Tag: mountains

My longest hike to a shelter rocket (July 2022)

The weather got colder and wet in the Rila National Park of Bulgaria and so Michele and I decided to move further east and north to the area of Kalofer and Botev Peak. I was struggling a bit to go there because I felt like there is something left to discover in Rila and I always try to burn not so much diesel for going back and forth. But in the end, it was a good decision. The weather near Kalofer was super nice and the whole area there is beautiful as well.

At the meadow which we called home there were horses and a kind of meerkats. They came every morning out of their little home holes to greet the day. Beautiful. We had some chill time there and one day it was time for Michele to take a train to Sofia to then fly back to Germany. The time with him was super nice and lovely and I always smile thinking back at it.

On my way back to the meadow where Sebastian and I had stayed for a couple of days, I refilled my water tank and canisters. While refilling, I put the lid of Rosinante’s water tank on the roof of Rosinante. After refilling, I forgot to put the lid back on. I realized that after driving about one kilometer away from the water fountain… And then I started searching for it… For about an hour. But I never gave up hope and when I finally found it, I was happy as shit.

I wanted to go to Botev Peak but the internet said it should be done as a two days trip. I don’t know why, but I didn’t feel like going to the mountain hut near the peak and so I decided to do it just in one day. It was an awesome hike. Especially the Tarzan Trail near the waterfall “Raisko Praskalo” I loved a lot. That part was a bit adventurous. The peak was a totally different world: flat, not very romantic, occupied by something that looked in between a rocket or a nuclear war shelter.

In the end, I did 30 km and 4.700 hm in 8 hours and felt awesome about it. Since I did this hike, I feel much more relaxed while hiking. It’s weird, but something changed in me. Before I sometimes hiked very slowly and sometimes fast. Sometimes I did some trail running, sometimes I took breaks of an hour or longer with meditation, etc. And I’m still doing it the same way. But still, it feels different… It’s really weird… I guess my ego feels like it has proven something with that hike. And just think about that. Isn’t it funny? Somehow something inside of me changed because of having done something. Somehow my inner concept of what is hiking or how I feel about it changed. But without an intention to do so. For me it’s just another example what the subjective reality is like: delusional and impermanent.

Gorgeous times together in Rila national park (July 2022)

In July 2022 one of my best friends from Germany came to Bulgaria to travel and live with me for ten days. After I picked Michele up at the airport in Sofia, we went straight to the Rila national park.

We found a super peaceful and beautiful place in the forests. This spot… Absolutely fantastic. It was a pretty big area, that was very well-known by locals and foreigners, but it was not crowded, next to a small river and a good for Michele to arrive mentally and for us to chill.

We started to live together and had a super good time. After traveling alone for months after Cori visited me in Greece, I enjoyed the company of a well-known and deep friend. And at the same time, it was partly challenging for me. I love Michele and it’s nothing particular about him. He is a lovely, authentic, and open guy, who has inspired me so many times. I think it was just a transition from solitude into having someone around me. I felt like I got insecure and contemplative about things that I was thinking, feeling, saying, and doing. Nothing about this felt bad, but it felt like something is working inside of me.

One day, we hiked to the peak called Malyovitsa in the Rila national park. It was an awesome hike. For Michele it was the first hike that high up and long. During the hike, I felt like being in another wonderland in the Bulgarian mountains. It was magical. And it was so beautiful to see how Michele enjoyed the hike, nature, and the mountains. How he connected and got into all of it.

At one point of our hike, our route got very freestyle on steep, rough, and very loose ground. The last part of our route was very exposed, steep, and next to a cliff. At that point, we decided to abort that route and take another one. And even though that part was challenging for him, he and I did so well and always kept up so much compassion for each other.

The magnificient wall (July 2022)

In a few days, I wanted to pick up a friend at the airport in Sofia. But before I wanted to get on another mountain and so I drove down from Bezbog, a little north, and back up the mountains near the summit called Vihren.

There I parked Rosinante at a beautiful and free little campsite or better to say: parking with places for tents (location on Google Maps). After the beach at Thessaloniki, it was the first time that I lived right next to other travelers and people on holiday. I met Barbie, a super nice elderly guy from Greece who was living in his converted and very minimalistic van for quite some time and we had great conversations. And I met Pavel from Poland who was recreating in nature and spontaneously went camping in his car instead of staying in the flat he had rented in Bulgaria. We had deep and interesting conversations about crazy topics. Mainly about different perspectives, beliefs, and the possibility of truth. The campsite/ parking was set in between the mountains and right next to a river. It was super and the perfect location to start hikes to the different summits and lakes in that area.

With Pawel I visited the “Baikushev’s pine”. That tree was massive! It was about 1.300 years old, 26 m high, 2,2 m in diameter, and 7,8m in circumference. The big branches were as big as normal trees, I would say.

The other day, I hiked to the summit of Vihren. I got up pretty early because, in the late afternoon, I wanted to start my way to Sofia. The clouds were pretty dense and when I approached the summit it got cold and windy. Adventurous. The view from the peak was… limited. The path from the peak down to the other side of the mountain was quite steep and rocky. I loved it. And when I was reaching a plateau under the summit the clouds opened for a spectacular view of the rock wall of Vihren! This wall is magnificent and got me straight away. It is 450 m high! I had a big rest there and thought a lot about how it would be to climb that wall. And how it would be to sleep in a hammock hanging in that wall. Someday I will do it…