Văliug is a small mountain village at the head of a chain of lakes on the upper Bârzava, the place where the valley above Reșița stops being industrial and becomes simply green. It lies in the Semenic Mountains of the Banat, with fewer than a thousand people, and it is surrounded by beech and spruce forest that covers the hills as far as the eye can see. The lakes, Văliug and the larger Gozna just upstream, were made by dams built to supply water and power to the steelworks below, and today they are popular with families from Reșița for swimming, fishing and picnics.
The area has a story of its own. In the nineteenth century, German-speaking settlers from Bohemia were brought to the Banat mountains to work the forests and the iron mines, and villages like Brebu Nou, Gărâna and Lindenfeld were theirs. Most of their descendants left for Germany after 1990, and some of the villages are now almost empty or have become holiday spots, but you can still see the solid stone houses and the churches they built. Gărâna, up the road, is famous for its jazz festival held in the open air in the forest every summer.
From Văliug, the road climbs toward the Semenic plateau through the resort of Crivaia and on up into the mountains. The ascent is the meat of the Transsemenic: a steady climb through dense forest, with a series of bends that tighten as you go and a surface that is generally decent but can be broken in places. Near the top the trees give way to open meadows and the ski resort at Semenic, around fourteen hundred metres up, where on a clear day the views stretch across the Banat to the plains. Fog is common on the plateau, and it can roll in quickly even on a fine morning.
Văliug is a good spot to pause before or after the climb. There are a few guesthouses and places to eat around the lakes, and you can sit by the water with a coffee or a cold drink. Fuel is a different matter: there is no reliable station in the village, so fill up in Reșița, about fourteen kilometres down the valley, before coming up. Weekends can be busy with day-trippers, while weekdays are quiet. The lakes are at their best in the late afternoon, when the light slants low across the water and the forest goes dark green.