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Dospat & Batak Lakes and In-between

admin — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 14:19:21 +0000

Instead of heading back home via the same route, we decided to turn towards Dospat and go and explore Dospat Lake and Batak Lake. We were up fairly early and left Trigrad around 9am, hoping to find somewhere for a quick breakfast stop but we did not find anything and so carried on, back the way we had come but instead of continuing north to Devin, we headed west across the mountains to the town of Dospat.

There were a lot of road works going on in the town, but we managed to find a small cafe serving freshly baked sweet buns and get a coffee. The town as an impressive Mosque and its inhabitants are mainly Pomak, or Bulgarian Muslims, descendants of the native Bulgarians that were forced to convert to Islam during the Ottoman rule.

The town lies at the far southern end of the lake that takes the same name. The reservoir is the second largest in Bulgaria and also the highest. We continued along the road (E37) into the Pazardzik region and came across Shiroka Polyana reservoir.

There was a small run down resort on the edge of the lake, with old camping cabins, a couple of old style hotels and cafes and various camping sites.

At 1500 metres above sea level and set amongst pine forests it is an intriguing place.

Next you come to Golyam Beglik reservoir, which the road crosses at the very tip of the lake and then Beglika lake and then you start to lose altitude and come down to the town of Batak and Batak lake.

Batak is the 3rd largest lake in Bulgaria and is popular for water sports and fishing. The resort of Tsigov Chark was built on its shores and there were attempts to develop this into a small ski area.

A number of new developments were built on the back of this supposed new tourist site, but it barely came to fruition. As keen skiers and as I had heard of the development of this area 10 years ago when I first came to Bulgaria, I was keen to see the ski area.

After driving round, up to the higher part (a very small hill), around new and old developments we eventually gave up. There was nothing resembling a ski area and no signs.

So we decided to head down to one of the few restaurants on the edge of the lake and get some late lunch. We drove along the road along the lake to see what other options there were and suddenly came across a large, half built and abandoned development with a ski lift.

We stopped to take a look and were soon being chased away by some security guard. Clearly they did not like the idea of photos being taken and people seeing the failure of this project.

I know a number of people that invested in plots of land here after being told it was going to be developed into a new ski area. Unfortunately this seems to be as far as the planned resort got……..

Yagodinska Cave & Devil’s Throat Cave

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 09:25:59 +0000

From Devin it was off towards the Trigrad Gorge and the two famous caves en-route. First was Yagodinska Cave, the third (or 4th depending on where you look) longest cave in Bulgaria. It is located in the Buynovo gorge and about 20km from Devin at an elevation of just under 1000 metres above sea level.

The drive there is a little hairy in places, with low over-hanging rocks and a narrow windy road. The cave is estimated at 275,000 years old and extends for 10.5 km in length over three levels but only just over a kilometre are accessible to tourists and electrically lit.

There is a parking area at the entrance to the cave which gets quite busy and is an additional 2 levs to park. The entrance fee was 6 levs each I think.

The temperature in the cave does not get above 6 degrees so remember to take some warm clothing with you. We did not have enough and were freezing! The tour takes around 45 minutes and is in Bulgarian.

You could pay an extra 20 levs (I think it was) to get a translation into English. There are tours leaving every hour, more or less as one finishes, the next starts. The caveis full of the most amazing stalactites and stalagmites as well as rare cave pearls.

The tour starts through an artificial man made tunnel that goes into the “New Year” hall where people apparently gather to welcome in the New Year and there is even a proper Christmas Tree put up there (and stands there all year round).

Next is the Wedding Chapel where there is a small alter and where you can exchange your matrimonial vows.

It was a little too commercial for us, just following round in a large group of people, who soon all separated and one tour group ran into another at times.

Around a kilometre further up the river from where the tour ends (sign-posted, turn left after coming out of the cave up the road) there is one of the original entrances to the cave complex, where various pottery and evidence of habitation were found.

This has now been turned into a little exhibition. It is an additional 2 levs to enter this but it is worth it. It only takes around 20 minutes but you can see where the original cave inhabitants used to live, cook and make grain.

And as the highlight to the tour, there is a friendly little rodent creature that comes to feed on the grain the tour guide puts out.

It was then back to the car and back down the gorge to the main road again. As it was lunch time we opted to stop at a lovely little restaurant right on the edge of the road.

