Snow storms, long climbs, fast descents, historical towns, 12th century monasteries, a spot of caving and more weird food were just some of the highlights as I cycled my way over the Balkan Mountains.

The night before I had slept in the village of Kalofer which lay at the foot of the Balkan Mountains.  My hosts for the night had prepared me a typical Bulgarian breakfast of bread, meat and cheese.I asked them if the boiled egg (in middle of meat plate above) had been laid by an exotic breed of chicken, as it was red, but laughing they said that they had painted it as it was Easter.

After a very filling breakfast it was time to get on the road, and my aim that day was to try and get over the top of the next mountain range before the worst of a winter cold snap arrived.

I left the village by following the River Tundja back down the hill that I had climbed the evening before, which was a very easy start to the day.The river took me back to the main highway, and following this would have been the fastest way of reaching the town of Shipka from where I could access Shipka Pass that would take me over the mountains. 

Instead, I decided to stick to smaller tracks that wound their way across the bottom of the foothills and would eventually lead me to Shipka.

On the tops of the hills I could see the overnight snowfall which had fallen.The snow hadn’t reached to lower foothills and in the meadows the shepherds were busy looking after their flocks.

I didn’t really need a map as I just followed the contours of the mountains jumping from one track to another just as long as I continued heading east I was going in the right direction.  The tracks got smaller until they became gravel.It was a beautiful mornings ride and just before lunchtime I arrived at the village of Shipka. Apart from being the start point for the pass over the mountains the village was also home to the stunning Nativity Memorial Church/St Nikolai Church, with its onion shaped golden dome.

The church was built in 1902 to honour soldiers who died at the battle of Shipka Pass, where the Russian army and Bulgarian volunteers fought together to thwart an Ottoman attack by 27,000 Turkish soldiers in the 1877 Russo-Turkish War.

The design of the church is without doubt influenced by Russian architecture, and features five golden domes.The inside of the church is as spectacular as it’s outside. 

In the crypt of the church are the graves of the soldiers who perished and frescoes depict scenes from Russian history.It really was a stunningly beautiful space, and a great place to sit and contemplate life for a while.

As it was lunchtime I decided to get some food before starting my way over the pass and was told that there was a restaurant on the road to the pass so cycled there to get a quick snack.

I decided that as I had been on a culinary journey so to say since arriving in Bulgaria I may as well continue and my lunch that day was deep fried pigs ears accompanied by a sweet gravy.  Most of the slices tasted really good but a couple of them I don’t think had been cleaned properly and tasted just like pigs smell !!!

After having a beer to wash them down it was time to get on with getting over the mountain.  The waitress had said that there was a lot of snow on the pass but that the road was open. The climb from the restaurant to the top of Shipka Pass was about 13km and on a map the road looked like a kid learning to tie his shoelaces for the first time.It was great to be back in the mountains as I started the cycle up the pass

There were quite a few hair pin bends in the first couple of kilometres as the road wrapped itself around the contours of the land.

Ironically, this was probably the best maintained ‘side road’ that I had cycled on in BulgariaThe views through trees were great

I was climbing at a steady 8kmph and so it should have taken me a couple hours to reach the top of the pass.  After the first hour I started to cross the snow line and the hillsides had a dusting of snow.
For the first time in a few months I had my reflective vest back onNot so much that I was worried about getting run over, as there was hardly any traffic on the road, but more to try to keep warm.  The cold front that had been forecast to arrive from Russia had arrived early and it was really cold now that I was back in the mountains.

The night before there had been a heavy snowfall and the higher I climbed the deeper the snow was.

After a couple hours of climbing I reached Shipka Hotel which I knew from the waitress earlier marked the top of the pass.There wasn’t much of a view from the top of the pass as the road was in the middle of a forest It was a great feeling to know that I would soon be descending as by now I was wearing my hat and gloves to try and keep my hands warm.

The descent was probably worse than the climb – this side of the mountain was facing north so was much colder and as I only had thin woolen mittens my fingers were soon numb with cold.  This made trying to pull on the brakes pretty difficult. With the weight of the bike, equipment and my bulk there was over 100kg of momentum that I had to try to stop and without any feeling in my hands it was not easy.  I had to keep stopping to try to get the blood flowing to defrost my hands.What should have been a beautiful descent through the snow turned into one hell of a painful experience that saw me descending at a similar speed to my climb up.

