Well we enjoyed the sunshine and beach at Vama Veche for five days but it was time to move on and perhaps to a better beach too.
We headed south into Bulgaria and after a couple of hours, stopped at a place to stay the night up on the hill overlooking the resort called Golden Sands (a typical package holiday place and not the beach we were looking for) next to an old monastery called Aladzha.
In the morning, we thought we better see what this monastery was all about, and much to our delight found that it was actually an old hermitage place, carved into the mountain side. It hasn’t been used for hundreds of years, so it’s purely a museum now but an interesting one all the same and not something we’d seen before, from a Christianity point of view that is.
We continued the sightseeing and drove to another interesting place, not far away, the very unusual Stone Forest.
It’s a cluster of tree-like stone columns, spread out on a barren landscape, maybe 50 million years old. Nobody knows exactly what they are, but speculation goes from fossilised trees to chalk deposits—akin to how stalagmites are made. Many have been given names based on their shape in a sort of ‘say-what-you-see’ fashion, unsurprisingly one is called the ‘fertility stone’…
Nature is a funny beast and it’s seeing odd things like this place that makes travelling so worth while.
So anyway two sights seen in less than a few hours, it was time to return to serious matters, finding a nice beach. We headed south for a while longer and eventually settled on a very remote place.
Off the main road, some 2km down bumpy vineyard tracks is a long stretch of beach called Kara Dere. At the north end it was busy with caravans etc. but where we were at the south end, it was much quieter, even though a few people pitched up their tents for the weekend.
This place was so far removed from the tourist beaches of Golden Sands and what we would later see of Sandy Beach. Bulgarians that know about this beach came for the day and there were also a few backpackers but hardly any tourists.
There are no facilities, no showers, no restaurants, nothing, just pure unadulterated beach with beautiful sand and sea and much to our surprise no rubbish either. It was blissful.
We only found out about this beach, because of the website we use to find wild camping places, lucky for us!
Normally, we would miss a shower after swimming in the sea but the water here is really not that salty, so you can get away with not having one for a day or four…
Eventually we ran out of drinking water, so we had to go but we had our fill and were happy to move on to a campsite to get a shower and do some laundry.
We had one more day at the Black Sea after that, our last visit was to Nesebar, a pleasant place to walk around, just around the bay from the very busy Sandy Beach. Set on a rocky peninsula, the old town is packed with historic houses and ruined medieval churches but also restaurants, and souvenir shops…
Anyway, we enjoyed the place for a couple of hours then parked up just to the south of it for the night, which also gave us great views of it by day and when it was lit up at night.
The following day, we said bye-bye to the Black Sea and headed inland.
So we would find out with further driving, Bulgaria really is quite an empty place (apparently a third of the country is forested). Most small towns and villages (aside from the pretty ones as indicated by the travel guides) that we drove through in the central part of the country were rather sleepy, not very interesting architecturally, and most had some sort of building(s) left to decay. There were obvious signs of poverty too.
Having said that, from a natural point of view, it’s stunning and so green. The Stara Planina mountain range that goes through the middle of the country is a wonderful backdrop and also very useful for us, there are lots of places to get some fresh water. I assume that not many houses have clean running water and the only source is the village fountain which comes straight from the mountain.
Our first visit inland after another wonderful wild camp near a lake, was to Valiko Tarnovo, the once capital of Bulgaria from 1185 till 1393 (until the Ottomans arrived and took over Bulgaria for nearly 500 years).
The Fortress of Tsarevets which was the seat of power during this time—now partially reconstructed—was a formidable walled city with churches, dwellings etc., set on a very strategic hilltop, almost completely encircled by the Yantra River. Naturally the Ottomans destroyed it once they became the overlords.
The views down to the old town below and the surrounding gorge are awesome.
The old town itself has a few old buildings in the beautiful and distinct National Revival style of the 1800s, something we would see more of in the coming days.
