DAYS 98-100, FRI MAY 7TH TO Sun MAY 9TH 2021 – To the Wilderness

This time we really got to some nature

In the morning we met at the place of the girls and packed our car. Angel had got us a van and a dedicated driver Rado. The ride through the countryside towards Plovdiv was pleasant

All the time mountains and hills in the landscape

After some refreshments we continued on

Our original plan was to take this road trip, but in the end we mainly went for nature

Even bigger road trip plan we saved for later

We headed for Assen's Fortress first from the original plan, but then continued different direction

Our first stop was at a monastery / forthress of Assen

Fortress was never taken over by enemy, but I guess it was time of this kind of weapons

Fortress used to be a monastery I guess

Mandatory blashemy photo

Jebus?

Only way to the Fortress is via the narrow valley

We jumped back to the car and continued along the bottom of the valley

There in the bottom was another monastery where we stopped to eat

We got to enjoy some local hunks.. or Bros

The river had lot of fish farms, some active and some long abandoned

Some acrobatics

And my one day old sun glassed broke when I just took them off.. high quality..

Wonderful bridges here we come!

We arrived to our hut / camping place

Right next to the place there were some nice hiking possibilities

Huge cave could be seen right from the yeard of the camping place

Day was soon at end so we sat by the camp fire before going to sleep

We slept here, in a renovated house

The other houses were not so renovated

no comment

maybe in 70's this was popular place?

I was first planning to book the house in the back

Site itself was really cool, caves were right there behind the thingy on the right

Weirdly enough there was no real fireplace, just tables

Ready for hiking.. behind you could buy food etc.

Main house with small "restaurant"

Heading for the cave

It is pretty cool

Traditional zip lines suck, I do it with bare hands!! ok would need a little photoshopping

Camping from other direction

And finally some hiking

Elf

Scenery was great

Then it was time to continue forward

This was our route, first the fortress, then to West to the wonderful bridges and finally South

We stopped to eat and try local beer

It was good tasting, not only looked nice

Local sausage was not my thing

So I ended eating this.. seems Finns, Bulgarians and Turkish all have it.. this just did not look too nice

We stopped for some zip lines.. boring, I do it with bare hands!!! you know I do!

Time for hiking and I have the correct snacks with me!

Here I guess you could rent a horse or the car to take you up, but we walked..

Bowing to the rich passing us with the car

Ok, why did I carry beer with me when I could gotten it here?!!

It is pretty nice here

posing

posing

Posing.. oh no the bridge!!

Climbing and resting..waiting for.. Pedro!

Scenes start to be nice

Almost like at my cabin ;)

Pretending climbing is fun

Waterfall canyon is a bit misleading name.. we did not just walk in a canyon.. it was lot of climbing

Still it is not a bad place for a lunch

If you need to find the place for lunch

Heading back

Down down down

Abandoned fish farms in the bottom

And this was the path we took...

The whole weekend was amazing, thanks to all who took part and Angel for arranging it and Rado for driving. I missed the nature in Turkey so this was a needed experience. This whole adventure has lasted for 100 days now. Corona has fucked it up in many ways and caused stress. Stuck all the time together can be also hard, so it was nice to hang out with friends and nice to have some relaxing time in nature