A long 43.6 kilometre walk across farmland to the sound of birdsong.
I had originally intended to stop at Slivnica today but the accomodation all disappeared from booking.com before I was ready to book. In addition, as Slivnica is only 16 kilometres from Dragoman it would have been rather a short day. The next available accommodation on route was at Bankya some distance beyond.
Knowing I had a long trek I was on the road by 6:00 am to cover as much distance as possible before the sun started to cook me. A lovely time of day to walk across the fields on a quiet farm track, the skylarks singing their hearts out, the occasional cuckoo, the sun rising, the mountain of Vitosha ahead of me a faint gray. After the first village of Izvor it was along a quiet single track road to Aldomirovci, then a busier two lane road to Slivnica arriving at 9:15 am for breakfast: a tiny paper cup of coffee at one stall and a drinking yoghurt and a bready concoction with ham inside at a stall opposite.
I walked down a long straight road as the sun began to heat up followed by various villages, roads and farm tracks. On one occasion, the route took me along the rough ground separating two very large, fields, but in general the surfaces allowed a good walking pace. Thankfully I was able to follow the route, downloaded from the Sultans trail website, without coming across any obstacles, although the GPS file had straightened out some sections. In Izvor there were a rash of Sultans trail stickers, after this village the stickers appeared only erratically. Nice to give a bit of confidence but too few to follow.
Inevitably there were plenty of barking dogs to announce my passage through each village, of more concern was a pack of loose, white and distinctly unfriendly dogs which threatened me on a corner at one point. Fortunately, they were scattered by a passing car and I was able to slip passed. Some stork nests complete with storks were a more attractive form of wildlife, with little birds flitting about the nests.
Hotel Megas Bankya tonight and a take away to save any more walking. The options of chicken hearts, tripe or brains did not sound so good so I played safe with a pizza, although the Red Label Whisky I tried afterwards with coffee had never been close to Scotland...
A gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or downloaded from ViewRanger as johnpon0033.
I had originally intended to stop at Slivnica today but the accomodation all disappeared from booking.com before I was ready to book. In addition, as Slivnica is only 16 kilometres from Dragoman it would have been rather a short day. The next available accommodation on route was at Bankya some distance beyond.
Knowing I had a long trek I was on the road by 6:00 am to cover as much distance as possible before the sun started to cook me. A lovely time of day to walk across the fields on a quiet farm track, the skylarks singing their hearts out, the occasional cuckoo, the sun rising, the mountain of Vitosha ahead of me a faint gray. After the first village of Izvor it was along a quiet single track road to Aldomirovci, then a busier two lane road to Slivnica arriving at 9:15 am for breakfast: a tiny paper cup of coffee at one stall and a drinking yoghurt and a bready concoction with ham inside at a stall opposite.
I walked down a long straight road as the sun began to heat up followed by various villages, roads and farm tracks. On one occasion, the route took me along the rough ground separating two very large, fields, but in general the surfaces allowed a good walking pace. Thankfully I was able to follow the route, downloaded from the Sultans trail website, without coming across any obstacles, although the GPS file had straightened out some sections. In Izvor there were a rash of Sultans trail stickers, after this village the stickers appeared only erratically. Nice to give a bit of confidence but too few to follow.
Inevitably there were plenty of barking dogs to announce my passage through each village, of more concern was a pack of loose, white and distinctly unfriendly dogs which threatened me on a corner at one point. Fortunately, they were scattered by a passing car and I was able to slip passed. Some stork nests complete with storks were a more attractive form of wildlife, with little birds flitting about the nests.
Hotel Megas Bankya tonight and a take away to save any more walking. The options of chicken hearts, tripe or brains did not sound so good so I played safe with a pizza, although the Red Label Whisky I tried afterwards with coffee had never been close to Scotland...
A gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or downloaded from ViewRanger as johnpon0033.
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| Early morning walk along farm tracks, the mountain of Vitosha in the distance |
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| Sultans trail stickers |
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| Lilac beside the roadside |
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