Excursion Letea Forest and Sulina Beach, departure from Mahmudia

Letea Forest

The Letea forest is the northernmost subtropical forest in Europe, formed on the sandy Letea ridge from strips of forest (hasmacuri) developed among the sand dunes. Walking through the forest, you pass through an astonishing change of landscape, from subtropical forest to desert in only 2-300 meters. In the Letea Forest, there are 500 species of plants and over 3000 species of animals, of which more than 2000 are insects, i.e. over 70% of the animal species in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (RBDD), towards the Letea forest being considered by specialists as one of the most interesting natural environments in Romania.

The vegetation consists of the meadow oak (Quercus robur), the brumari oak (Quercus pedunculiflora), the white poplar (Populus alba), the black poplar (Populus nigra), the meadow ash (Fraxinus angustifolia), the marsh ash (Fraxinus pallisiae), the hair (Pyrus pyraster), the white lime (Tilia tomentosa), the elm (Ulmus foliacea) and very rarely the black alder (Alnus glutinosa), completed by a rich undergrowth (Crataegus monogyna, Ligustrum vulgare, Evonymus europaeus, Cornus mas, Cornus sanguinea, Rhamnus frangula, Rhamnus cathartica, Viburnum opulus, Berberis vulgaris, etc.). Besides these, there are also the climbing plants that made these places famous: Periploca graeca, Hedera helix, Vitis silvestris, Humulus lupulus, Clematis vitalba. Other rare species are also found in the vegetal carpet: the sand vole (Convolvulus persicus), the sand vole (Merendera sobolifera) and the horsetail (Ephedra dystachia). The birds are represented by the falcon (Haliaeetus albicilla), the evening falcon (Falco vespertinus), the plover (Upupa epops), the falcon (Coracias garrulus), the plover (Merops apiaster), etc. Some herpetological rarities are part of this fauna: the sand lizard (Eremias arguta) and the steppe viper (Vipera ursinii renardi). Besides all these, the most important are the wild horses and the wild ones. Several hundred wild horses live in the Letea Forest and on the surrounding meadows. There is nothing more spectacular than a herd of wild horses galloping over the sand dunes. In 1930, a part of the Letea Forest was placed under protection, and in 1938 it became a nature reserve.

An exceptional place, with centuries-old trees, lianas, sand dunes and wild horses. The sand is not like the usual sand you find on the beaches in Romania, but a fine, warm, salty sand, without any stones or pieces of shells.
A place where you forget about civilization and where you would like to abandon yourself in the silence of nature.

Letea village

The architecture of the village preserves the local traditional architecture. The houses have blue plaster and fences painted in the same color, the roofs of the houses being made of reeds. The village seems detached from time.
Wherever you go in the village, you feel like you are on the beach. The extremely fine sand, which we see both on the streets of the village and on the dunes of the Letea Forest, comes from marine shells. Most likely, it is brought to the locality from the dunes in the forest, by the strong winds that blow in winter.

Very few people live in Letea, their number being exceeded by the wild horses that enliven the town and attract tourists to the area. In the village, we will serve lunch (optional) at a local, authentic household, where the hosts cook simple traditional fish dishes.

Sulina Beach

Sulina Beach is a quiet beach with very fine sand. The entrance to the water is smooth, without stones or shells. It is an ideal beach for families with small children or for those who do not know how to swim, because the water is very shallow.

The Observatory Lighthouse was put into operation in 1841, but currently it is not usable. It is located on the left bank of the Danube and is connected to the mainland by a stone pier. The inscriptions of those who participated in its construction are still kept on this pier. Filming was done here for the movie "Toate panzele sus".

The Greek Church of St. Nicholas is located on one of the streets near the Sulina canal and dates back to 1866.

The water tower is still in good working condition today, the exact date of construction not being known. Interestingly, the locals say that during the Second World War, the Germans wanted to blow up the tower, but they only managed to damage the upper part.

The city is located near the confluence of the Sulina branch with the Black Sea, on a narrow sandy river-sea ridge, corresponding to the mouth of the Danube in the Black Sea.

The area of ​​the location of the locality is about 3 km, only in the sense of length, in the direction of the Danube, and the maximum width is 500 m. The old deposits of the foundation are represented by the Paleozoic-Simezoic ones, their thickness being about 85 m compared to about 45 m in the deformation zone of the Delta. Granulometrically, the sand deposits are getting finer towards the surface, which proves that the alluvial power of the river has decreased over the years.

Unlike the rest of the Danube Delta, the surroundings of the city are made up of sandy and salty soils, partially moist, furrowed by canals. In dry and salty areas, the vegetation is specific to the dunes, such as red buckthorn (Tamarix ramosissima). In marshy areas, reeds (genus Phragmites), purpura (genus Typha), mint (Mentha aquatica), water hemlock (Cicuta virosa), hornbeams (Trapa natans) and, more rarely, white water lily (Nymphaea alba) predominate. The area outside the village stands out for the absence of large trees, there is only one grove of acacias (Robini pseudacacia), planted at the entrance to the city. Otherwise, in the city you can find willows (Salix babylonica), poplars, ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior), and cork oaks (Prunus cerasifera), consecrated fruit trees being rarer.