Most Inspirational Moment
Finding clear sign of wild brown bears - scat, overturned stones and a bear paw print set INTO the tyre tread of a jeep - which had passed us on the forest track only five minutes previously! Seeing raptors flying, possibly peregrine or maybe a saker falcon.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Svetoslava was an excellent guide. She was organised and fully explained each day's activities including timings etc. She is also qualified in bear studies.
Advice for Potential Travellers
The hotel is meticulously kept by the family owners, who clearly take pride in their hotel. For example, every morning over an early coffee I saw even the patio being swept clean. Every day. The food is prepared with fresh produce and is very good. The bathroom is a wet room (without a separate shower enclosure) and there is a plastic bowel for washing shirt and smalls if you wish. (Take half a dozen pegs).
The mountain tracks can be a little stony in places, a good boot with ankle support is useful on those days. There are some short but steep ascents to be prepared for, but the views are well worth it. The hotel's tap water is quite safe to drink and there are also mountain streams and these have a tap dispense in places for bottle re-filling, but in hot months one or two may be dry - the guide will inform you. Carrying two litres of water is sensible. Take a wetproof top though - just in case of rain even if it looks like it won't, and a plastic sealed container for the lunch sandwich.
The trails were not heavily used and there was a sense of having the place to ourselves. The forest tracks open into wide meadows, here the air shimmers with the beating wings of butterflies. Look above for birds, buzzards and raptors were frequently seen. The wall creeper eluded us this time though. Snakes? Never saw any, as they was well gone, alerted by the vibration of our footfall, or else our scent.
You are in the realm of wildlife. Chamois were seen as were the signs of wild boar. You are also in bear country. We saw bear droppings and overturned stones where they had been looking for food under. We saw a tree with bear fur trapped in the bark where they had rubbed their backs, and then the bear paw print noted above. It's important to remember though that there is little risk here. Svetoslava explained that any bear would have heard us through our normal walking noise or the inevitable chit-chat amongst the group and would have moved off, or like the snakes detected our smell with the same result. So although it is exciting to know these animals are present, it is equally reassuring to know there is little risk either. I carried a small pair of 8 x 32 binoculars.
The border "dead zone" (in communist times) is an interesting day, perhaps take a torch that day to go into the interior troops' bunker, and there are also T72 or PT76 pits each with a concrete shelter for its crew to have a look at.
Peace, quiet, thick forests, open meadows with beautiful vistas, cool crystal clear streams, beautiful butterflies and raptors. But it is the presence of the brown bears which sets this trip apart. Like Orpheus you will always want to look back, but in your case with a much happier outcome than his!