It was very traditional with a lovely friendly family running it. There are 2 or 3 rooms for rent as well if you are looking for accommodation in the area. We opted to try a couple of the local specialities; Patatnik, which is like a potato cake and of course bean stew.

A short drive further on, you come to a small (too small) parking area on the side of the road and the entrance to Devil’s Throat cave. On the opposite side of the road, there is a zip wire above the gorge for anyone brave enough to do it! Entrance tickets for the cave are again 6 levs each.

Whilst not quite as cold or as long a tour as Yagodinska cave, this was by far our favourite. There is a guide but you are more less allowed just wander around at your own pace and take as long as you wish to view the interior.

The cave is one massive chamber and is full of bats. It is only 175,000 years old and not full of the impressive stalagmites and stalactites like Yagodina Cave, but it is steeped in mystery.

Legend has it that Orpheus descended into the underworld of Hades here, through the ‘throat’ of the cave to search for his live, Euredice. The story goes that Orpheus persuaded Hades to free Euredice and let her go back to the surface with Orpheus, but on the condition that Orpheus did not try and look at her on the way back to the surface.

A loud rumble drowned out the sound of Euredice’s footsteps and Orpheus fearing he had lost her again, turned round and saw her shadow far away. He then wept for 7 days and his tears created the spring that flows into the cave.

You first go along an artificial tunnel and then enter the “Booming Hall” or “hall of Thunder” where the Trigrad river becomes a waterfall coming into the cave. It is a massive expanse and you can fit a two storey building inside.

The waterfall is 42 metres high and is what has caused the formation of the cave. After around 400 metres the water disappears down a funnel in the cave that drops 150 metres to another large cavern and then exits the cave complex.

Whilst the stories of Orpheus are just legend, the cave is surrounded by mystery as anything that falls into the waters is lost and does not re-appear.

Numerous attempts have tried to figure out the labyrinth of water ways, throwing sticks down, other items and in 1970 two scuba divers lost their lives trying to track the water from entering the cave to leaving.

Their bodies were never found. Researchers have now used artificial coloured dye to track the water and it takes and hour and a half for the coloured water to re-appear. Somewhere under the cave there must be large maze of water ways where objects get lost forever.

To exit the massive chamber you climb over 300 steep steps right by the side of the waterfall. At the top there are a couple of stalls with locals selling herbs for tea and honey and a viewing platform.

You come out on to the road above the car park and a short walk down brings you back to where you started.

From the Devil’s Throat cave it is a short drive to the village of Trigrad, at the end of the gorge. Our accommodation took some finding and was a basic but comfortable enough room for rent in a private house at the top of the village.

After a rather chilly day inside caves we set off down the track to the village in search of a warm place to eat.

There appeared to be no restaurants in the village and we were beginning to give up and think our evening meal would consist of a bag of crisps we had, when we discovered a small little Mehana behind the shop in the centre of the village.

We were the only people in there but it was warm, traditional and served very good food at good prices. After a rakia or two to warm up, we tucked into plates of shopska salad, grilled chicken and chips.

Devin – Disappointingly Average

admin — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 08:35:18 +0000

Our next trip was also down towards southern Bulgaria to test out the spa waters of Devin, a town famed for its bottled mineral water and spa hotels.

The drive took us around 4 hours and followed the winding road along the side of Vacha dam, where there are a number of house boats built on the lake. The reservoir is part of a large hydro-electric operation involving 3 other lakes, 6 dams and 4 power stations. Construction began in 1964 and took over 10 years to finish.

It was completed in 1975 and is the tallest dam in Bulgaria with the water stretching back over 20 kilometres. The scenery along the drive is stunning as the road climbs up and then down towards Devin.

Devin itself is not a particularly attractive town, although the setting is lovely. It has a rather run down, deserted feel to it, with few restaurants aside from the hotels and just a handful of street cafes.

We had booked into a guest house which turned out to be at the top of the town and a fairly steep drive up to it. Whilst the views were amazing, looking right down the valley over the town, it meant no-where was an easy walk.

Having reached the hotel at around lunch-time and got ourselves settled in, we decided to head to the municipality mineral pool, on the outskirts of town.

Having talked to the hotel proprietor we were reliably informed that the hotels in town don’t actually have the mineral water in their pools, although they claim to. The main municipality pools are a few minutes drive west of the town, past the large Devin water bottling plant (which is chaos with lorries parked everywhere).

