The damp air has seeped beneath my rain jacket and left me fully chilled, but ahead is my salvation – a wood-hewn table and benches under a little wooden roof.
Our shivering hiking group huddles beneath the structure, which does little to block the wind, but it’s not long before our mood is considerably brightened.
We’ve stopped at Popas la Cosma, which acts as a rest stop and accommodation for hikers, deep in the Eastern Carpathian mountains in Romania’s Bukovina region.
Shepherd Cosma Crăciuneac and his family are one of the roughly 500 hosts along the 1,600km-long Via Transilvanica trail that provide food or lodging for walkers.
Our group are warmed in no time by the hospitality of father and son wearing hats bedecked with a feather, who bring us as a priority some "afinata", a liqueur made from wild blueberries, followed by a plate of homemade cheese and salami, lard, boiled eggs and plenty of bread.
