Rimetea, in Hungarian Torockó is a small village famous for its white houses. Is was mentioned first time 1257 as Torockó and part of the Hungarian kingdom. The village is located in Alba county, Romania, beneath Piatra Secuiului (Szekeli Stone), a huge limestone rock.
We meet our friends in Rimetea at 9:30 am, it took about 1 hour and 45 min from Sibiu.
The weather was beautiful, fresh air and it felt like spring was about to come. We decided to go for the cliffs west of the village. They seemed easier to hike and we expected a nice view on Rimetea and Piatra Secuiului.
From the village center we started at 10:00 am and followed a farm road up the hill. Soon we reached the forest and continued straight up. But the road became smaller and turned into a trail which soon disappeared in a rock field and leaves. There was no mobile signal and we could not check for the position or a map. And so we continued straight up until we reached a snow field. Walking in the woods on the steep slope was quite exhausting. Several times we turned left and right searching for the way or way signs, but nothing except some marks on trees. But those are not waymarks, they marked the trees which need to be cut.
It took us about three hours up there and part of the group decided to go back as we still could not find the trail.
Two of us continued straight up, passed the snow field and then we reached the ridge right between two huge rocks. The ridge was still covered with snow and we carefully climbed the right rock from the west side. We were rewarded with a stunning view!
It was 1:30 pm, on the other side of the rocks we found the trail and followed the footprints in the snow towards south where we reached another rock which is the “official” viewpoint.
But up until now I could not figure out the name of the ridge and rocks – if there is any.
We walked back down following the trail and had lunch on the way – homemade sausages, cheese and bread. So good!
We reached Rimetea village around 3:30 pm, the total hike took about 6 and a half hours but can be done faster if following the trail. Later I understood that we missed to turn left from the farm-road far before reaching the forest.