There is a car park just by the pools, although it is not particularly big and imagine it gets very crowded in peak season.

Even though we left temperatures above 30 degrees in Kazanlak it was barely above 20 degrees in Devin and so was not exactly sun-bathing and outside pool weather.

But we braved it and at 20 levs each to enter the pool complex, we tried to make the most of it. We first decided to get some late lunch in the on-site restaurant. It was expensive and not particularly great.

The complex has one large pool that is pretty cold, a jacuzzi and a smaller, shallow pool of warm water, fed directly from the mineral spring. There are clean changing rooms and outside showers.

There are apparently free natural pools further up the track that you can walk to.

We spent two or three hours there and then decided it was time to head into town and get something else to eat before we went back to the hotel.

We parked in the car park in the centre of town, which appeared to be free and walked down the main pedestrian street, looking for a traditional Bulgarian restaurant.

However, we were disappointed to find only cafe type street cafes and ended up at the Orpheus Spa Hotel. I had been there many years ago and remembered the Turkish restaurant on site being very good.

But this time around, it lacked any atmosphere, the food was average and fairly expensive and so we made a quick retreat before the “live” Bulgarian music and singing started.

Overall we were disappointed with Devin. There are mineral spa’s all over Bulgaria and Devin does not stand out from the rest, despite its reputation.

Tatul – The Grave of Orpheus

admin — Mon, 26 Dec 2016 08:09:57 +0000

After leaving the nature reserve at Madzharovo, we journeyed back towards Perperikon, turning south at the village of Chiflik and heading to the large town of Kardzahli, situated close to the Greek border.

The town itself was fairly drab, although we did not have much time to really explore it and simply drove through and out towards the reservoir and. We had booked a room at the Triton Zairean hotel, in the small “resort” of Glavatartsi.

On arrival we were very pleasantly surprised to find we were given a whole holiday cottage with its own little garden. We took a walk down to the edge of the lake and have to say, it is certainly not a place we were tempted to swim in, despite the temperatures being close to forty degrees.

The water was green and slimey and the edge was just mud flats.

We had heard about the floating fish restaurants and more by luck than good planning, we happened to find our way to one of these – the Mobi Dick.

The place was clearly very popular. The restaurant itself is built on a floating platform, accessed by a gang-plank from the shore. Behind the restaurant were the fish nurseries and as you sat and ate your fish meal, you could watch the fish jumping in the pools behind.

Following lunch we headed out to find the Thracian sanctuary near the village of Tatul, passed Momchilgrad. It is an ancient religious centre carved out of the rock, with a kind of pyramid structure on the top, carved out of the rocky hill top and containing two sarcophaguses, an alter and a well, all carved out of the rock.

It is believed to first have been used in the 13th to 11th century B.C for special sacred rituals and the tombs were the final resting place of an influential Thracian leader with links to the Orpheus cult.

It was extremely rare to bury leaders above ground in such rock tombs and only the two mythological characters of Orpheus and Rhesus (a Thracian King who served in the Trojan wars) were apparently buried this way.

Many of the artefacts found resemble those found near Kazanlak, in the Valley of the Thracian Tombs.

But Tatul is different in that the Thracian deity was buried above ground and not under a large earthen mound such as is found around Kazanlak and in many other regions of Bulgaria.

Thracians believed that by burying their King-Priest on the top of a rocky outcrop, high up, that the dead man could continue his work as mediator between the Gods and the people, even after death and that he would become transformed first into a semi-god and then into a god-proper.

These sites were turned into sanctuaries after the burial and thought to protect the ordinary folk from disease and natural disasters.

It has long since been legend that the Oracle Orpheus was born in the Rhodope Mountains and also buried there.

A shrine was also built next to the pyramid structure, joined by an eight step staircase, where the ancient Thracian priests would walk up the alter hewn into the rock face.

The walls of the shrine are made from massive carved stone blocks, up to around 6 metres high in some places.

The religious centre expanded and several newer buildings date to the 2nd and 3rd century AD. The site was continuously inhabited until the late Middle Ages.

Artefacts showing people from the Stone and Copper Age and the Bronze Age once lived and worshipped here and the site kept growing through the Iron Age with the rocks being further carved out.

