An artificial dam and lake which at first might seem a peaceful and harmless touristic destination but which plays the major role of bringing the hell on the surface from time to time, making lots of people lose their lives in a cursed night from 1999.

Gura Apelor Dam is the place that talks for itself without the need of too many words;

it's the place where fairy tales are born and where you can feel like playing the main role;

the place where you can dream with your eyes wide open while listening to the silence of nature without being needed to justify yourself in front of anybody.

But as wonderful the dam and lake are, as great were the efforts and sacrifices needed for their execution.
Gura Apelor Dam represents an artificial dam and lake that were built 45 years ago in the Retezat Mountains from Romania and it represents the biggest and most important rockfill and argil dam from Europe.

The construction began in 1975 and it took 11 years to be completed due to the big size the dam has that are pretty impressive, measuring 168 m height and a total surface of 390 ha covered. The level of water gathered in the lake is of 225 million cubic meters and as a fair comparison to understand better how big this place is, we can easily associate its dimensions as being 3 times bigger than the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt.
The attributions of the lake are not less impressive, being the main source to supply 10 hydropowers, where just one of the most recent hydropowers built is producing electricity for four cities and almost half of the Hunedoara County.

But, as peaceful and harmless the place looks like, today we count 21 years since one of the biggest disasters of the country happened at Gura Apelor Dam. I'm talking about one of those moments when we get to see nature unleashed which turns a great touristic destination into a real hell surface after just a few days and nights since the rain never stopped bringing around 1,000 cubic meters of water per second.

It might sound crazy but it's real - and we got to assist to four torrents happening to the same location, from where one reached the diluvium of the rocks sweeping hectares of trees in just a matter of time. Many boulders and trees fell over the barracks located around the lake counting 14 people who lost their lives in the night of 11/12 July 1999, when they literally died while they were sleeping and were caught disarmed against nature without any chance to try and save themselves from the disaster.

Sadly, the flood took a deep bite also from the access roads to other important locations from where the help could come, having the water, tree roots and mud covering them with more than one meter above the road's level and lots of kids drowning in front of the very few helicopters available to save the remaining families.

This is why even though tens of tourists are visiting the dam daily, none of them wants to take a bath into the lake which acts like quicksands having a thick layer of mud that will immobilize and sink every soul of a human being or even simple animals.

The name of the dam which will basically be translated as the mouth of the water comes from the three rivers which supply the lake, named Lăpușnicul Mare, Lăpușnicul Mic and Șes River, where nature has suffered lots of changes being dug tens of kilometers in the heart of the mountains just to create the right galleries that will lead the water of the rivers to Gura Apelor Dam.

Unfortunately, we are in 2020 and we are not even close considering the dam a safe place for the tourists because at the beginning of the year a big part of the shore from the left of the dam created a landslide of 2,600 square meters which is just the beginning of another disaster that is yet to happen.

Source: adevarul

But living in a world currently dominated by a virus where people are split between either science and religion, or between having trust in the existence of the virus or not, I doubt this will be prevented on time while people still consider it a "safe place".
Personally, I examine it as the sign that people who died in 1999 didn't have luck to receive at time so they could save themselves, and which now, when we have this warning offered by nature we tend to treat it superficially.

Gura Apelor Dam is located on 45 km away from Hateg city and the last portion of a few km to the lake is made on a forest road that can't be accessed by cars with the bar close to the ground. Even the road full of bumps shows off nature being unleashed in this part of the world, having lots of stones and trees which are falling frequently on the road blocking the access or making it a real challenge for the drivers, the authorities being unable to keep up with these events that are occurring.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾

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