European Mountains
Bulgaria
Cherni Vrah (2290m), Ushite Peak (1906m),
Kamen Del (1861m), July
10 2011
To the main Cherni Vrah/Vitosha page (maps,
route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.)
Vitosha mountain
(Click for larger image)
Summary...
Anne and me flew from Ålesund to Bourgas
on July 7th, spent the night in Sarafovo, drove across the country to the
mountain village Borovets the following day and hiked
Musala - the
highest peak in Bulgaria - on the 9th. From the gondola between Borovets and
Yastrebets, we noticed a huge mountain to the north. Later that day, we
learned that this mountain was called Vitosha, and that the highest peak
was Cherni Vrah - 2290m. The plan for July 10 was now set...
July 10 2011 - To Vitosha mountain
We left Borovets early
morning, found our way through the city of Samokov, got on the right road
(82), observed that the police was on traffic patrol in any small town, passed lake Iskar
and joined the ringway -
ul. Okolovrasten pat outside Sofia at N42.62247 E23.40491. The idea was to
follow this road approx. 4,5km to the west - to the suburb Simeonovo - and
locate the gondola
"on sight". This plan would have worked well, had it not been for
the sudden end of the ringway. Police pointed the cars in a
direction that we did not want to go. Anne tried to explain our business,
and she must have been successful, because we were granted access to the
construction area.
Now what? We slowly made
progress, passing heavy trucks on a dirt road. After a while, we could see the
gondola up to our left and adjusted our course accordingly. An unfortunate turn sent us
definitely in the wrong direction, but we finally escaped this small
nightmare and parked (for a fee) outside the gondola station. Yeah! We were
finally in the right place, and Cherni Vrah was getting closer by the minute...
The gondola station
(Click for larger image)
Gondola - again...
I was not absolutely not
happy about taking the gondola again. Yesterday's ride from Borovets to
Yastrebets (and back) made me get in touch with a vertigo that I hadn't felt in years. And
now it was on again! A school class was ahead of us in the ticket office, but it
didn't take too long until we were "airborne".
Leaving Simeonovo
(Click for larger image)
From Aleko...
After a
twenty-or-thirty-minutes-or-so unpleasant ride, we arrived at Aleko
(1800 meters). We didn't have the time for the a la carte breakfast at
our hotel in Borovets, so the soup in the Aleko restaurant was just what we
needed!
We headed out from
Aleko 09:57am and followed a well-worn trail up the mountain. Given the
fact that a really bad weather forecast made us flee Norway, we also
treasured the beautiful weather. And at this elevation, the temperature was
tolerable.
On the way to Cherni Vrah
(Click for larger image)
On top!
Nothing much
exciting happened on our way up the mountain. It was evident that this is a popular
mountain, as we could see hikers in all directions. We reached Cherni Vrah
summit 11am, after a 3km hike from Aleko. The highest point is an airy rock in a
boulder area, and I did not for one second consider standing
upright! Neither did Anne...
On top of Cherni Vrah
(Click for larger image)
Heading back...
We spent a good while on the
summit plateau before moving on to the radar station and the buildings to the
east. Dogs near the radar station made us abort further exploration of the area,
and we followed the trail back towards Aleko.
Cherni Vrah summit area
(Click for larger image)
Ushite Peak
Near Aleko, we decided to also visit
Ushite Peak and got on a northbound trail. The peak was at least 3km to
the north, but assuming that the gondola kept running until 6pm (at least), we
had plenty of time. There were also a lot of hikers on this trail. Naturally -
with Vitosha being Sofia's city mountain.
The main trail did not run across
Ushite, but it was only 0,3km from the trail to the summit - which we reached
2:15pm. Two men were chillin' on top and we spoke briefly with both of them.
Their English was not too good, but we managed to communicate fairly good. We could see that
Kamen
Del - 0,6km to the north - was a much more popular viewpoint, and we decided to go there
afterwards.
Cherni Vrah seen from Ushite Peak
(Click for larger image)
Kamen Del
On our way to Kamen Del, we
learned that the gondola was soon closing. Possibly around 4pm - or sooner. All
of a sudden, we were in a hurry, but we decided to visit Kamen Del first. We
arrived on the top 2:40pm, spent a couple of minutes on pictures and
marveled about the Sofia view, then left in a hurry...
Kamen Del viewpoint
(Click for larger image)
After 50 minutes along a 4km trail,
we returned to Aleko and concluded - to our delight - that the gondola
was still running. We jumped into the first gondola and never took the time to
find out about the closing time. I was very happy about making it back in time, and I
didn't care about my vertigo now. Back in Simeonovo, we successfully found our way onto the ringway
and subsequently, onto highway 82.
We had yet another nice evening in
Borovets and made two new friends from Poland - Patrycja and Grzes.
They were staying at the same hotel as us, and had come here to hike mountains
too.
Returning to Simeonovo
(Click for larger image)
Next day: Malyovitsa |