Numerous Roman artefacts have been found and it may have become a fortified Roman Villa and in the 5th century A.D it was used as a Byzantine family graveyard.

Later Christianity came to the Rhodope region and the site became more of a fortress with a defensive tower being built.

The place is well sign-posted from the road through the villages with ample parking in the village and just a short walk from the entrance to the site.

It was just a few levs each to enter and there was a very well built path to the main sanctuary. There is a massive wall around the temple area, carved from huge stone blocks.

The whole of this region is rich in Thracian settlements and megalithic structures. The landscape is spectacular with large rocky outcrops and canyons everywhere.

In the village of Raven, just down the road from Tatul, back towards Momchilgrad, there is a large rock outcrop next to a small farm where you can clamber to the top and see grooves and furrows carved into the rock and at the base a large collection ‘pond, passkey for processing grapes into wine.

There was much more to see but we unfortunately ran out of time but it is an area we would love to go back and spend more time exploring the numerous sacred Thracian sites.

Madzharovo Vulture Reserve

admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 16:49:39 +0000

Following our visit to Perperikon, we continued on to the town of Madzharovo, where we had booked a room for the night at the Nature Reserve guest house so we could visit the Madzharovo Vulture Reserve.

It was around a 2 hour drive through the countryside, through sleepy, almost deserted villages until we entered the gorge and sheer rock faces that surround Madzharovo.

We wound down to the river Arda and just on the other side of the bridge is the conservation centre, which also doubles as a small hotel with a handful of rooms and a small restaurant.

It was late afternoon by the time we arrived so having settled into our room, we decided to have a bit of late lunch and then see if we could spot any vultures. The rooms were fairly basic but more than adequate for a night, of a little on the hot side as there was no air conditioning.

The food in the restaurant was good and plentiful. The actual visitors centre was not open and did not seem to have much in it.

After our meal we decided to head up the road to one of the vulture watching tables and see if we could spot any of the famed Griffon and Egyptian Vultures.

We saw a couple of birds of prey circling high in sky but as we found out later, they do not tend to be out when its so hot and so early morning and later on in the evening are the best times to see them.

So after searching the rock face through binoculars, we decided to head down to the river, where there was a sandy beach. After be-friending a local stray sheep dog there and having a paddle we headed back towards the town and decided to drive to the centre and see what it had to offer.

And the answer is not a lot. Its a strange place, made up of mainly apartment blocks, a newly renovated tourist centre but that was closed, the odd small (closed) cafe and a newly tarmac’d car park that seemed to serve absolutely no purpose.

As we found out later, Madzharovo town has a bit of a sad history. The town sprung up due to mining in the area and many families were moved there and apartment blocks built to house them.

Unfortunately the miners were not told that it was actually Uranium they were mining for and soon many started to get sick and die.

Over the years the mining stopped and many of the inhabitants either left or died from poisoning and the town is now the smallest in Bulgaria with less than 600 people.

Radioactive waste was also apparently dumped in the river and still runs off into it according to local gossip.

So it was back to the guest house and time to walk our dog. Behind the guest house there are wooded areas and little trails.

We followed one of these up until we met a track and a bird watching hide. I had read about a feeding station for the vultures and judging by the number of cow carcasses lying around this was clearly the place.

But when we asked a volunteer staying and working at the conservation centre, he said that the feeding station was no longer really visited by the vultures as the tourists watching them had scared them off and that the area had also been recently cleared of bushes etc to give a clearer view from the hide, but had discouraged the birds.

We decided to get up early and see what we could see in the morning and so spent a pleasant evening drinking beer and sampling the food from the restaurant.

We woke up bright and early and armed with binoculars headed down to the bridge. There were not any vultures or eagles around at this point but we were treated to a flock of black herons on the river.

After breakfast we drove a little further up the road and soon spotted several vultures circling high in the air. We were told that the middle of summer is not the best time to visit, and spring or autumn offer better viewing, but we were pleased to see a few of the birds and had a pleasant stay.

Next stop was Kardzhali.

Stone Mushrooms & Perperikon

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 20:16:19 +0000

I had been saying for ages I would take Pete to visit Perperikon and so back in July we organised a trip to take in the sights around the Kardzhali region, including Perperikon.

Its about a a 2 hour trip from our village and the road leads past the Stone Mushrooms just after the village of Beli Plast.