The following day, we headed south to Tryavna, famous in Bulgaria for the woodcarving style of the National Revival houses, a very aesthetically pleasing town with lots of fine houses.
We then continued south to the Shipka pass. High up at 1300m is the memorial to the battle that took place here in 1877—the Russians aided the Bulgarians in their efforts to become independent from the Ottoman empire during the Russo-Turkey war. The monument is impressive.
In the distance, some 12Km away is another monument which we wanted to visit, a crazy UFO-looking communist monument, but sadly we couldn’t make it.
On the way there, on a very bumpy road, we had a mechanical issue, the gear linkage broke and we were stuck in third.
We pulled over, called the breakdown service and waited.
I had looked to see if I could do anything to hold the gear linkage in place but couldn’t see how. A kind Bulgarian pulled over and found a way with the aid of a cable tie, he managed to ensure that the part would stay in place until we could drive to the next town to visit a mechanic. What a star!
Just as well really, the useless breakdown service people were of no use at all. This happened late on a Friday afternoon but they couldn’t find anyone to come and help until after the weekend as all the garages would be closed at the weekend anyway, so they said.
You wonder what you pay for really, 24/7 assistance they say, yeah right, in Western Europe perhaps but certainly not in Bulgaria...
We managed to drive down the mountain—not many gear changes required thankfully—to the small village of Shipka to stay overnight in the church car park, a beautiful church it was too.
The next day, a Saturday, we went to a mechanic in Kazanluk some 15km from Shipka that was open, quelle surprise!!
After a phone call to their usual parts supplier, they said “the part will be here in a while, so come back in three hours and it will al be fixed”. Sure enough it was and all for 50 Lev (£23) and it gave us time to go and have a nice lunch in the town.
So we were back on the road without a worry and we headed back to Shipka as we wanted to visit one of the famous Thracian tombs here—Bulgaria is completely in what was once the Kingdom of Thrace, before the Romans decided they would take over.
The elaborate stone tomb of Golyama Kosmatka contains the sarcophagus of King Seuthes III, recently uncovered in 2004, in which lots of gold, silver and bronze artefacts were found, obviously buried with him. Strangely nothing of his remains were unearthed, maybe he did pass over to the next world…
There are many tombs in the area so it must have been sacred to the Thracians whom buried their kings and nobles here.
We could have visited a few more but one was enough and so we headed west, and found a wonderful place to wild camp—for what would turn out to be three nights—in the foothills of the mountains, next to a very clear river that we could use the water to shower with (we have a 12V plug in shower with pump), it was the perfect spot, lovely and warm in the day and cool at night to get the perfect sleep, just a few people about, herds of cows, and a great scenery.
Whilst here, we also made a visit to the old town of Koprivshtitsa again famous for its National Revival buildings but also as the place where the uprising against the Ottomans was declared in 1876.
We’ve seen some fine examples of these colourfully painted wood and stone houses but perhaps here they are the most impressive.
So, to southern Bulgaria next.
Aladzha
The Stone Forest
Kara Dere Beach
Nesebar
Lake near Gurkovo
Veliko Tarnovo
Tryavna
On the road...
Shipka Pass
Lunch in Kazanluk
Thracian Tomb
Wildcamping near Kalofer
Koprivshtitsa
We headed south into Bulgaria and after a couple of hours, stopped at a place to stay the night up on the hill overlooking the resort called Golden Sands (a typical package holiday place and not the beach we were looking for) next to an old monastery called Aladzha.
In the morning, we thought we better see what this monastery was all about, and much to our delight found that it was actually an old hermitage place, carved into the mountain side. It hasn’t been used for hundreds of years, so it’s purely a museum now but an interesting one all the same and not something we’d seen before, from a Christianity point of view that is.
We continued the sightseeing and drove to another interesting place, not far away, the very unusual Stone Forest.
