An easier day for my legs with fewer steep climbs and rocky paths than the last few days.
I had established last night that I could have breakfast at 7:00 am. It consisted of bread, cheese and lots of jam with a cup of coffee. Then it was a short climb to rejoin the path I was on yesterday.
In the morning the path went through pine and spruce woods, followed by beech woods. Much of it followed the contours along one side of a ridge or another, with occassional clearings often with a herd of cows. Passing four cowherds and one woman, possibly a cowherd's wife, I had what almost amounted to a conversation with two of them. It helps being able to guess the questions, typically being - where are you going? (in my case Popovi Livadi hut), where are you from? (Anglia meaning England, actually I am from Wales but England is better known) and finally "Sam?", meaning Alone? Any such conversation happens after they have persuaded their large brown and white dogs that I am not to be eaten. While the path was generally good, in one area the mature beech trees had been felled, now a multitude of beech samplings were vying to replace them, blocking the path with their branches.
In the afternoon, once I had dealt with the large packed lunch that Pirin hut had provided, the landscape was more open with creeping juniper or grass as I climbed higher, close to a TV transmitter station but a little below it.
Then it was a descent through trees down to the Popovi Livadi lodge. I took the opportunity of washing my rather sweaty clothes while things were quiet and put them to hang up on a terrace area where a washing line has kindly been provided. First time I had changed my clothes since Predel hut so they were not to fresh.....
I had established last night that I could have breakfast at 7:00 am. It consisted of bread, cheese and lots of jam with a cup of coffee. Then it was a short climb to rejoin the path I was on yesterday.
In the morning the path went through pine and spruce woods, followed by beech woods. Much of it followed the contours along one side of a ridge or another, with occassional clearings often with a herd of cows. Passing four cowherds and one woman, possibly a cowherd's wife, I had what almost amounted to a conversation with two of them. It helps being able to guess the questions, typically being - where are you going? (in my case Popovi Livadi hut), where are you from? (Anglia meaning England, actually I am from Wales but England is better known) and finally "Sam?", meaning Alone? Any such conversation happens after they have persuaded their large brown and white dogs that I am not to be eaten. While the path was generally good, in one area the mature beech trees had been felled, now a multitude of beech samplings were vying to replace them, blocking the path with their branches.
In the afternoon, once I had dealt with the large packed lunch that Pirin hut had provided, the landscape was more open with creeping juniper or grass as I climbed higher, close to a TV transmitter station but a little below it.
Then it was a descent through trees down to the Popovi Livadi lodge. I took the opportunity of washing my rather sweaty clothes while things were quiet and put them to hang up on a terrace area where a washing line has kindly been provided. First time I had changed my clothes since Predel hut so they were not to fresh.....
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| Walking through the woods on route to Popovi Livadi hut |
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