Just on the edge of the road and easy to miss if you are not looking out for them, the Stone Mushrooms stand around two and half metres tall and are the result of underwater volcanic activity and then subsequent erosion from the weather, once exposed.

These rock formations sit on an old lake bed and cover around 3 acres, but the main formations are right on the edge of a road and its a good, quick stop off on the way to Perperikon.

You only need a few minutes to walk around and take a few pictures. There is no entry fee and parking (limited) is just on the edge of the road.

Its only around 20 minutes from Beli Plast to Perperikon and its fairly well sign posted. I first visited the archaeological site back in 2005. Then, there was no proper car park and just a rough track up to the top of the hill and no charge for admission.

I went again in 2008 and there was a little more commercialisation with a few stalls at the bottom of the hill. Now there is a newly tarmac’ed car park (with a couple of levs parking fee) and a few stalls selling various trinkets and fossils which are nothing to do with Perperikon!

A path then takes you past a small port-a-cabin where there is someone taking 6 levs per person fee and you can hire a guide and buy various maps of the ruins.

There is then a lovely new path up to the main entrance (“the temple road”), where the massive stone carved steps cut through the rock and take you to the pinnacle of the hill, where the main ruins are.

It used to be a steep scramble up a rough track but the going is now much easier, making Perperikon much more accessible to many.

The ruins of Perperikon are what many now believe to be the Temple of Dionysus, perched high on a hill top in the Eastern Rhodope mountain range, around 15 kilometres or so from the town of Kardzhali.

The entrance to the ruins is ‘The ‘Temple Road’, a passageway carved out of the rock. It climbs steeply up towards one of the main entrances to the temple some 200 feet or so higher up.

Huge steps have been carved out of the rock with walls of stone rising over 20 feet on each side of you. The passageway ends at the fortress wall surrounding most of the temple on the top of the hill.

You are then free to scramble around the remains of the temple and the palace, exploring the many rooms and chambers that once formed one of the most important places of worship and rule in the area.

Without a guide or leaflet, there is little by way of explanation as to what much of the ruins originally were.

The earliest archaeological finds at Perperikon were pieces of pottery, dating back to Neolithic times in around 6th-5th millennium BC.

However, it is thought that at this early stage, there was no real settlement here and it was not until later on in the Bronze age that it became a definite place of worship, when various religions began to establish themselves.

Perperikon has been used by many different civilisations over the ages but as archaeologists have excavated the area they have discovered that the ruins are incredibly similar to those described by the ancient Greek authors as the Temple of Dionysus in Mount Rhodope.

Dionysus was the chief God of the ancient Thrace people although little is really known of the cult.

The palace or temple, just below the summit of the hill, houses many chambers, the most impressive being a huge hall which has literally been dug out of the rock and holds a number of stone sarcophaguses and you can also make out a giant alter and a stone throne.

It is thought that the temple was in fact several stories high as you can still clearly see the holes in the rock where roof joists and beams would have been slotted in.

As you wander around, you can make out a crude drainage system, where channels have been etched into the rock. One hypothesis is that the large stone alter was used for sacrificial purposes and the channels were to drain the blood away from the alter and down over the edge of the hill.

From ancient scribes, it is known that the Thracian cult did sacrifice horses, bulls and possibly even humans.

However, the other theory is that these channels were actually used to deliver sacred wine around the temple and archaeologists believe they have found several ancient wine presses in the bushes and undergrowth around the main temple site.

Above the great hall and the temple structure, sits the Acropolis, a fortress like structure surrounded by carefully laid stone walls.

As the Roman Empire spread, it appears that Perperikon became an important and strategic Roman fort and the structure was renovated by the Romans for their own use.

This included a sewage system to drain away waste and surface water and also there are two huge pits literally dug out of the rock floor and going down many feet.

It is thought these were used as reservoirs to collect rain water. The sheer scale of the amount of rock that has been removed to form these and the rest of the ground floor structure is truly mind boggling. Now these water pits are teeming with toads and insects.

Perperikon was likely to have been burned down as the Roman empire collapsed. However, it was later revived and a Christian church built over part of the Acropolis. Then only a century or two afterwards, Perperikon was abandoned once again.

Excavations are ongoing and while we were there, numerous people were digging, carting barrow loads of earth away, sifting through the rocks and dirt.

And down the mountain side the path now extends and there is more being constantly discovered. Its thought that there are two towns on the slopes of the hill, yet to be explored and excavated.

