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…