After leaving the "Hut", which was empty apart from myself and one other, I walked through the Varbiski resort. Once it must have housed hundreds of holiday makers, but most of the buildings were now in disrepair or not functioning. It looked like a couple of places were serviceable, with the grass cut, although I found none with on-line booking for October.
The guidebook promised an easy day and indeed, in the morning the tracks were good. Inevitably I was heading uphill but at least I could look forward to walking downhill in the afternoon. Beside the path was a narrow valley or ravine, but no water was flowing down its base. Likewise most of the "fountains" were dry today. For most of the day I was again walking through woodland. At its best the mature beech trees rose in architectural columns with a roof of green leaves high above me. Some of the beech forest is well over a hundred years old. I eyed the ground beneath them, free of undergrowth, that if flat would make a good campsite. However younger trees made attractive green tunnels for me to walk under.
In the afternoon, as I started downhill, I joined a single track road, its tarmac frayed at the edges or lost altogether. The Kom-Emine left it on an overgrown track. The cycle (i.e. Mountain Bike) option of the Kom-Emine continued down the road, perhaps I should have realised this was significant. Another clue was that the gpx track I had of another person's walk on this cross Bulgaria trail, which also lead down the road. In the event I followed the overgrown path. Initially a path was visible, beaten by both people and horses (I could tell from their poo and hoof prints). Then a fallen tree, small but with many branches, blocked the path. In attempting to get around, a thorn caused me to bleed slightly, eventually I crawled under the branches, the rucksack on my back breaking a few. Then I cursed myself when I realised an earlier side track was actually a diversion around the obstacle. Later, I found myself walking down the wrong side of a narrow valley. Seeing waymarks on a barely visible path on the other side I was forced to retrace my steps to follow the correct path, the valley sides being too steep to cross with dignity. Another kilometre added to my day!
Reaching an area of grazing with multiple thorny bushes, the track disappeared entirely. My GPS tracks led me to impassable tree and thorn filled little valleys. After wasting much energy trying to find the way through I gave up. Not wanting to follow another non-existent track marked on my GPS, I consulted all the maps on my GPS and phone. Eventually I chose one that would take me to the road that the cyclists were told to follow. Even on this track, visible from satellites, I had a length of thorny blackthorn bushes to fight through.
The road was busy. Fast cars raced past me, there were a few lorries, mostly tank trucks, a man pushing an empty trolley uphill, another man filling a plastic bottle from a working roadside fountain, and two of the local horse and carts. The carts are small and narrow with rubber tyres, the horse can pull them over extremely rough terrain. If anything, they usually contain hay, no doubt fodder for animals, but one on the road today contained the driver's wife (I assume) and their dog.
Nearer the town of Kotel, the verge became increasingly littered. It seems a general problem. Occasional plastic bottles mark the trail, beer cans litter picnic sites, road verges are the depository of all kinds of rubbish. However such negative feelings were offset by passing a house, balloons tied to its fence, Arabic style pop songs playing, the family wiggling their bodies to the music, a happy sight, a birthday party perhaps. Not long after a bride and groom were walking up the road. The bride in full white wedding dress taking selfies, the groom in a smart suite with a neatly shaved, black beard. They were surrounded by a small group of people. A cameraman out front was recording the scene, a drum was beating, an accordion played and an Arabic instrument sounding like an oboe, but looking like a clarinet, was producing an evocative if nasal sound. Ladies broke off from the wedding party to offer chocolates to people watching on the pavement. I got two (chocolates)! Apparently I was in the gypsy quarter of town.
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| A wedding party in the gypsy quarter of Kotel. |
My hotel was on the other side of town in a posher, less littered section. I choose a more expensive one, although cheap by British standards, as the reviews said English was spoken. On arriving I noticed they offered massages. My back, shoulder and neck were aching from the weight of my overfilled rucksack so after enquiring, within the hour I was laid out being kneaded and slapped. With food on offer I inevitably overeat, however I have probably not eaten enough in the last few days so a little gluttony can be justified.
Excluding places where I had to retrace my steps, the route I took today was 29 kilometres long with a 900 metre ascent.
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