And one the largest early Christian temples has recently been discovered from the 5th century AD on the southern side of the ruins and is a similar size to the Sofia Basilica. Thirty four graves were discovered around the Basilica ruins, one likely to belong to a senior monk.

Even though the site is now a bit more developed, there is little in the way of safety ropes to stop you slipping over the edge of the cliff side and there are no real explanations posted around the site, except for the odd wooden sign post.

The site is definitely not accessible for those who cannot cope with a fairly strenuous hike or who are not particularly sure footed. But it is definitely one of those places to keep going back to and seeing what else has ben discovered. So maybe in a few years time we’ll visit again!

Old Communist Railway Tunnel Near Kosharitsa Village

admin — Sat, 22 Oct 2016 16:22:15 +0000

I first read about the abandoned communist railway tunnel on a forum, which directed me to an older blog post, describing the tunnel.

We had a rough idea where it was and as we own an apartment close to Kosharitsa (for sale by the way), we decided to try and find it when we were next in the area.

We set off up a track behind Kosharitsa village, parked the car and headed up the hill, following an over-grown track. However, after half an hour or so of trekking and our only sighting being a tortoise, we came to the conclusion we were going in the wrong direction.

So it was back down to the car, back to the main road and just a little further along towards the edge of the village we spotted another track. We drove along here a little way and pulled up close to two large concrete structures and what we later realised were supports for a train line never built.

This path was bit more easy going and followed a stream and on the other side of this, there appeared to be a banking. After 20 minutes or so the path crossed the stream, but seemed very overgrown, so we decided to follow the rocky stream bed a little while, before we spotted another track.

This led us under a bridge and seemed to meander on into the hills. But there seemed no real reason for this bridge to be where it was and so we scrambled up the side of the banking, using the trees to hoist ourselves up to the top.

And there was the entrance to the tunnel and running in the opposite direction, the top of the banking where the tracks would have run.

There is an imposing concrete and brick built structure and a lot of random concrete slabs close by.

Very narrow steep steps allow you to access a platform at the top of the building and if you are feeling brave, you can cross the muddy wet area in front of the tunnel entrance and peer into the gloom beyond.

The tunnel has mainly been bricked up now and is sat in stagnant dark water. Others who have explored further say the tunnel now goes for around a kilometre before it is completely blocked up. It is supposed to run for anything from 4 to 8km.

The tunnel was started in 1958 as a way to connect two main Bulgarian ports (Varna and Burgas) by train but abandoned before completion. There are various theories as to the real purpose of the tunnel.

Bulgaria was an unofficial satellite state of the old Soviet Union during the communist era and it was very common for the former USSR to outsource production and so Bulgaria was slowly turned into an efficient labour pool and production line for the Soviet Union.

Its around 130km between Burgas and Varna but the two ports are separated by the end of the Balkan mountain range and so it was necessary to excavate a tunnel beneath the hills north of Burgas.

Had it been completed the railway line would have provided additional infrastructure for the movement of products and labour.

Another claim is that the tunnel was part of a military plan to allow the quick transfer of troops to the border with Turkey.

Bulgaria only gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1908 following the Russian-Turkish war and even years later, the Bulgarians remained wary of the Turks.

The trek back down was a little easier and on the way back, we disturbed a snake that had just caught a mouse and was starting to constrict it.

However, after a few photos the snake started to get a little agitated and turned his attention to us, allowing the mouse to make a rapid escape!

Beaches Along The Far Southern Coast

admin — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 14:22:34 +0000

We have driven down the whole south coast a couple of times before and visited the various resorts and beaches from Sunny Beach right down to the Turkish border.

There is a great beach just north of Pomorie where the mud flats are and you can go and immerse yourself in the dark, smelly mud pits, roll in the sand, bake a while in the sun and then wash off in the sea.

Burgas itself as some great stretches of beaches and just south of Burgas is a lovely little place called Kraymorie, with great traditional Bulgarian restaurants and a nice beach with really shallow water.

The further south you get, the less foreign tourists you tend to get and the less developed it becomes. Chernomorets is a fabulous small seaside resort.

The beach has been extended and widened, a new small mariner has been built and while there is a pedestrian street with the usual tacky stalls, on the whole it remains a small town where people live all year round and only really gets busy in July and August.

