GRANNY
CLIMBS A MOUNTAIN
A
STORY FOR
ITAMAR AND MAAYAN
By Granny Doreen,
August 2006
Granny with her friends flew
by airplane
to far away Romania. We wanted to hike in the great forests of Romania
where all the mountains are covered with fir trees.
Granny and her friends woke up in the morning and
were glad
to see the sun shining in the blue sky. We had breakfast and got
dressed,
putting on their hiking boots. We then walked a long time along a
dirt
road. The road went through a canyon and
on either side of the road the walls of the mountains rose straight up.
After walking
for 1 hour they stopped to rest and drink some water.
We then left the dirt road and followed a narrow
path. The
path went up the mountain and it was steep and muddy. As they climbed
they had
to hold on to roots of trees and rocks with their hands so they
wouldn’t fall
down. When they were puffing and sweaty, the path straightened out.
Suddenly
they were walking inside the forest. All they could see were tall, tall
trees growing
around them. Granny and Ivan, Leah and Ilana stood in silence and
listened. There
was no sound; it was very quiet. We noticed that it was also very
dark,
almost like night. Ivan said: “Do you know that there are bears and
wolves that
live in these forests?” A shiver of fear ran through all of them. Granny said: “Don’t worry friends.
Wolves
sleep during the day. They only look for food at night when it is easy
for them
to catch a sheep or a goat that is sleeping.” “What about the bears?”
asked
Ilana. Poo bears love to eat honey, even berries and roots, but
do they eat people? We all looked at each other. We didn’t know if we
would be safe and if bears walked
the
forest during the day. Leah said: “Let’s make sure that we walk
together in a
long line so we will be safe.” We began to walk through the trees and
each
one felt as if the eyes of a bear were looking at them through the
trees.
After a long time when they were very high, the
trees no
longer grew close together and the forest stopped. We walked out into
the
sunshine where there were many flowers and where the sweet green grass
grew. We saw mushrooms, some big, some small, others orange and even
red
ones with
white spots. Granny bent down to pick them. “Don’t touch them!” shouted
Leah:
"Mushrooms that grow in the forest are very poisonous and can make you
very sick.” Granny was hungry and looked
around. She saw some red raspberries and they all picked the small
sweet fruit,
laughing that they were like Hansel and Gretel (Ami and Tami).
.
.
.
Up there in the alpine meadow we saw many, many
sheep
grazing on the grass .The sheep dogs walked along the edge of the
grazing
sheep, barking at the sheep to come back if they walked too far away by
themselves. We saw the shepherds sitting
in the sun.
The friends asked the shepherds if they had seen wolves and bears. The
shepherds told them that at night they collect all the sheep inside a
wooden
fence. The dogs look after the sheep also at night, barking if any
animal comes
close. One night a big bear did come to the sheep but when the dogs
barked the
men woke up from sleep and chased the bear away. It didn’t eat a sheep
but it
did kill their donkey. Another night a
wolf jumped over the fence and snatched a sheep to eat with its cubs.
The shepherds make cheese from the sheep’s milk.
The
shepherd was happy when we bought cheese to eat with our sandwiches
when we
stopped for lunch.
After a long rest we walked for hours down the
hill. The
path became very wet and every time we took a step we were afraid that
a boot
would be stuck in the thick mud. Granny’s foot went deep into the mud
and she
fell down. It took a longtime to scrape all the mud off her boots.
Before we reached the hotel we had to cross a
river. We
tried to find a way to cross without getting wet. In the end we had to
take off
our boots, tie them around our necks and cross the icy river barefoot.
It was fun!
At the end of the day
our feet were sore but we were very happy after such a long and
beautiful day.
Go to the home page of Doreen and Eitan Levy