It’s a cluster of tree-like stone columns, spread out on a barren landscape, maybe 50 million years old. Nobody knows exactly what they are, but speculation goes from fossilised trees to chalk deposits—akin to how stalagmites are made. Many have been given names based on their shape in a sort of ‘say-what-you-see’ fashion, unsurprisingly one is called the ‘fertility stone’…
Nature is a funny beast and it’s seeing odd things like this place that makes travelling so worth while.
So anyway two sights seen in less than a few hours, it was time to return to serious matters, finding a nice beach. We headed south for a while longer and eventually settled on a very remote place.
Off the main road, some 2km down bumpy vineyard tracks is a long stretch of beach called Kara Dere. At the north end it was busy with caravans etc. but where we were at the south end, it was much quieter, even though a few people pitched up their tents for the weekend.
This place was so far removed from the tourist beaches of Golden Sands and what we would later see of Sandy Beach. Bulgarians that know about this beach came for the day and there were also a few backpackers but hardly any tourists.
There are no facilities, no showers, no restaurants, nothing, just pure unadulterated beach with beautiful sand and sea and much to our surprise no rubbish either. It was blissful.
We only found out about this beach, because of the website we use to find wild camping places, lucky for us!
Normally, we would miss a shower after swimming in the sea but the water here is really not that salty, so you can get away with not having one for a day or four…
Eventually we ran out of drinking water, so we had to go but we had our fill and were happy to move on to a campsite to get a shower and do some laundry.
We had one more day at the Black Sea after that, our last visit was to Nesebar, a pleasant place to walk around, just around the bay from the very busy Sandy Beach. Set on a rocky peninsula, the old town is packed with historic houses and ruined medieval churches but also restaurants, and souvenir shops…
Anyway, we enjoyed the place for a couple of hours then parked up just to the south of it for the night, which also gave us great views of it by day and when it was lit up at night.
The following day, we said bye-bye to the Black Sea and headed inland.
So we would find out with further driving, Bulgaria really is quite an empty place (apparently a third of the country is forested). Most small towns and villages (aside from the pretty ones as indicated by the travel guides) that we drove through in the central part of the country were rather sleepy, not very interesting architecturally, and most had some sort of building(s) left to decay. There were obvious signs of poverty too.
Having said that, from a natural point of view, it’s stunning and so green. The Stara Planina mountain range that goes through the middle of the country is a wonderful backdrop and also very useful for us, there are lots of places to get some fresh water. I assume that not many houses have clean running water and the only source is the village fountain which comes straight from the mountain.
Our first visit inland after another wonderful wild camp near a lake, was to Valiko Tarnovo, the once capital of Bulgaria from 1185 till 1393 (until the Ottomans arrived and took over Bulgaria for nearly 500 years).
The Fortress of Tsarevets which was the seat of power during this time—now partially reconstructed—was a formidable walled city with churches, dwellings etc., set on a very strategic hilltop, almost completely encircled by the Yantra River. Naturally the Ottomans destroyed it once they became the overlords.
The views down to the old town below and the surrounding gorge are awesome.
The old town itself has a few old buildings in the beautiful and distinct National Revival style of the 1800s, something we would see more of in the coming days.
The following day, we headed south to Tryavna, famous in Bulgaria for the woodcarving style of the National Revival houses, a very aesthetically pleasing town with lots of fine houses.
We then continued south to the Shipka pass. High up at 1300m is the memorial to the battle that took place here in 1877—the Russians aided the Bulgarians in their efforts to become independent from the Ottoman empire during the Russo-Turkey war. The monument is impressive.
In the distance, some 12Km away is another monument which we wanted to visit, a crazy UFO-looking communist monument, but sadly we couldn’t make it.
On the way there, on a very bumpy road, we had a mechanical issue, the gear linkage broke and we were stuck in third.
We pulled over, called the breakdown service and waited.
