own tasks because we all know how expensive a horse is.

Anyway, no matter how expensive a horse is, it makes 0 sense to capture one that lives wild and free just because it doesn't cost any penny because they represent simple animals as any other animal you can find out there. Just imagine people capturing tigers, lions, bears or any other wild animals just because it costs nothing. That's how ridiculous I see the action of capturing wild horses too.

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Even though the wild horses represent the main attraction of the place, there are other interesting things to see around too because we are talking about a region that 6000 years ago was covered by The Black Sea, and the habitat of Letea Forest is the perfect environment for many animals and plants that I've only heard about on the internet or TV documentaries.

Some of these are the famous lianas that I only saw in The Jungle Book which even though are not as strong and impressive as those from a genuine jungle, they still represent a fascinating thing for many tourists who get to touch them and stay so close to a plant that once it grows, it starts to tighten the stem from which it is drawn... so basically to kill itself. They actually represent the single lianas that can be found in Europe while they have been brought in form of seeds by birds who are migrating to warm countries.

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Another point of interest that is actually the first one people notice once they reach Letea Forest, is this 780+ years old oak tree that is still standing, while the others are around 400-500 years old.

Seeing such old trees was a good reminder that forest and nature, in general, needs no intervention from people who start cutting them off because they can live long without asking for too much in return but actually offer further the oxygen we all need so badly these days when more and more pollution is surrounding us in different forms.

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After we spent quite a while exploring the forest and what it has to offer, along with the various horses welcoming us, it was time to head back to the cars and return to where we left the boat. This was actually a longer and more interesting part of the whole adventure because in 2019 that guide didn't show us too much the surroundings but let us discover them on our own.

Either way, I am happy that I got to return here and add some extra information to the one I already had because nature offers so much that it's literally hard to gather in just a few minutes spent in its heart.

Letea Forest is located 18 km away from the Black Sea, 23 km away from Sulina, and 102 km away from Tulcea, and in order to reach it you have to take the boat from either Tulcea or Sulina.

More articles from the same adventure:

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Let's travel together #257 - The wild horses from Letea Forest, Danube Delta

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