During our trips, no matter if we go to visit a museum, a citadel, a park, or some mountains - somehow, we always end up by visiting at least one waterfall.
And since we often roam the country during the summer, not specifically, but we travel more during the hot seasons instead of the cold ones - it's really hard to run out of water after a hike of a few hours or when there are more than 30°C outside.
And not for a few times we filled our bottles or drunk the water right from the source - waterfalls.
Waterfalls are some of the purest things you can discover in the mountains.
They are playing an important role for both nature and animals, but for tourists too. Because no matter if it's not a clean waterfall as we are used seeing, we can always boil the water before drinking it and so we are sure there are no risks.
But this is not the case of Romania, at least not from what I know, because most of the waterfalls I visited were creating rivers and small pools where you could also find trouts.
And if you don't know how to make sure the water you find in nature whether it's potable or not - well, this is how. Every single river, waterfall, pool, lake, you find in the mountains having trouts, it's a safe source of potable water.
Romania is even proud of having the purest waterfall/spring in the world, holding 0 bacteria, while there isn't registered any other waterfall with less than 5 bacteria. You can read more about this place, HERE.
The waterfall that is making the subject of today's post is called Șipote and despite the thing that locals invested a lot in arranging it to gather more and more tourists, in reality, very few people ever heard about its existence.
Șipote Waterfall is also known as Cascada de Travertin (EN: Travertine Waterfall), and it's located in Trascau Mountains, Alba County, still on the territory of the majestic Transylvania whose natural treasures seem farther and farther away from being entirely discovered.
As I mentioned in some of my previous posts, no matter in which direction we travel, we always end up discovering a few more places from Transylvania, each one of them with an emotional story and landscape that makes you feel like being part of a fairy tale.
Even though the waterfall seem very easy to be accessed by anyone, Șipote represents a very complex karstic phenomenon that includes:
- Water collection basin - composed of many sinkholes and slopes where the water is gathered from an altitude of 1100-1200 meters;
- Three natural springs - as results of the sinkholes, located on a lower level of 400m from the stone walls after it gets through the thick limestone area;
- A 800m long stream - which continues the path created by the springs and it flows into one of the most important rivers from the area called Arieș;
- A big number of waterfalls with a height up to 15m long - that are embracing the stones and dams of travertine;
- Underground limestone basins of travertine - naturally built from the limestone deposits.
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All these uncommon things we are not used to discover during a trip, lead to the existence of Șipote Waterfall that rests on the travertine stones which are being born from the water of the karstic springs saturated with bicarbonates, that once it gets in contact with the sun rays during the day, it heats up and it creates limestone deposits with the chalk that can't be used anymore with bicarbonates.
Once you reach the waterfall you will become a little bit confused, not being sure what you love more:
The mountains? The landscape?
The fresh air and water? The locals?
The small villages from this part of the world?
In reality, each one of these mentioned has its own contribution to what we are blessed to see today because nothing from this wouldn't be possible without the love people have for nature and for promoting the touristic attractions they have on just a few meters away from their houses.
That's how locals managed to set up a fountain that is constantly powered with the water coming straight from the waterfall we wanted to see, that has the same flow no matter what the season is.
The whole place is completed by a small parking lot for the tourists who opt in for the route with the car, but also a few tables and some benches if you want to take the lunch with a stunning landscape in the background because I have no doubt the food has an even better taste when it's eaten in this location.
But of course, this would be the easy way to discover the waterfall while if you want to also explore all its stages and how it gets to the current form we get to see in the pictures, it's a completely different track to be followed.
To discover the whole waterfall and take the hard way instead of stopping the car in the middle of the road and see it from the distance, you need to go to the village called Sălciua which is just 2km away from it, follow the red cross marker painted on the trees and rocks which will bring you to the top hills of the countryside, called Podisul Podirei (EN: Podira Plateau). From here you will reach the Șipote Glade where you can also consider as a camping base if you want to spend a night or more, in this area. The whole trail will take around 1-2 hours and you will get to see way more awesomeness than what people see from the street (DN75).
SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾
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