The Teke Trail is a 50-kilometer route that crosses the forests around the Celic-Dere Monastery, Telița village and reaches above the Niculițel Commune, in a superb viewpoint.
We start from the monastery parking lot, leaving the monastery on the left, in a slight climb to the edge of the forest. Here we turn left onto a dirt road for a few hundred meters, then turn right onto another dirt road that climbs through the forest for about 2.5 km. Then in a clearing we intersect with another road and turn left and walk carefully until we see a grassy road opening up on the right and we start to descend on it for 1.5 km.
From here we see on the hills on the left the modern “windmills”, that is, gray metal windmills. We turn right through the scattered trees until we reach a dirt road where we turn right again through the forest, we climb 2 km and turn left onto another dirt road that we will encounter. At this point, if we choose to turn right we will reach the monastery again.
So we turn left, on a beautiful descent, on the left side of Vf. Teke (hence the name of the route), and we reach km 8.7 of our route. This is the only place where we can have water, and for this we must turn left next to the bed of a torrent, a few hundred meters below, where we will find an arranged spring. We cool off, replenish our water reserves and return to the same point where we left the route. We continue and turn right under the Carasan Teke reserve, we go through the forest on a road that is sometimes paved and sometimes dirt until we intersect with a wider, paved road. Here our route continues to the right, to the left we can reach the village of Valea Teilor.
From this point we continue to climb until km 13 from where we descend until km 14.7 where we will encounter a concrete footbridge. Here we turn left next to a stream and arrive on a dirt road. At this point, if we do not turn left and continue forward on the stone road, we will reach the monastery.
From here we start the climb, we reach the edge of the forest where the road goes along the edge of a field, we continue until km 19 from where a section with successive descents and ascents begins until km 20.5 where we arrive in a clearing, we continue the road and exit the forest where we turn right on a slight descent until DJ229 where we turn right again. To the left we can reach the village of Valea Teilor.
We continue about 200 meters and turn left, we enter the forest on a dirt road going uphill, we continue on it until we intersect with a paved road at km23. Here we turn left and start the descent on the road that leads to Valea Teilor Monastery, we continue until km 24.5 where we leave the paved road by turning right. A beautiful road begins that winds up through the forest until km 28 where we intersect with a paved road where we turn right, at 200 meters we reach another paved road that connects Niculițel (to the right) to Nifon (to the left). We turn left and at about 200 m we turn right onto a dirt road that goes through the forest to the lookout point above Niculițel from where we can look far into Ukraine. We are here at km 30 of our route.
From here we go right past the communication antennas and descend to DJ229 where we will turn right and after 200 meters we will turn left past the edge of the forest, on a dirt road that continues through the forest until we intersect DJ229 again. We will not enter the county road and continue to the right for another 300m, then we will turn right onto a dirt road that goes through the forest, somewhat bypassing Niculițel. At km 36 we will reach the most difficult part of the route, with a slightly technical descent of approximately 300m and a fairly brutal climb of approximately 200m. We continue to climb gently until km 39.5 from where we descend through the forest until km 40.5. Here we come out onto a field and after 300 meters we turn right past a solitary tree and continue the descent to Telița, through Valea Morilor.
We descend to km 44 where we turn left onto the paved road that reaches the village of Telița, at the intersection with DJ229A, at the bus station, we turn right to the entrance to the Celic Dere Monastery, we turn right and we arrive at the parking lot where we started.