125 km from Timisoara, in the National Park Semenic – Cheile Carasului, we can find Cheile Carasului (Caras River’s Gorge). In order to arrive there, we have to pass through Resita City, the capital of the Upper Banat Region. This city’s glorious industrial past ended sadly when the communist era ended in Romania. The steam locomotives built here 140 years ago are now housed in an open-air museum, which we will visit shortly.

We continue our trip towards Carasova, one of the 7 villages of Croat ethnics; their ancestors came from northwestern Bosnia and settled here more than 700 years ago. From here, we enter the beautiful Caras River Gorge, one of the longest and wildest gorges in Romania. The path following the river is one of easy to moderate difficulty level. We’ll see here a lot of karst landforms like caverns, caves, rock walls, and sink holes. Comarnic Cave is one of the most beautiful caves in Romania and can be visited with a local guide if we make an appointment. From April to October, the vegetation, which contains many endemic species, is an attraction itself.