Crisp wind meanders over the patchy hills of rock and mountain grass. A thin layer of mist coats the snow-capped mountains, adding texture to the soul-shaking 360° panoramic view of the Carpathian Mountains.

The first activity explored on BikeHike’s Romania – Transylvania Traverse is a day spent hiking in the Carpathian Mountains, a vast 209,000-km² mountain range constituting the largest tract of unfragmented forest left in central Europe. It is a special place where forest, meadows, wildlife and humans still live in harmony with nature. The soft climate invites travellers back in time through the region’s rich culture, activity and history.

Charlie Ottley, host of the Travel Channel’s show Flavours Of…, recently wrote and presented a video piece on this region of Romania titled Wild Carpathia. He does a great job of displaying the rugged natural beauty of Romania’s mountain range. Charlie goes as far as to postulate that the Carpathian Mountains are “perhaps the world’s only surviving medieval landscape.”