And then of course there is Sozopol, with the UNESCO protected old town but not many tourists venture much further than this and it is certainly off the radar of the large tourist companies bringing in plane loads of Brits each week during the summer to Sunny Beach and around.

After Sozopol, the road meanders inland a little and through the woods until it meets the Ropotamo river and follows this south before you reach Primorsko, a nice seaside town, that has managed to escape the chaotic over-building around so many of the other resorts further north.

A little further south you come to Kiten. We stopped here for a quick drive around and lunch and wish we hadn’t. We just did not like the place (only our personal opinion) and the meal was mediocre at best and expensive.

Next place you come to is Lozonets. A fairly lively small resort and with some lovely beaches on either side of it. It is maybe a little run down in places, with a bit of random development on the edge but definitely worth a visit.

Next stop was Tsarevo, more a typical Bulgarian town where people live than a sea-side resort. We were just about to head back to the main road and carry on further south, when we took a random turn to the left and ended up on a dirt track leading to an absolutely huge, unfinished development.

The only sign of life was an old guy sat on a bench while his two cows grazed nearby.

We decided to explore a little further and take the small old coastal road that ran nearly parallel with the new road, heading north. A few minutes up the road we stumbled upon Arapya, a rather strange mixture of campsite, wild camping, guest houses and bungalows and the odd newish development.

With the afternoon drawing to a close we turned round, went back through Tsarevo and back onto the coastal road heading south and to where we were staying a couple of nights in Varvara.

We found a small little guest house with a room for 25 levs a night, although lacking air conditioning and being just over the road from the liveliest bar in the town, we got little in the way of sleep.

But if you can’t beat them, join them and so we had an enjoyable evening watching an American guy sing and play guitar, while perched on the edge of an old boat in the dark, outside a small restaurant.

The bar is apparently quite well known for live music and Varvara attracts a bohemiam mix of people from Sofia and the other large cities in Bulgaria.

Varvara itself only has a very small beach, which at the end of June when we visited was still not open for business as such – the bar was only just being renovated and cleaned to open, the beach was dirty and after 10 minutes we were sick of fighting off the flies so left.

The next day we went off to find another beach we had been told about – Silistar beach, the last stretch of golden sand before you hit the border with Turkey.

You have to pay to park in the car park (I think it was around 4 levs for the day) but it was fairly quiet, there was a snack bar serving the usual – whitebait (tsatsa), chips etc and a nice stretch of sand.

We only ended up spending an hour or so here, having a spot of lunch, a quick walk along the beach and then we headed back to Sinomorets for a quick explore and walk on the beach.

Its a lovely town, with some lovely looking restaurants, not many tourists and a nice stretch of beach. We would love to go and spend a few days there sometime in the future. It is like a different world, compared to Sunny Beach and similar resorts.

On the way back to Varvara, where we were spending a second sleepless night, we stopped at the beach just north of Ahtepol, where the campsite is. Its a fabulous little beach, with a nice bar.

Meadows in the Mountains Festival

admin — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 06:21:04 +0000

Its been a very hectic summer, with lots of travelling and exploring various regions of Bulgaria. Now as the summer draws to a close and autumn approaches, I finally have a bit of time to sit down and catch up on blog posts and write about the places we have been to and the sights we have visited.

One of our first trips of the summer was not to explore a new region or visit a historical site, but to go to a small but very unique music festival in the heart of the Rhodope mountains.

Meadows in the Mountains is run by the family of a close friend and we have been wanting to go for a couple of years and this summer we finally made it.

The festival is held in a small traditional mountain village, 850 metres above sea level and not far from the Bulgarian border with Greece.

It is an eclectic mix of live music, DJ’s, random stalls and stages, yoga and meditation sessions, people wandering around in fancy dress (or maybe this is just how they always dress???) and all set on the top of a mountain with amazing 360 degree views.

The actual festival lasts for three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) although many of the visitors show up days before to help with the set up and just to enjoy the general ambiance as over 1000 people take over the tiny mountain village.

Visitors to the festival can choose to either camp up the mountain just outside the festival site, or in various fields around the village, or they can rent rooms in village houses.

We opted to park our camper in the small car park and called that home for a few nights, much to the amusement of friendly locals who would stop for a chat in the morning, while we were doing our teeth in water collected from the village spring.

