Day 1: Kalofer - Byala reka
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We took a morning train from Burgas to Kalofer. There were several nice old buildings around the central square in Kalofer, built in the Bulgarian national revival style. |
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A cool and impressive monument near the central square. |
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Already from the central square we could see our destination for tomorrow's hike: the Rai waterfall. The snowy peak behind the waterfall is Botev (2376 meters) which is the highest peak of Stara Planina. |
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Here we met Lalyu, a very friendly and helpful guy who runs the www.kalofer.com website. He had fixed a jeep taxi for us. The taxi drove us to a monastery, where Lalyu had booked a room for us to stay in. Thank you very much, Lalyu! :) |
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The courtyard of the monastery. Our room was on the upper floor of the building to the right. |
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View from our room
towards the valley that we will walk tomorrow. |
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In the afternoon we walked the Byala Reka ecotrail, which is a circuit route into a wild canyon. The trail was beautiful, and we were impressed by all the bridges, ladders etc - it must have been hard work to construct this trail! It was very well maintained as well, and with nice information boards (though mostly in Bulgarian...). |
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One of seven(!) fire salamanders that we saw on the ecotrail. |
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Restaurant near the entrance of the ecotrail |
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Playground on a meadow
behind the restaurant. |
Day 2: Byala Reka - Rai hut |
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Walking north along the green-marked trail. |
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The trail
zigzagged up through the forest. It just rained a little bit, but
the ground was |
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When we reached the Paradzhika meadows the green trail markings were quite poor. We had to search for the trail a couple of times, but eventually found the correct route. Once we reached the blue-marked trail at the upper part of Paradzhika, the markings were good again. |
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A shepherd's
dog joined us when we had lunch |
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It started to
rain so we missed some of the views along this trail. |
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Arriving at the Rai hut. |
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Inside Rai hut. |
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The hut served
us a nice dinner with bean soup, |
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And now the
rain stopped, revealing the beautiful surroundings. |
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Finn had fun chasing the dogs... |
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...and feeding the horses |
Day 3: Rai hut - Levski hut |
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This day was
sunny, so we started out by |
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The Ravnets massif in the background. |
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View from the Malkiya Kupen hill, a short walk from the hut. |
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We then walked west along the blue trail, and passed below the waterfall. |
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OK, this is the last photo of the waterfall, I promise :) |
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Sara crossing
the stream with care - carrying |
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Last view of the hut. The Malkiya Kupen viewpoint is the one nearest to the hut. |
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Chamois (wild goat) among the rocks |
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Another nice waterfall |
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Plenty of nice waterfalls in this area! |
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Ingmar in front of the snow-covered Botev peak (2376 m) |
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Two more chamois (wild goats) |
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Crocus flowers |
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We had to cross some patches of snow on this part of the route. |
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Descending into the Stara Reka valley. |
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The Vasil Levski hut. A very nice hut. Clean bathrooms with hot showers, and nice lentil soup. Here we met other hikers, a group of three men from Plovdiv. They were the very first other people we met so far on the hike, except for the hut staff and a couple of shepherds. The next day we met one other hiker, and that was it... |
Day 4: Vasil Levski hut - Karlovo |
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Holes in a tree made by a black woodpecker (spillkråka in Swedish) |
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We spent this hole day
in nice forest along the Stara Reka river. |
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A picnic spot by the Balkanski Rozi hut. |
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Finn has found rocks that he want to throw into the river |
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Throwing rocks into the river - a game that never gets old :) |
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We then followed the river for another hour or so... |
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...until we reached
the Hubavets hut,
the last hut
of the hike. |
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...not to
mention what could be the best yoghurt in the world! |
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Finn chasing a bug |
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White-throated dipper (Strömstare in Swedish) |
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We then entered the mighty Stara Reka canyon. |
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Green lizard. This is the male, recognized by the turquoise-coloured head. |
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The first view of our goal of the hike: the town of Karlovo. |
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Having a good meal in our favorite restaruant in Karlovo: Mehana Vodopad. |
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Some nice old
buildings on the Vasil Levski street, |