A thru-hike across the Carpathians: Czech Michal Medek's on his two-month journey, the beauty of the Romanian ranges, and how the mountains are changing

In the summer of 2019, Czech Michal Medek embarked on a special journey. Setting off from the Pálava range in the Czech Republic, he went on a two-month thru-hike across the Carpathians, crossing Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, and Romania. He ended his route in south-western Romania, in Coronini, in the area of the Czech settlements in Banat.

His 2,200-kilometer walk, which he chronicled on the website Transcarpathian.org, came after numerous previous hikes in the region and in Romania, the fulfillment of an idea and dream that started in part with a reading of Miloslav Nevrlý's Carpathian Games, the English translation of which he recently edited and made available here. Nevrlý hiked through the Romanian mountains in the 1960s and 1970s and wrote this book about the beauties of Romania, Medek explains.