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.

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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.

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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. 
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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).
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  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.

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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.

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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!

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At the end of the day our feet were sore but we were very happy after such a long and beautiful day.


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