A beautiful partridge hunt still remains at the top of the preferences of true dog lovers. On one pact, or rather two: that the partridges are good, indeed excellent (read "true", ie wild from first to last), and that the places are wonderful.
A rural landscape where time seems to have stopped a hundred years ago.
By wonderful places we do not mean provided "only" with the basic requirement, namely that there are partridges in abundance and that they are all rigorously indigenous, but that they look a little like the mythical places that we all have in mind when we talk about partridge: gentle slopes that are lost visibly, leveled and slopes covered with stubble and cut grains, abandoned (and not) vineyards, uncultivated, vegetable gardens, streams.
Let's be clear: everyone's tastes come into action here. For example, the writer does not like too much those territories of being made of endless plains, beets on beets, in which the eye is lost, all the same from the first to the last, so the first shot looks like the last, you always succeed to see the shed and nothing remains entrusted to the mystery. The writer prefers to see the newly raised herd disappear behind the hill just in front, make a small ascent and try a new search, in short, hunt in a more moved territory. So here is the identikit of one of the most beautiful places for partridge hunting that the writer has ever seen: the South of Romania, the Craiova region. An area that is still quite poor, where agriculture has remained the same as it once was, and as a result it is still possible to hunt as it once was. In which you cross the country villages and find cows and pigs walking among the houses, the shepherds following the grazing sheep on the back of a mule, in which in a nutshell the environment is completely rural. Therefore very little use of agricultural machinery or chemical fertilizers, and no local hunter. And stay. The area in question - around Craiova - has also been explored in the last two years by Daniele Cecchetti of Adica, a dynamic Roman agency that has already made headlines. Before being a tour operator, Cecchetti is a hunter and, above all, a canine hunter. He also breeds English Setters and spends much of his time hunting. Often with customers, often with friends as well. It goes without saying that these districts of Romania, full of staying as they once were in Italy (or better, because there are few places to stay like this in Italy) have literally captured him. “I believe that the distance from the capital, about three hours by car, has somehow preserved this region. Hunting tourism in the past was concentrated in the surroundings of Bucharest, and for this reason the management was not always optimal in the surroundings of the capital. Around Craiova it's a whole different music. Extremely rural agriculture does the rest.
The inexistence of Italian hunting tourism, but also of local hunters has left this heritage intact, and we do everything to ensure that it remains intact. A small, moreover, unconcentrated harvest does not affect the existing population of gray partridges in the least. The region is huge and the impact minimal ”. Partridge hunting is the delicious dish of this Romanian experience, even if in the exact same places you can meet quail (if you go in the first part of the season, or even if you want to hunt only quail and then we leave in mid-September), hares and pheasants. Partridge hunting opens on October 15th, hare hunting on November XNUMXst. Obviously, if you intend to compete on a "mixed" of absolute quality, it is necessary to go when the season is later, so as to be able to hunt (and take home) the greatest variety of game. Obviously it will be the hunter who decides, and communicates to the guide and to the local manager (always Italian) what he intends to do: if he wants to devote himself only to partridges then land more suitable for partridge will be beaten (open stubble, uncultivated not too thick), while if you also want to meet pheasants and hares clearly will be diverted elsewhere.
Comfortable travel is essential for both hunters and auxiliaries
Logistics, for some time now for Romania, has become extremely favorable, and leaves room for maneuver both for those who want to go with their own car and for those who want to travel sooner and use flights. Let's start with the car. From Italy to the areas where Daniele Cecchetti organizes hunting it takes about 15-16 hours, taking as a starting point a place in central Italy such as Bologna. The road is comfortable, because you cover almost all of the former Yugoslavia on the highway (you pass Belgrade and proceed further for another two hundred kilometers), then turn inwards and drive another three or four hours by car, along the Danube. and entering Romania just before Craiova. In practice, starting early in the morning, we arrive in the evening for dinner. Time to settle the dogs and prepare for the next day's hunt, a good dinner and in bed to rest and be ready for the hunting debut. Same thing on the way back. The other option is the plane. Lately, many flights have been inaugurated, all very interesting. Thanks to the expansion of commercial traffic between Italy and Romania, connections have become daily and, above all, departures are from almost all Italian airports. Most of the time you change, but this really matters little to the traveler. Among other things, companies now load both dogs and guns; there are differences between company and company on the number of dogs allowed, but this is a detail that will be clarified by Cecchetti himself once the final discussion on travel has been set. In any case, the prices are, let's say, popular, and with little you can fly hunter and dog. The advantage of the car over the plane is that you can carry several dogs, you can carry more generic accessories and, if the trip is done in company, it can be pleasant.
The plane is faster, allows you to arrive in a few hours, less tired and also for the return of the game avoids some inconveniences. To the two options, Adica adds a third one, which is to load the dogs into a van provided and managed by the same agency so that they can make the journey by plane in complete tranquility. The price of the dog transport depends on the number of subjects loaded, but to make an average let's say that it is around 250 euros a / r. The details of the program with Adica include the arrival in the evening of the first day, the reception in the hunting lodge or hotel with full board, three days of hunting the chosen game with packed lunch, departure on the morning of the fifth day. The assistance is continuous, with specialized Italian staff, guide and interpreter, local transport by jeep or minibus, possible transfers to and from the airport. The participation fee is 1.100 euros for groups with at least four hunters, which include the services described above, and from which the trip to Romania, any rental of rifles (25 euros per day), cartridges are excluded. (10 euros per package), game (partridges 15 euros, pheasants 12 euros, hares 35 euros, quail 0,40), the veterinary certificate for game (50 euros per group), the additional hunting day (200 euros per day), tips and personal extras. For more detailed information Daniele Cecchetti 333-7335528, or 06-45422712, or www.adicacaccia.eu.
Text by Pierfrancesco De Robertis