I woke late, it was already 7 pm, the time at which I had ordered breakfast. Rushing to the restaurant area I found a cooked breakfast waiting for me. Fried egg, sausage, cheese, bread and coffee, it was much appreciated.
Today was not all beech forest, there were areas of hawthorn, the berries crimson, and a few bushes of scarlet rosehips. In the morning there were also breaks in the trees where I could look down on clouds in the valley to the north, and beyond to a far away town.
Morning view of clouds in the valleys to the north.
After paths only detectable by the red and white waymarks, I reached Krastet railway station. I watched a graffiti coated train pulled in. Krastets was once a mining town, now the houses have been abandoned and ivy and brambles are slowly engulfing them. A group of three people with bikes got off the train, and headed off for a ride. Being Sunday there were people out walking the trail for a couple of hours, and a few were out exercising their 4 x 4's.
Next milestone, after more trees, was Bylgarka hut. There were people at tables on the veranda of the hut so I went up and bought a bowl of pork belly soup, which seems a local speciality, served with thick toasted bread (crisp on the outside, soft in the middle). I enjoyed it except for the fatty bits at the bottom of the bowl, which I ate anyway as part of the experience. After much more climbing up wooded hills I reached a windfarm. In the light breeze the arms of the turbines were barely moving, but did so with a creaking, squealing noise which did not sound too good. As it was on an open hillside there were grand views over tree covered hills to distant towns. I could see a gigantic Soviet Monument on a hilltop, that was above the location of my hut for the night. It looked a long way away.
As I walked down a road in the late afternoon light, I admired the beech trees, their leaves now turning with the ending of summer. Yellow, green and brown leaves, fluttered in the zephyr. They seemed insubstantial as they spread out in horizontal sweeps, contrasting with the lines of solid grey trunks, their verticality emphasised by the lowering sun illuminating one side of the trunk while the other was in shadow.
Lyuben had booked me into the Old Buzludzha hut, however at the location indicated on my GPS the sign said "Small Buzludzha" which I assumed was the same thing. The Soviet Monument is directly above and there is some Soviet stone carving below that I will examine tomorrow. However on going into the hut they claimed I had no reservation, it seemed they had forgotten me. Nevertheless, they showed me to a dormitory and I ordered a salad and meatballs (i.e. burgers) soon after in case they should close the kitchen, which I ate with a beer in a cosy area with TV (not the official restaurant). The dormitory (of which I am the only resident) was grossly overheated by an Soviet era "radiator" with no off switch. Fortunately it later cooled down and I made good use of the clean and modern bathroom.
31.4 kilometres walked today with a total ascent of over 1450 metres.
You know I’m interested in the domestic details!
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