Monday 11th August 2025 – easy border crossing from Serbia. Very polite and courteous. Bulgarian Customs wanted to see in the back but didn’t require anything opened.
When we arrived at the campsite Rachel saw soot on the back of George. I immediately saw melted plastic. The exhaust tail pipe (intended to stop diesel soot on the rear of the vehicle) had twisted round and the heat had melted the red reflector and indicator light lens! (Right is what is should look like and left is the melted remains). At least it didn’t catch fire!
Indicator lense slightly melted but still working!
Tuesday 12th August 2025 – visited a Land Rover spares place in Sofia in the hope of getting some parts – the melted reflector, indicator lenses and an ignition barrel. No luck, they had a reflector but not anywhere near the right one. He said they had sold all their indicator units. It was more a backstreet garage than a parts place, however the yard was full of Land Rovers of all descriptions. Tonight’s in Sapareva banya. We hope to hike in the Rila mountains tomorrow. The 7 lakes walk.
Managed to get cash ( Bulgarian Lev) from an ATM today (yesterday 2 machines wouldn’t dispense us cash). Also got a Vivacom SIM card (25GB data for 16.7 Lev=£7.37). We have collected 5 SIM cards so far, cheapest way to get internet. O2 have a roaming “fair usage” policy of 60 days roaming maximum in Europe so we are saving those days for when we need them.
Wednesday 13th August 2025 – walking the 7 lakes trail. Absolutely stunning alpine scenery. Gentians:
Mountain pansies:
Alpine avens:
Corncockle:
Campanula:
Map lichen (indicator of low air pollution):
It is a 20 minute cable car ride up the mountain (2,925 metres above sea level):
Although we did the 7 lakes trail we saw 10 lakes as we went further than intended – 10 kilometre hike. Around 5 hours including lunch stop and breaks to admire the views:
There were millions of crickets on the trail, they are jumping as you walk along. Mountains as far as you can see.
Found this formidable looking fellow on the tent tonight, a grain support beetle – one of the largest horned beetles in Europe, they can reach a length of 25–52 millimetres. This one was about the maximum!
Thursday 14th August 2025 – visited a waterfall not far from where we stayed last night.
We want to visit the Rila monastery but it looked busy when we drove past it so we are having lunch at the campsite by the river and will walk back at around 4pm. There is supposed to be a good restaurant nearby so we plan to try Bulgarian food for the first time tonight. Campsite is quite scenic (facilities a little “rustic”!):
The Rila Monastery:
We climbed the 15th Century Hrelyo’s Tower which gives a great view of the monastery.
A priest walked the boundary of the church beating a wooden plank calling for prayer. Then rang a peal of 5 bells.
A sheep was being blessed by another priest. Presumably destined for consumption. The sheep is now being taken away in a white van! Two french girls were asked to uncross their legs in the church not because it’s a sin, but because it’s considered too casual and relaxed for the sacred space.
Great dinner including Rilska salad (tomatoes, roasted peppers, cheese, dill and garlic):
Also Carska Zapekanka (potato, bacon, egg, olive, 2 types of cheese and cream):
Also Sach chicken (chicken fillet, peppers, carrots, tomatoes, eggplant, onion, zucchini, mushroom and cheese on a hot metal plate):
Such a relief after Bosnia and Serbia where restaurant cuisine wasn’t very exciting.
Filled up with diesel today – £1 a litre!!
Friday 15th August 2025 – visited the small town of Melnik. Went to Kordopulov’s House, a large ottoman style house built in 1754.
Visited the car museum at Kapatovo, owned by the Osikovski family with 60 cars and 44 motorcycles in purpose built premises next to their winery.
An extraordinary collection, including 1934 BMW 315:
1934 Mercedes-Benz W18 Typ 290 Cabriolet:
1962 Chevrolet Corvette C1:
Met a Dutch couple at the campsite with a bespoke Land Rover 130 King Cab (a specially extended cab to give more room) custom made by someone in the Netherlands. We compared notes about our Land Rovers! There is quite a fraternity amoung Land Rover owners, we all wave to each other and talk breakdowns for hours!
There was also a huge Steyr truck, ex Austrian army in the campsite that could barely get through the gateway. A couple of nights ago the campsite had a notice banning all large vehicles – it said “Definitely no Unimogs!”. The Steyr had a long ladder so the German owners two ridgeback dogs could climb down out of the cab! Lovely friendly ginger cat at the campsite:
Saturday 16th August 2025 – drove through stunning forested mountains in the Pirin national park. George the Land Rover is coping very well with the slopes now. We were up to 1,400 metres today. So good that we changed the turbo when we did otherwise we would surely be stranded half way up a mountain!
We made our way across to Dospat Reservoir, a prominent natural reservoir located in the Rhodope Mountains. Bulgarians come here at the weekend to relax, we saw someone roasting a suckling pig on a spit!
On the southern side of the reservoir the track is off road. Lots of Bulgarians drive it in saloon cars however. We had fun when a pickup towing a trailer came up from the shoreline towing a trailer and blocking the road. He rolled back sufficiently for me to squeeze past but the verge was peat bog and we started to sink at the front. We needed to reverse up but he remained in the way until Rachel gestured for him to leave (politely I am sure!). We then reversed out of the bog in low range and went on our way.
We had a good dinner in the restaurant at the campsite/hotel. We had Patatnik – a savoury potato pie (I am a huge fan, it is delicious), Mish-mash – made with fresh vegetables (typically tomatoes, peppers and onions), eggs and sirene (a type of Balkan brined cheese) with Shopska salad – made from tomatoes, cucumbers, onion/scallions, raw or roasted peppers, and sirene, a white brined cheese similar to feta, but much milder in taste. No photos, hunger overtook me (yet again!)
We are at 989 metres (3200 feet) at Teshel so a bit cold in the night. 2 degrees per thousand feet temperature differential with sea level. There is a website that gives your height above sea level anywhere on earth. Everyone in central Europe has a huge stock of wood for heating. I wonder at the environmental consequences and how that will be resolved as part of global warming targets.
Sunday 17th August 2025 – went on a hike along a river in the Rhodope mountains. A very steep and rocky path but beautiful scenery. Some stunning gorges in the area around Teshel.
Nasty experience in the town of Smolyan. We weren’t sure which direction to go at some traffic lights so I wasn’t quite exactly in the lane to turn left. Someone in the right lane hooted at me and (foolishly in hindsight) I gave him an (in)appropriate hand signal. Even though he could readily get past he then decided to hoot continuously and pull in behind me to go left instead of right cutting up the csr behind. Still hooting madly he raced past me and put his hazard flashers on and kept braking hard to try and bring me to a stop. I overtook him because I wasn’t go to stop and block the road and he deliberately veered in front of me so I had to swerve sharply to avoid him crashing into me. Thankfully the car behind me, seeing what he was doing also overtook him and blocked him from hassling me. I will definitely be more circumspect in the future! Lesson learned.
We free camped last night in a lovely rural spot. It is legal in Bulgaria. Unfortunately it has just been banned in Greece with €300 fines.