I was happy once the snow started to thin out and the air began to warm up. My plan when I set off that night had been to get over the top of the pass and I hadn’t really given much thought to where I would spend the night.  The next town of any size was 20km away which I could have easily made that night, but I hadn’t come here just to stay in hotels so, call me mad, once I had descended below the snow line I decided to set up camp for the night.

The other reason that I fancied camping was that once I reached Romania in a few days time then the mountains held bears and wolves where camping in the forests would not be my first choice !!!!

As I was just below the snow line once the sun descended over the mountain behind me the temperature dramatically dropped.  I was still cycling with all of my cold weather gear that had kept me warm in South America and put it on – thermal top, bottoms, leggings, hoody, hat, gloves, socks and trainers. 

Even with all of those layers of clothes it wasn’t exactly warm!!! There was also a mist in the air, so while eating dinner that night I put on my wet weather gear to keep my clothes dry.As dinner was cooking I had collected some firewood but as there wasn’t much pleasure sitting out in the freezing cold I decided to get into my sleeping bag and have an early night rather than light the fire.

This was the first time that I had slept out in mountains after returning to Europe, and even though in the Balkan Mountains bear attacks are extremely rare you never know – it is estimated that there are about 8000 wild brown bears in the Balkan and Carpathian Mountains – yep 8000 !!! 

The stats were on my side though as there have only been 3 deaths attributed to bear attacks in the last century, but the mind always plays tricks as I tried to get to sleep in the pitch black in the middle of the mountains miles away from ‘civilisation’.

That night, it turned out that bears were not my problem, it was the weather.  I was woken in the middle of the night by the sound of hail stones on top of my tent and this soon turned to snow.Thankfully, the snowstorm had not turned into a blizzard but when I got up it was weird to see my bike covered in a thin layer of snow.Thankfully, at this altitude there had not been too much snow, but it was still bloody freezing and so that morning I had ‘breakfast in bed’It was then time to finish my descent off the mountain as I followed the River Yantra towards the town of Grabovo which lay 20km away.Next to the river were remnants of more prosperous times for the region as all along the valley I passed the skeletons of factories.The source of the River Yantra was immediately to the east of Shipka Pass that I had crossed the day before.  The river would be my constant ‘companion’ for the next few days as I would now be following the river’s route as it flowed towards the River Danube which formed the border between Bulgaria and Romania.

My first port of call that day as I followed the river was the town of GrabovoNot the most appealing of towns on first sight but apparently it is renowned in Bulgaria for it’s sense of humour and satire. This is apparently celebrated at the ‘House of Humour’ which has a permanent exposition of local humour art.

As the cold weather and snow had woken me early that morning then it still wasn’t open by the time that I arrived at Grabovo.  Outside though, there was a sign outlining the characteristics of the people of Gabrovo who pride themselves on their ways of saving money.

These include (apparently):

  • cutting the tails off their cats so they can close the door faster when they let the cat out, in order to save heat. (A black cat with a cut-off tail is one of Gabrovo’s symbols.)
  • fitting taps to eggs (as one might do with a beer barrel) so as to tap only as much as needed for a soup and save the rest.
  • turn their clocks off before they go to sleep to prevent wear and tear.
  • putting green spectacles on their donkeys so that the donkeys will mistake shavings for hay and eat it.
  • heating their knives so that guests invited for tea cannot help themselves to butter.
  • dropping cats down chimneys instead of spending money on chimney sweeps.

There is something special about towns which are able to laugh at themselves, and would have loved to have spent the morning at the House of Humour.  Alas though, the clock was ticking and I needed to make progress on my route north towards Romania so I gave it a miss.

Before leaving the city I stopped for a coffee at a cafe and  one of the locals said that 20km down the valley was Dryanovo Monastery and I must stop there for a visit. A quick check on my phone told me two things – first that it was not too much of a detour, and second, that it was a  Bulgarian Othodox monastery built in the 12th century, and despite being twice burnt down and pillaged during the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria, the current buildings date from around 1845.

