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The Forest of Letea: A Subtropical Paradise on the Danube
Oaks, vines, and sand dunes in Romania
‘Remember — there are venomous snakes here, so…’
We didn’t hear the rest of the warning. T and I — both zoologists — immediately set off to look for the Meadow Viper, a rare and secretive reptile of the sandy grasslands. Neither of us had encountered this species before. We had seen lizards, tortoises, and two types of water snake (Natrix) on our travel through Romania, but no viper. Spoiler: We didn’t find it. Before long, we were side-tracked by the flora of Letea Forest.
Letea Forest is the oldest natural reserve in Romania. Gazetted in 1938, the reserve protects a broadleaf woodland dominated by Pedunculate Oak with Silver Lime and Slender-leaved Ash. The forest grows in the swales between sand dunes that were once on the Black Sea coast, but are now twenty kilometres inland. As the river moves, so does its delta. The land spreads, the sea retreats.
No roads lead to this part of the country. To reach the forest, we first took a boat along a reed-lined branch of the Danube to the town jetty, then climbed on a horse cart that carried us past blue-painted houses to the edge of the dunes.
