Middle-aged flash packers

I forget to mention in the previous blog that while we were hiking yesterday, we chatted to an older Bulgarian couple who were collecting chamomile flowers to make into tea. The gentlemen said something along the lines of “your body will thank you.” I’ve noticed this foraging in Eastern Europe before and I love it. It’s practical and sensible, and not at all passing fad Masterchef “foam of nettle with a grass rissole” rubbish.

The flip side of this Bulgarian pragmatism is the abundance of spare tyres. Not the

type we carry around our middles, but wheel tyres. They are everywhere. They are displayed on pavements, by bins, on roofs, in gardens, everywhere you look you can guarantee there’s a tyre close by. Quite why the car tyre is considered such a thing of beauty and of great use in Bulgaria I’ve no idea, but it’s really not that attractive and I wish they’d find something else to recycle so enthusiastically.

Today was Waterfall Canyon day. It’s a hike in the Soskovcheto nature reserve and consists of 40 waterfalls apparently. This is a gross exaggeration in my view but it’s still a walk that is worth doing. It’s about a mile to walk from the car park at the bottom of the road and on arrival you need to pay a fee of 5lev per person. The young man who gave us all the blurb about the walk and took our money tactfully suggested to us that as we were probably retired, we could have a discount.

I have an idea – instead of ruining my day by guessing that I may well be of retirement age and basically I look like an old hag, have a donation jar at the ready and declare I can’t have the discount as I look way too young and you will find cash in that jar beyond your wildest dreams. As it was the grumpy old git who was the boss told him not to give us the discount as we weren’t Bulgarian.

Despite my dented pride (Steve is not in the least bit bothered) we carried on and thoroughly enjoyed the hike. The fact that there are bears with cubs in the area added a frisson of excitement but alas, or luckily depending on your view (I’m in the middle here) we didn’t see any.

Next a quick visit to Lidl for pastry based luncheon snacks and on to Koshnitsa to explore the fortress and caves.

We stopped in Smilyan to orient ourselves and also wake ourselves up with some coffee. Smilyan is hyped as the bean capital of the region and has a famous festival for them in the Autumn. It also has lots of hikes and things to do but we were focused on the Kaleto fortress so didn’t partake in any beans.

The Kaleto fortress eluded us for a while. I thought it was in Koshnitsa but turns out it was behind a roadside shack that we had already driven past.

The fortress is definitely worth a visit but health and safety is not big here so don’t hang on to any of the wooden handrails thinking they might support you – they won’t.Steve can testify to this. Also do not haul yourself up on a wooden barrier on a viewing platform thinking it will support your weight as it will not. Steve can also testify to this. It’s actually a short but potentially life threatening trek up and down a a very slippery hill. You have been warned.

And so to home. We were extremely sweaty and thankfully our rogue shower head had been fixed and the joys of feeling clean and a nice cup of tea rounded off a very pleasant day.