Shvilist

In Rila park we hiked for 3.5 days. The hike started from the tiny village of maliovitsa, to hiza (hut) maliovitsa – an easy two hour walk. We stayed the night in this Hiza (if you ever go there, whatever you do DO NOT EAT THEIR SOUP!….. ) and the day after we climbed the mountain and closed the circle – back to Maliovitsa (a full day hike, even though it was only 10 Km long…. but the height gained and lost was close to 1000 meters. This was one of the best hikes we did in Bulgaria, and it was definitely one of the most varied – from the alpine bushes and lakes to the forest.

On the second day we traveled from Maliovitsa to Rilski Ezera. Although Rilski Ezera is about 1000 meters higher – there’s a cable cart which goes up.

To be perfectly honest – I did not plan to go up by the cable cart – I just took the wrong turn and got there. But that was one fortunate getting lost…..

We planned to go for the seven lakes trail on the third day, and then to climb down the other side of the range all the way to Rila monastary – but the day was foggy and rainy and not that nice – so we decided to shorten this trip, and did just the small (about four hours long) trip of the 5 out of 7 lakes, came back to the Rilski Ezera hut, then hitch a ride all the way to the monastary – and from the monastary (which was a bit dissapointing, compared to the praises the lonely planet guide gave it) we carried on to Bansko – on the base of Pirin national park.

Originally, I planned some hikes on the Pyrenees, but after a long and tiresome debate, we decided to try Bulgaria as our destination. To be honest, I’m quite glad that this was the destination.

We’ve been to three mountain chains : Rila region, Pirin region and the Rodophe mountains. Geologically speaking, Rila and Pirin are the same chain – and it shows. The height is the same, the soil is the same (mostly lime stone) and the vegetation – the same. We came about a month too late, for the temperature on the mountains drops below zero during the night – and it kills the grass. And so, while walking above the tree line (around 2000 meters) – we found ourself surrounded by yellowish scenery. Fauna wise – in the nature reserve we found some Ibex, and in the Rodophe there were many salamanders – but other than that, we seldom saw any animal (which was a bit disappointing).

As a general rule of thumb, the trails are very well marked, and quite easy to follow even without the marks. There are many huts (hiza in Bulgarian) which provides shelter for the night – but not all of them serve food or offer the luxury of a hot shower. Their prices were about 30 levas (~15 euros) for a couple per night.