Now, even though I couldn’t find time to visit the ‘House of Humour’ I always had time to detour to the monastery, especially as the setting was meant to be spectacular.

The quickest way of getting there was along the E85/Route 5, but as it was 20km away I decided to see if I could get there without riding along any main roads.

I set off from Gabrovo on a fairly good side road This then narrowed. And narrowed

Until I was cycling my way down a farm track though fields

This led me onto a walking track that took me through an area of woodlandWhich eventually came out in the ‘ghost’ village of Donino

The direct route down E85 would have been a ride of around 10km, but the track route had been double that.  Far more enjoyable though and I love days on the bike like this.  It was so much fun that I decided to stick to the side roads for the rest of the way.

The great thing about cycling in Europe is that it has history and for a cyclist this often means that there is usually an ‘original road’ that linked villages in a valley that was used by donkey and cart before a faster, straighter highway was built. (plus even today most of the faster roads ban the donkey and carts that locals still use)

My ‘donkey’ road out of Donino took me on a very beautifully scenic tour of the valley as the road bounced from one side of the valley to the other. 

The next village on my tour of this area was Tsareva Livada.  This was much bigger than Donino, and even had a railway station.  On one of the sidings was a beautiful steam engine. Despite the sunshine it was still bitterly cold and I had another quick coffee, more to be inside somewhere for 10 minutes rather than needing the caffeine.

It was then time to get back on the bike and complete the ride to the monastery.  As the crow flies it was only 5km from the village, and if I had a raft I could of floated my bike down the River Dryanovska which flowed through Tsareva Livada.As I didn’t have one I had to take a more scenic route through the forest to reach the town of DryanovoOne I reached the village of Dryanovo I then follow the River Dryanovska back upstream towards the monastery.By now it was lunchtime, so I stopped in a flower meadow by the side of the river and cooked up a pot of pasta.Now that I was out of the forest the weather was beautiful and the sun was shining.  All day I had been descending and who would have thought that I had woken up to snow that morning.

After lunch it was time to go and find the monasteryA huge statue showed that I was getting closerThen by the side of the river I saw the monasteryThe setting couldn’t have been more picturesque as the monastery sat at the base of a very steep limestone cliff with the buildings forming one of the ‘banks’ of the river

I walked across the bridge and into the grounds of the monastery and it was a beautiful space

The monastery was founded at the end of 12th century, but the original building was located nearly 2km further down the valley from the present monastery complex. This, however, was destroyed by the invading Ottoman troops in the 14th Century.

The monastery was later rebuilt on the present site, but the second monastery shared the fate of the first one.  The current monastery building dates from 1845 and in the grounds are residential buildings for the monks (it still functions as a Bulgarian Orthodox church)One of the monuments in the grounds is to commemorate the ‘Fallen’ during the liberation of Bulgaria.  At the entrance to the complex there is an “Archaeology and Revival” exhibition which shows visitors the history of Dryanovo area and the origin of the monastery.

It really was a fascinating place to spend the afternoon and while talking with one of the monks he asked if I had visited the nearby caves. I knew nothing about them, so he said that if I followed the river up the valley I would come to them.

After following the river for a kilometer or so I came to a waterfall and some abandoned buildings.  To the left of these there was a bridge and set of steps up the side of the cliff which took me to the entrance of Bacho Kiro caves.The caves were first ‘discovered’ in 1890 and a total of more than 3km of passages have been explored. In 1964 electrical lights were installed so members of the public could access the first 700m of the cave system.

Today, the cave is a four-storey labyrinth of galleries with some of them lit in neo-green lighting (not sure why)

 All along the passageways were countless stalactite and stalagmite formations.

The self-guided walk through the cave finishes in the ‘cathedral’ where visitors are encouraged to sing a song !!! The other ‘strange’ custom is that all along the path people have stuck money into the walls of the cave or just dropped it onto the floor.