I had looked to see if I could do anything to hold the gear linkage in place but couldn’t see how. A kind Bulgarian pulled over and found a way with the aid of a cable tie, he managed to ensure that the part would stay in place until we could drive to the next town to visit a mechanic. What a star!
Just as well really, the useless breakdown service people were of no use at all. This happened late on a Friday afternoon but they couldn’t find anyone to come and help until after the weekend as all the garages would be closed at the weekend anyway, so they said.
You wonder what you pay for really, 24/7 assistance they say, yeah right, in Western Europe perhaps but certainly not in Bulgaria...
We managed to drive down the mountain—not many gear changes required thankfully—to the small village of Shipka to stay overnight in the church car park, a beautiful church it was too.
The next day, a Saturday, we went to a mechanic in Kazanluk some 15km from Shipka that was open, quelle surprise!!
After a phone call to their usual parts supplier, they said “the part will be here in a while, so come back in three hours and it will al be fixed”. Sure enough it was and all for 50 Lev (£23) and it gave us time to go and have a nice lunch in the town.
So we were back on the road without a worry and we headed back to Shipka as we wanted to visit one of the famous Thracian tombs here—Bulgaria is completely in what was once the Kingdom of Thrace, before the Romans decided they would take over.
The elaborate stone tomb of Golyama Kosmatka contains the sarcophagus of King Seuthes III, recently uncovered in 2004, in which lots of gold, silver and bronze artefacts were found, obviously buried with him. Strangely nothing of his remains were unearthed, maybe he did pass over to the next world…
There are many tombs in the area so it must have been sacred to the Thracians whom buried their kings and nobles here.
We could have visited a few more but one was enough and so we headed west, and found a wonderful place to wild camp—for what would turn out to be three nights—in the foothills of the mountains, next to a very clear river that we could use the water to shower with (we have a 12V plug in shower with pump), it was the perfect spot, lovely and warm in the day and cool at night to get the perfect sleep, just a few people about, herds of cows, and a great scenery.
Whilst here, we also made a visit to the old town of Koprivshtitsa again famous for its National Revival buildings but also as the place where the uprising against the Ottomans was declared in 1876.
We’ve seen some fine examples of these colourfully painted wood and stone houses but perhaps here they are the most impressive.
So, to southern Bulgaria next.
Aladzha
The Stone Forest
Kara Dere Beach
 |
| This one will do nicely! |
 |
| We're parked up on the cliff |
 |
| Not a bad morning view |
 |
| Coming back from the beer run at the local shop, 2km away |
Nesebar
 |
| Yummy lemon ice cream |
 |
| View from our camping spot |
Lake near Gurkovo
 |
| We bought some poles and tarpaulin for a makeshift shade |
Veliko Tarnovo
 |
| Reading the very long list of safety instructions!! |
 |
| The old houses |
 |
| Wend's new boyfriend |
Tryavna
On the road...
 |
| We've seen a lot of these stone mounuments. Every town seems to have one in a very similar style |
Shipka Pass
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| Behind me (above my head) is the mounument we didn't get to... |
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| Shipka church, we spent the night in the carpark |
Lunch in Kazanluk
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| Zagorka beer, very nice too. |
Thracian Tomb
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| Gerard Butler in 300?! |
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| but no body was found... |
Wildcamping near Kalofer
Koprivshtitsa
Wendy with her pretty local style dress....
ReplyDeleteLoving the blog, keeps me sane or is it insane thinking I might get to a similar thing one day. Life goes on here, Frame Farm is still a challenge, the brambles keep growing faster than I can remove them, I think they are getting more vicious judging by my legs and arms. At least I still have two arms/hands despite Mira’s best efforts, probably not for long though she is getting a lot stronger and when you see her bound over to greet you, if I were a robber I would run like hell. 😊. Take care and keep on having fun and buy some cable ties, the most useful invention after Velcro. Cheers Chris
ReplyDeleteHey Chris, thanks for that, glad we can bring you joy, say hi to Mira and co for us. Take care.
Delete