Adventures from Bulgaria: Summer in the Mountains – Days 14 - 16

Detail from 18th photo

Destiny’s lessons in disguise

By Valeria Idakieva

[Sequel to “Days 12 & 13,” published on December 24, 2018.]

When I woke up on the morning of the 14th day of my trek along the E8 European long-distance path, I felt happy because I remembered going to bed the day before and praying to the God of the E8 path to remove the pain in my kidneys and let me complete the trek, and now I felt only a slight pain.
    Walking on asphalt roads is not my favorite experience, but at least it was not hot yet. So I started along with whizzing cars and after about an hour had the good fortune to leave the road and continue through the fields.

    I had not seen the path marks for a long time, so I had to rely on the track shown by my phone’s GPS, and it was leading me across a harvested field fringed by a patch of little trees, bushes, and tall grass entangling one another.

    Entering the tangle didn’t appeal to me, but I had no other choice and started fighting my way through the shrubbery. When I finally emerged from it, I was covered with small green, sticky balls from head to toes and had a net of scratches on my arms. It took me more than 15 minutes to get rid of all the sticky intruders, puffing and panting and sweating all over. Eventually I made it to the next village, where I entered a café and slumped on a chair with such a relief as if I had been running uphill for a whole day.
    After having had a second cup of coffee and talking to the locals about why I was dragging my feet through their village, it was time to go. Trudging on the scorching asphalt road between villages was getting hotter and hotter, so I no longer took any notice of being sweaty all the time.

In one of the villages, I asked an old woman to give me some water and she filled my bottle and gave me some pears. I felt happy again and the heat did not bother me anymore – at least, not until the next village, where I spent some time under the shade of a bus-stop shelter enjoying the juicy pears and the old woman’s kindness and hiding from the scorching sun. A passing woman informed me that the bus had already left, and when I told her that I was not waiting for the bus, she looked at me as if I were crazy, but then I thought, what person would stay at the bus stop without waiting for the bus? Still, I could not stay there the whole day, so I soon left the shelter, crossed the village under the sweltering sun, and got on a wide path over hills covered with tall grass, small trees, and bushes.

    The farther I walked, the less visible the path became, until it completely disappeared in the tall grass, or had never existed there. I circled the slope in search of the path, but in vain. The GPS arrow in my phone was mercilessly showing me to continue down the slope through the spiky bushes, tall dry grass, and small trees. So I started almost rolling down the slope through the shrubbery, and when I got to the lowest point I had to fight my way up another slope. But after climbing it I could again see the path. I was too exhausted to jump for joy so I gave a sigh of relief and dropped down on the ground in celebration. But then I had to clean my clothes, shoes, backpack, and hair – rid everything once again that day from the sticky little balls.
    When I finished the clean-up, I continued my trek, soon crossing the next village and being told by one of the shepherds near it that the lodge I was heading for was open, so I stopped worrying that the previous day’s scenario might be repeated and started moving faster towards the lodge.

    When I reached the lodge, I was on my last legs and had to put a lot of effort into having a shower and dinner instead of slumping on the bed and going to sleep.

I got up early in the morning, ready to walk the last day of my adventure. After the usual cup of coffee and chat with the owner of the lodge, I started walking under the clear, blue sky that was promising another sweltering day, but the air was still fresh and the views were as stunning as usual.

    But there is no absolute happiness: small flies appeared out of nowhere and started tormenting me again. I put on my mosquito head net and continued through the tall grass and bushes. It was getting hotter and hotter, I was having rests more often, and I was running out of water faster. Suddenly the small flies disappeared as mysteriously as they had appeared – but not for long. I reached in my pocket to retrieve the mosquito head net once again, but this time found only an empty pocket. So I had to wave my hat to protect myself from the small intruders, which made me sweat all over. It felt hotter than in Spain.
    At about one o’clock, when I sat down to have a rest and some lunch, I discovered that the GPS in my phone had lost the signals from the satellites, and since I had not seen the trail marks for a long time, I was left with little for orientation. I changed the battery and left the phone alone for half an hour to cool, but nothing happened – except that I grew more and more worried and started drinking more water, quickly diminishing my water supply. I had a paper map and I knew the direction I had to follow, but there were so many paths that, after I tried two of them and they swerved into the lower paths – which I knew were not the right way – I thought that if I tried many of the alternatives in search of the right one, I would finish the water and most probably not reach the village I was heading for before night. So I decided to go back and take one of the asphalt roads I had crossed earlier, in order that I might at least reach some village or other.
    There I was, dragging my feet on the asphalt road and bemoaning my bad luck, when a car stopped and the driver offered to take me. The two men in the car were going to one of the nearby villages. When they heard my story, they declared me mad, but said they could drive me to the village where my hike was supposed to finish. Of course, I agreed. Luck had not deserted me completely. So, in the early afternoon of the 15th day of my trek, I reached the village of Mezek, the final point of the E8 path on Bulgarian territory. I had not reached it in the proper way, but there was no point in crying over spilt milk, and I decided to make the most of the situation and visit the Thracian tomb in the village’s vicinity. I was pleasantly surprised by the street art on the way to the tomb.

When I got back, after a shower and dinner, mulling over the situation with the bitter taste of defeat, I concluded that I could not leave Mezek without having walked the last part of the path, so the next day I would walk back from Mezek to the point where I had started on the asphalt road.
    I jumped out of bed at 7:00 o’clock on the 16th day only to see that the sky was covered with dark clouds and it was already drizzling. I paced the room back and forth for half an hour and then told myself that rain was not going to melt me. I put on my raincoat and started walking. An asphalt road led the way from the village to the peak of Sheinovets, where the Balkan War started in 1912. I was enjoying the green sea of mountain slopes again and my enthusiasm was returning.

    When I reached Sheinovets peak, the wind had already cleared most of the sky and I was jumping for joy because the GPS of my phone had started working again, the weather had improved, and what had been a gloomy morning was turning into a lovely day.

    After spending some time at the peak, I continued at full speed. I was swishing through long grass, bushes, and small trees, and, fortunately, there were no tiny flies to torment me and it was not hot. And I met another traveler.

    While I was having lunch, I remembered that I was only 20 minutes away from the Thracian sanctuary of the Silent Stones, a megalithic cult complex that owes its name to the fact that there is no echo between the boulders. There are more than 200 niches carved in stone that are supposed to have been used as funeral urns. Archaeologists have discovered Christian funerals as well. I had heard about the site’s mysterious energy and decided that not to visit it would be foolish of me, since I was near it and had enough time. So here I was on my way to the Silent Stones.

    Stairs lead to the top of the site situated on one of the sides of a rocky tomb, used, according to some researchers, by the priests during sacred ceremonies.

    And here is what you can see when you climb the stairs.

    I spent half an hour in the sanctuary walking among the stones, and when I was leaving I felt as light as a feather, as if someone had wiped away with a magic, caring hand all of my fatigue and worries, even the pain from the blisters on my feet. Now I understood why my GPS had stopped working the day before. If it had worked, I would have hurried to reach Mezek and finish the hike and I would not have visited this place of divine tranquility. Now I felt that bad luck had turned into good and destiny was teaching me a lesson.
    When I reached the asphalt road from the day before, I decided to follow it again to return to Mezek – a circular route. This time the two good people were driving somewhere else and I walked for a long time on the asphalt. In the early evening it started raining and now there was no escape from the rain. At 8:00 p.m., I entered Mezek utterly exhausted, but infinitely glad. Now I could finish the route and leave Mezek with pleasant memories and valuable lessons from the E8 path.

Copyright © 2019 by Valeria Idakieva