I asked one of the other visitors and they said that the reason why people left money in caves was to stop their souls being kept in purgatory when they died (according to Roman Catholic doctrine purgatory is the place where the souls of those who die may make satisfaction for past sins and so become fit for heaven).  To me though, the ‘payment’ seemed to ‘bribing god’, which I’m sure is a sin in itself !!! 

The other thing that she told me was that when I left the caves if I continued to climb up to the top of the gorge there was a pathway with spectacular views of the valley, and she certainly weren’t wrong: Once I walked to the end of the path I had a great view over the monastery. I descended back to the valley floor by a different route and followed the river back to the monastery

On the path next to the river there was a restaurant and so I stopped for a late afternoon beerOver a pint I got out the map to decide where I was going to sleep that night as the town of Veliko Tarnovo, that I had originally planned to get to by nightfall, was now too far away to reach before dark.

As I couldn’t really find anywhere that took my fancy I decided that I might as well as just camp near the monastery, and so after enjoying a second pint I went in search of a good spot.

That night I set up my tent up in a flower meadow which had a perfect view of the stunning limestone cliffs.

As I was setting up my tent one of the locals was walking along the bank of the river and came over to say hello.  He didn’t speak  much English but gestured for me to follow him and he showed me where there was a spring.I thanked him and walked back to my gear to get my water bladder.  At least this way I had fresh water to drink and wouldn’t need to boil river water.It was then time to get a brew on and think about making dinner before it went dark.

As it was still only April when the sun went down behind the cliffs the temperature significantly dropped. Once I had finished dinner it was time to jump into my sleeping bag for another early night.

The next morning I didn’t wake to snow but something far worse – English rain.  Yep, not a heavy downpour that is quickly over but a steady drizzle that looked like it could last all day.  For the second morning in a row the weather had as confined to my tent for breakfast.

It was lucky that I wasn’t planning on camping that night as when I packed up the tent everything was soaking wet. I then got my head down and covered the 30km or so to Veliko Tarnovo in an hour and a half.

As I arrived in the town the black angry rain clouds that had followed me all the way provided a stunning backdrop to the town.As I cycled into the old part of the city the Nativity of Mary Church looked beautifully magnificent.The church sadly is not an original building as it was built in 1913 before, along with many of the other buildings in Veliko Tarnovo, it was destroyed in a devastating earthquake.  The current church, however, was built in 1924 using original sketches that had been drawn before the earthquake in its reconstruction. 

As I came out of the church the heavens had opened and for the first time in months I was getting a proper drenching on the bike.

I cycled to the nearest hotel and checked in.  It was more than I would normally pay but as I had camped for the last couple of nights I deserved a treat.

While checking in I got talking to the owner and although he thought I was a bit mad to be cycling around the world for a year he loved my story and so I got a ‘Blakey’ upgrade.Despite the nice décor I still needed to dry my tent out and so the bedroom was once again turned into a drying room.By the time I had finished hanging my tent out and washing my cycling clothes etc the rain storm had passed and it was time to visit the reason that I had come to Veliko Tarnovo – to see the famous fortress of Tsvarets.The city used to be the capital of Bulgaria before the transfer of that title to Sofia, and Tsvarets stands in testament to the history of the city.  

The hill that the fortress sits upon is surrounded on all sides by the River Yantra.  However, a narrow steep sided slither of land, which acts as the entry to the fortress, still connects Tsvarets to the rest of the city.Buildings on the site date back to Roman times and a fortress has stood on this site since about the 7th Century.  The original fortress was destroyed, seemingly like much of the rest of the buildings in Bulgaria, when the Ottoman’s occupied the country from the 14th Century.

The current buildings on the site were constructed by the communists.  Sitting proudly at the top of Tsvarets is the Patriarch’s Complex or Church of the Blessed Saviour.

I have to say that personally the outside was much more beautiful than the inside, which had been decorated by a series of ‘garish’ murals

The murals apparently depict 14th and 15th century Bulgarian history but as none of the information was in English I’m not sure what exactly each mural shows. I will let you judge for yourself whether the church is to your taste.Below the church was the restored Baldwin Tower where the crusader Baldwin the 1st of Flanders was imprisoned and executed after his army was defeated by the Bulgarians in 1305.

The final buildings within the fortress that have been partly reconstructed is the Royal Palace.  

