Bulgarian Adventures

I love the soft , rounded hills too. Most of the hike was in dense forest and despite the temperature of more than 30 degrees Celsius in the open, 2/3rs of the hike was in the cool shade of huge trees. Really felt great.

 

@Bozho , please PM me your full mailing address. I have a little care package from BC Canada about to head your way!

 

PM sent. Cheers, buddy!

Can't wait for Friday to come, 2 days fishing/camping trip is waiting for me. I need to get some new fishing line and prepare 2 carp slaying rods

 

Camping, fishing, having a fire, having a good friend to be with, eating, drinking, sleeping in the old Daihatsu, G45 on my side - life is good

Cheers to you all!
Many more pictures when I get home.

 

Had an awesome weekend, spend the Sunday at the dam until 6 PM, then cleaned some fish and drove home - it was 10 PM as I finally reached my place
Both rods I used were new to me and both got 1 carp each - one got away by itself, the other one was released - both of them were around 1 kg. Carp is a valued fish here and fisherman with good consciousness let the smaller ones go, so we can catch them again next year when they are around 2 kg and perfect for frying. Of course there was a guy next to us that took 6 of these little ones home, but they are in the legal size norm, so it is up to him to decide what to do. I got 10 Prussian Carps and will fry them in Wednesday with a lot of beer.

Our camp :





Lots of sunflower fields next to us






There is not much wood to gather there, so I always bring a bag of wood (or 3) from home. I used the little Husqvarna hatchet (made by Hults Bruks in Sweden, it is from the older ones, equal in quality with GB and Wetterlings, but at 1/4 of the price, no longer made unfortunately) for the larger and knottier wood, the ESSE 6 made kindling from pieces up to 7-8

cm thick. All of my axes have hemp rope wrap on the handle, soaked with epoxy resin - it really saves the handle, incredibly strong stuff.









More to come

 

We did a lot of cooking for lunch and dinner - on the grill and on the little stove.



























Cheers!



More to come!

 

My home made RAKIA

Look at that color...



I put little pieces of oak inside the bottles as I do not have a barrel yet.



Coffee time with those little gas stoves, very convenient!



Of course we had a small fire in the night - mostly to repel the bugs and just for fun. I LOVE FIRE





Random shot of the 3 blades I brought with me





Guess what my next knife will be ???



However I will get the DT one. My friend carried a 6, 3 and LionSteel M5.


Both ESEEs worked hard - fire prep, food, cleaning fish - great knives. The 6 is probably the best knife I have had, it is such a great all purpose blade.

It was a great weekend, can't wait to go there again.

 

Now that's the way to spend a weekend! Catching fish and being outside. I was slightly surprised though...I thought Bulgaria to be more mountainous?

 

There are indeed many mountains here, but this dam is in the Thracian Valley and everything around it is quite flat
It has a good carp population, last week some guys caught a 29 KG one - and documented it on video too. Awesome fish!

The mountain dams like Shiroka Poliana are incredible, but need at least a week of camping time to truly enjoy it - lots of woods and bear territory too

 

BEST PHOTO ON THIS FORUM! A feast!

 

Thank you Bushman!
That's the beauty of carp fishing - you can set your rods and start eating and drinking all day
The best way to relax in the summer heat if you do not have a mountain nearby. The water in the dam was so hot, around 28-29 Celsius - perfect for a swim. Cold beers in the day and Rakia in the afternoon and night - really makes you forget about having to go to work again

 

Awesome man, thanks for posting all the photos, appreciate it. Some good times.

 

I am really glad you like it! This forum is great, so I will post as much as I can.

Did some MTB riding today - nothing special, 50/50 uphill/downhill but some sections were rough for a hardtail with just 10 cm of fork travel. I ride in a park in the city most of the time, which is really a 150 years old forest with many nice MTB trails. Easy to be accessed without the need of a car - I ride directly from my home to the park. 90 minutes intense cardio up and down - I will do it daily for the next 3 weeks to prepare myself for a week long hiking in Pirin and Rhodopa mountains (sleeping in huts).

 

My son used to go mountain biking. Scared the crap out of me, haha. He's the one wearing the Go Pro:

 

Thanks, Andy!

Warrior - this is some nice footage and a nice bike that your son has!

 

I am super excited, going on a 7 days hiking trip tomorrow - in Rhodopa and Pirin mountains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodope_Mountains

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirin

Each day will be full of hiking and stunning views, sleeping in mountain huts at night. We are staying at two huts -one in each mountain. The huts are accessible by car, so I can bring plenty of gear and food without weight penalty and just chose what to bring for the day. I will make sure to take lots of pics.

 

I have had such a great time, took lots of pics and enjoyed the nature so much!

Here is my EDC for the adventure + Lion Steel M5 on my belt in the woods and a headlamp in the backpack :



I thought we were going to sleep in a hut for the first 2 nights, however to my surprise (I wasn't organizing the whole thing, just participating) we were sleeping in the recreation / vacation facility of the National Forestry University, which is pretty much a nice hotel with a price of around 13-14 USD per person, per night. Awesome!

Day 1 :

After some traveling to reach our destination, we left our luggage at the hotel and went to see the highest railway station at the Balkan Peninsula - 1267 meters above the sea level. Located in Rodhopa mountain.

It has a narrow gauge line train, quite smaller than the regular ones and rides in mountain terrain only.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septemvri–Dobrinishte_narrow-gauge_line



















It is a slow ride, but brings back memories from using the trains as a child - it was great as it moved through some dense forests, less than one meter from the trees at some moments .

I used a cool little stove to cook some meals, mostly to boil water for noodles.













It is cheap and lightweight, the burning gel is also pretty cheap. One gel lasts 13 minutes and you can prepare 2 packs of noodles without any problems. It burns extremely well, even in very damp conditions. It has almost no smoke and odor while burning.

 

Day 2 :

We went to the Belmeken area - it has a dam and a peak with the same name. It is used from many athletes from all parts of the world, for preparation and training before competitions, due to its high altitude.

The peak is 2,627 m above sea level and the dam - 1,923 m. It is located in the Rila mountain.

The hike was around 7 hours - the weather was burning hot in the beginning, then it was raining, then we had some hail and at the end - burning hot again. The mountain can change 3 seasons within an hour .

Some pictures from the hike :





The dam :









On our way to the top :


























More to come !