The first nature outing in 2025 in Lunca Mures Natural Park in Arad County, Romania
Hello travelers
As I wrote in my last post here in western Romania in the first days of 2025 the weather didn't keep up with me, we had cold and rainy weather, but here I finally caught a nice winter day and took full advantage of it to do some exercise in nature.
So I didn't have to look too hard for a place where we could exercise in nature, I had known for some time about the Lunca Mureșului Natural Park, also known as Ceala Forest.
We drove here for about 35-40 minutes, and after we followed the sign indicating the entrance to this protected area, a straight road opened up, honestly we couldn't see the end.
The park is very large so we chose to visit only a part of it, the one in the area of Lake Maltăreț and the cabins there.
I left the car in the parking lot of a restaurant, there were many cars parked there, no one came to tell me that I have to pay a fee, so I didn't pay anything.
I took my backpack on my back and set off to explore the area, my god it was so quiet, only wild animals could be heard.
Before we go any further I will leave you a short history of the Mures River and the Natural Park.
The Mures is the longest river in Romania (except for the Danube) and in the nature park it forms a specific meadow ecosystem, with periodically flooded areas, flowing and stagnant waters, alluvial forests and impressive galleries of willows and poplars. The area is home to over 200 bird species, many of which are internationally protected.
Lunca Mures Natural Park is on the list of wetlands of international importance. The park covers an area of more than 17,400 hectares and is part of the European "Natura 2000" network for the protection and conservation of wetlands and the fauna and flora species characteristic of this type of ecosystem. The park is designated as a European Destination of Excellence (EDEN) and is part of the Pannonian region.
In the 9 habitats present in the park, there are over 1,200 plant species and over 1,000 species of invertebrates, 200 species of birds, 50 species of fish, 40 species of mammals and 10 species of amphibians. This considerable biodiversity is the result of a variety of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (alluvial forests, steppes and silvopes, still waters, ponds and marshes, wet meadows and wet meadows, meadows, vineyards, orchards and arable land).
Even though we arrived here around 2 in the afternoon, we encountered areas where the frost was still present, in fact even the lake water had a crust of ice, but instead the sunny areas were full of mud.
And yes, that was a bit unpleasant, we got a bit muddy on our shoes, but even so the movement in nature is amazing no matter what the conditions.
The route we followed through the forest has a moving name, promenade of the hearts, it connects the lake area (where we were) and the Ceala visitor center, with a length of 1,3km, unfortunately the Ceala visitor center was closed so we couldn't see the museum there.
Let's turn our eyes to the lake, at first glance it seems to me that because of the drought in recent years the lake water has dropped a lot, at one point I was walking on the bottom of the lake so low was the water.
Even so, the beauty of the lake is dreamlike, we encountered many swans, wild ducks and other wild animals here, but there were other animals hidden in the vegetation.
The photo below is my favorite, elegant as the swan kisses its own reflection in the clear lake water.
Dear visitors, this is the end of our first nature outing in 2025.
THE END!
If you liked what you saw and read here please don't forget to give a LiKe, Follow, reBlog or a Comment, for all this I thank you, and until the next post I say goodbye.
P.S. The attached picture you have just seen are taken by me with my mobile phone(Samsung Galaxy S21), and the text is also designed by me.