The original palace, whose network of foundations you can still see, covered an area of 4500 sq m and was from where 22 successive kings ruled Bulgaria.    The other amazing ‘structure’ were the perimeter walls of the fortress.From here there were pretty special views of the city and river valley below

Tsvarets was a stunning piece of history that had been tastefully reconstructed and was a brilliant place to spend the afternoon.

As I was leaving and heading back to the hotel the rain returned and settled in for the evening which curtailed any more walking that day.  As I hadn’t seen the rest of the city I decided to stay for another night in the city, but in the morning I changed hotels as my budget could only stretch to 1 night of luxury !!!

It was now time to take a stroll around the city, and like the fortress the main city clings to the steep banks of the river as it snakes it’s way north through the valley.

The only flat area in the city is an ‘island’ in the centre of a very tight loop of the river where the State Art Museum was located

The building is dedicated to displaying art of the town and region (free entry on Thursdays!!!)

In front of the museum was the Assens Monument

For obvious reasons it is known locally as the ‘horsemen statue’ and features the Bulgarian Tsars, Ivan Assen, Theodor-Petar, Kaloyan, and Assen. The statue commemorates the tsars for their contributions to the city.

As the city is set on the steep banks of the river walking around certainly isn’t easy but for the rest of the day I had a great time wandering though the tight cobbled streets exploring the amazing range of architecture on display.

I know that with the narrow streets then parking in the city was kind of hard but accessing the bicycle parking was a bit awkward

The next morning it was time to leave and complete my cycle through Bulgaria.  At least the sun had come out to wave me off, and as I set off from the city Tsarvets looked magnificent.Sadly, my time in Bulgaria was up and it was time to head for the border and cross into Romania.  However, the border still lay 120km away and so that night if I made it to the border I planned on staying in Ruse and cross the border the day after.

Now that I was out of the mountains this area of Bulgaria was much flatter and the land is used for agriculture.

Traffic was light and I had the roads pretty much to myself for most of the day.

As it was fairly hot there were also plenty of natural springs next to the road where I could stop to get a refreshing drinkThe road surface on the various roads I cycled that day were really good, and with the wind behind me I made short work of covering the 120km and arrived in Ruse by late afternoon.

In the west of Bulgaria the River Danube forms the border with Romania and I followed the river into the centre of the city.As I cycled into the centre I was expecting to find a bit of a rubbish border town, and was happily surprised to find a bustling city full of beautiful architecture.

I checked into a hotel on the main square and this was the view out of my windowThat night I didn’t stray very far from the plaza as it had everything I needed – cheap beer and food !!!!Ruse had not only great architecture but a nice vibe. It was so nice in fact, that I decided to stay an extra day in the city so that I could cycle around and explore a bit more.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves

If you are ever in the area then I would definitely pencil in a couple of nights to explore the city. 

Being back in Europe had been like being bombarded by history, and every day of the few weeks that I had been cycling in Bulgaria had been amazing. 

Sadly, my time in Bulgaria was now up and I had to get to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, to catch a flight to Malaysia in 2 days time.  I was going to meet up with my wife for a long weekend before continuing on with my ride through Eastern Europe.

If you would like to automatically receive all future posts straight to your email inbox please just add your details to the form at the foot of this page.

Cycling the Balkan Mountains
Tagged on:                     

3 thoughts on “Cycling the Balkan Mountains

  • June 3, 2017 at 8:28 pm
    Permalink

    Hi Stewart. I’m currently cycling in the Rhodope mountains with 3 friends. Just spectacular countryside. I enjoyed your blog … we’very had cold and rain .. and sunshine but thank goodness not the cold that you had. Thanks for the freak blog.

    Reply
    • June 6, 2017 at 8:46 pm
      Permalink

      Hi Judy,
      Great news.
      Some of the most picturesque, and coldest, cycling that I have done on this trip.
      Glad you are enjoying my blog.
      Take care
      Stewart

      Reply
  • May 6, 2017 at 2:51 pm
    Permalink

    Hi Stewart. Glad the bears gave you a wide berth. Tks for earlyfood review warning this time

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *