The cave at the trout farm

 

Video from our recent dive at this beautiful, intimate cave near Tismana, Romania. To reach the cave you need to pass through, or around a trout farm, hence the name "The cava a the trout farm".

 

Final checks before submerging into one of the most beautiful underwater caves I ever dived in... - Cenote Nariz, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Journey to the End of Line

 

This week has been about long, beautifully quiet dives at Molnar Janos Cave in Budapest. It's been about occasionally reaching the end of the line, running out of cave passage to swim. It's been about brief moments of zero viz, either while squeezing through restrictions, or when swimming back through less travelled passages. It's been about enjoying long decompression in warm water at the end of each dive, nodding off every now and then, while hanging onto the deco station.

It's been about Cave CCR and Normoxic Trimix.

Diving the granite quarry in Racoş

A nice training dive at the granite quarry in Racoş today. Visibility wasn't great, water temperature a chilly 5.8°C...

A good few days on the mountain

Spent a few days skiing the local mountains. Good weather, good snow... good times! 

Skiing season just started

Got a bit over 6 kilometers on skis yesterday, second day out on the mountain...

Cave diving in Transylvania

I never thought I'd say this, but cave diving can be lots of fun. Pictured above, my buddy and I returning from a training dive in one of Transylvania's karst springs...

First lines

The skiing season gets off to an early start this year.

Van life

On vacation, diving Thassos, Greece...

Galway Bay

I have been knocking around Galway for a few weeks...

Short diving season

The diving season has been a very short one for me this year: two weeks, and 47 dives only. Still better than nothing!

Ciorbă de perișoare

Azi am făcut puțin spionaj în bucătărie,

 în urma căruia m-am ales cu rețeta unei minunate ciorbe de perișoare,  

așa cum se face la noi în casă...

Curățăm un morcov, o ceapă, o țelină mică, un păstîrnac, mic și el.

Adaugăm cîteva bucăți de ardei, ca în poza de mai jos.

Pentru perișoare măcinăm carnea de pui,

împreună cu jumătate din ceapa curățată mai devreme.

Adăugăm o mînă de orez, un ou, împreună cu verdețuri din abundență:

pătrunjel, țelină, puțin mărar, piper mănăstiresc și foarte puțină sare.

Amestecăm compoziția și o lăsăm deoparte...

Pentru zamă tăiem mărunt legumele,

păstîrnacul se lasă bucată mare, doar despicat în patru...

Punem legumele într-o oală și adăugăm puțin ulei...

Le călim cîteva secunde...

Adăugăm apa, ca în pozele de mai jos...

Trîntim puțină făină într-o farfurie...

Formăm perișoarele, le dăm prin făină după care le aruncăm direct în oală.

E important ca perișoarele să fie grăsune!

 Punem ciorba la fiert. O fierbem 10 minute în oala sub presiune...

Între timp, pregătim următorul amestec, 

cu care dregem ciorba după ce fierbe:

un ou,

puțină făină,

puțin suc de lămîie,

și verdeată din belșug: pătrunjel, țelină, mărar.

plus leuștean din abundență,

iar la final mai trîntim vreo trei linguri de iaurt gras, sau smîntînă...

Și amestecăm bine...

La ciorba fiartă mai adăugăm apă fierbinte, dacă este nevoie...

Dregem ciorba ca în pozele de mai jos...

Amestecăm bine, și potrivim de sare și acreală după gust...

Atîta tot...

 This is what happens if you're not careful and drag your skis through water while crossing a creek which looks frozen but it isn't, although it is totally covered with fresh snow: in seconds snow will stick to the bottom of your skis and is almost impossible to get rid of, especially if you're skiing off-piste, in remote areas and temperatures are way below 0. Forget about exhilarating descents for the rest of the day unless you're patient enough to scrape every bit of ice away...

Winter's upon us

Looks like winter's here to stay this time. Just got back from a great afternoon of ski touring in Bâlea. Miercuri had to sit this one out since she hurt her paw yesterday...

Another perfect day

Just back from another amazing day in Bâlea! Man and dog back safe after shredding powder all day long, they're both still high on adrenaline...

Powder day

Epic powder day in Bâlea today! We received over 50cm of fresh snow yesterday, thickening the snowpack to at least 150cm, with 200cm or more in some places. We spent the day skiing beautiful lines in the trees, which is always a blast! The only problem for the day: my camera died on me at the beginning of the trip...

First snow

Roots & snow - Făgăraș Mountains, Romania

Capra Lake

This is a photo I took last weekend during a short walk in the mountains. And short it was, by the time I stretched my legs and felt like going for another few hours we had to turn around and head home...

Blog vs Google+

I haven't posted here in quite a while. I have been using G+ exclusively for the past few months and for the time being nothing will change. You can follow me here if you'd like. In the meantime I'll leave you with a photo of Miercuri I recently found on an old memory card.

Skiing in Poiana Brasov

Avalanche risk in the Făgăraș Mountains has been rated to 'very high' so I decided to change mountains and hit the groomed pistes in Poiana Brașov instead. Ski lifts were nice for a change! This is the view from the top, with the Bucegi Mountains in the background.