Carpathian Sheep Walk is mainly about Romanian shepherds and their transhumances (seasonal journeys between pastures). Shepherding has a special history in Romania, being linked in some people’s minds to the emergence of the independent nation state. This quasi-mystical attitude has led too to some speculation about the connections between present-day Romanian sheep farmers and the Iron Age Dacian people who are represented in such fascinating detail on Trajan’s Column in Rome. My travelogue, Searching for Sarmizegetusa, is about to be published as an eBook and you’ll be able to get a free downloadable copy here.
Then there is the more pragmatic angle of how Romanian sheep farmers can survive in the modern world of factory farming, the demand for ever cheaper and more readily-available food, rising feed, transportation, and veterinary costs, the pressure to conform to EU standards, not to speak of environmental concerns about how increasing flock sizes affect Romania’s precious (and increasingly fragile) biodiversity. I can’t answer all these questions and often get confused and side-tracked by these and other issues connected to a country that I find endlessly absorbing, surprising and satisfying, but what I’ve written here is the essence of this blog, and of my new book about Romanian shepherds’ journeys to other lands…
Carpathian Sheep Walk 