Any reviews you will read about the festival (this was its 6th year) will talk about the camaraderie between revellers and the homely atmosphere and its all true.

Everyone was super friendly, if a little mad In the centre of the village there is the ‘Pink House’ run by an Italian/British couple, who have made the village their home.

Every morning, festival goers would gather here for breakfast (Mimi’s homemade granola was quite a hit) before climbing (and it is a bit of a trek) up the hill to the main entrance or catching a lift in one of the various mini-buses that took people half way up.

The festival tended to kick off mid-afternoon each day with live music on the main stage and then went through the night, with DJ’s taking over and keeping those with far more stamina than me, going through out the night, ready to welcome the dawn from the ‘Sun Rise’ stage.

I am told this is a one of the not-to-be-missed experiences of the festival. However, as I am pretty useless with late nights, I was to be found tucked up in my sleeping bag in the camper by around midnight each night.

My ‘Sun-Rise’ experience tended to be waking up in the morning to a Drum & Base background, coming from somewhere up the mountain, that was invariably shrouded in mist, with the stage apparently just above the clouds.

But it was not all partying and play, we were actually there to ‘work’ and had a BBQ stall selling burgers and sausages to raise funds for TheNeuterNetwork. We set up stall a couple days before and spent the Thursday exploring all around Pamporovo and nearby villages.

On Friday with gates meant to open at around 2pm we had the BBQ’s lit and were ready for the first punters. After a bit of a delay and a thunderstorm, we started selling our gourmet chilli and cheese burgers.

All was going well until around 9.30pm when it started to get dark and we realised we had forgotten to bring any lights and so by 10pm we called it a night and decided to enjoy a wander around the festival instead.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to feed the revellers sausage sandwiches for breakfast as they left the mountain, having partied hard all night and by 11pm that night, having been on our feet nearly all day we opted to go down the mountain early and have a few beers at the Pink House and call it a day.

By Sunday we were down to our last few burgers and sausages and so once our last sausage was sold, we packed up and enjoyed the remaining hours of the festival.

Sunday afternoon saw one of the highlights of the weekend. One loved up couple had decided to get married and so arrangements were made for a ceremony to be held in front of the main stage.

There were traditional Bulgarian folk singers, a lot of chanting and the happy couple shared their special day with over a thousand hippies at the top of a mountain in rural Bulgaria.

This was followed by a procession of ‘priestesses’ in the most amazing and bizarre outfits and the burning of a large effigy as the darkness fell.

There are various reviews and write-ups about the festival online and one written for Elleuk after 2015’s event, described it as “think of the book The Beach and you’re on the right lines (only up a mountain, and with less of the shootings and all that)”.

I would add that unfortunately there was also no Leo [think of the film version] there either, but I think this is a great way to describe a truly memorable experience and one we hope to enjoy again in future years.

Zheravna Museum Village

admin — Wed, 18 May 2016 13:32:12 +0000

I briefly visited Zheravna many years ago and so after a couple of weeks of getting on top of the gardens, we decided to head out on a day trip to see the museum town.

What should have been around an hour and half’s drive from our house, turned into a bit of an adventure as we decided to try the scenic route, winding up the hills behind Sliven.

Un-beknown to us and through a lack of sign posts, the road had actually collapsed several months back and after passing a couple of large piles of gravel in the road (dumped for future road repairs we thought) and going around a few rock slides, we got to a point where it was impassable and half the road had slipped off the side of the hill.

So it was back down the way we had come and back to the main road for the longer way there.

Zheravna is a museum village where many of the old style houses still remain and have been preserved and renovated.

Most are now guest houses or restaurants. It is the largest architectural reserve in Bulgaria with over 200 preserved wooden houses, which date from the Bulgarian National Revival period in the 18th and 19th century.

However, the actual village is much older, dating back to around the 12th to 14th century but as the village grew into a centre of arts and crafts in the 18th century and more money was available to the village inhabitants, the one or two story wooden houses started to spring up.

Now there are many museum houses from merchants of the 18th century, famous artists and writers. The village and its inhabitants were actively involved in the rebellion against the Ottoman empire and were part of the April Uprising.

Thousands of tourists flock here in the high season with coach parties from the coastal resorts and Sofia coming. However, out of season it is lovely to wander the cobbled streets amongst the old houses, have a traditional Bulgarian meal in one of the various restaurants (not all open out of season). If not in tourist season.