The kind of lane we dove up, except this one is less steep
Part 1 of the tour covers Stara Zagora to Bojenci.
We arrived at Bojenci at about 8pm. By the way if you are traveling along the same route (see the map on the right) make sure you drive all the way to a village called Donino before you make a turning off the main road or you risk taking a very long way round. Believe me.
Bojenci is certainly a unique place to stay. The village is intentionally kept as though it was stuck in 1900, all the buildings including new ones have to be built in the style of the time which is combination of a dark timber frame with stone walls close to the ground, white plaster on higher floors and slate roofs. The reality is that I suspect there are no permanent residents that live there, most of the buildings are either guest houses, rental properties, restaurants or cafes which despite their external appearance are all modern inside.
When we got there we had to find the apartment we had rented, it took some roaming around aimlessly before we settled on asking at the tourist office. Based on their instructions we were soon trying to drive up a tiny stone covered country lane that was so steep it took a good deal of burned rubber and three attempts to get up it. Luckily I quickly learned how to negotiate that particular ramp and didn’t get stuck there again! The trick was to get enough speed along one tiny country lane and then pull a sharp right, up another tiny country lane so that the momentum got us past the steepest bit. I couldn’t help feeling that it probably wasn’t the safest thing to be doing given that all around us there were either trees, precipice type descents or stone buildings… Anyhow, we eventually settled into our room, took a shower and hit the village (on foot, of course) in search of a well earned, no expenses spared meal.
The next morning we got to see the village in bright sunlight for the first time, it was a true picture of tranquility. The houses were spread around the end of a forest covered valley so that the peaks of the mountains rose above them on three sides. The thick vegetation was alive with the sound of birds and no doubt many other animals, we later spotted a toad hiding in long grass. As we explored we found that there where a number of footpaths leading off into the green wilderness. One of them was marked with the word ‘Tryavna‘, a town that was on our itinerary for the next day, it must have been a 2 to 3 hour hike from Bojenci.
The monastery with the rock face where the cave is in the background
By early afternoon we were off again to visit the Bacho Kiro cave. The mouth of the cave was located on a shear rock face close to a stream. To reach it we had to walk from the car park through the grounds of a monastery, along a foot path and across a couple of bridges all of which was well accustomed to visitors. When we entered the cave the brightness and temperature from outside all but disappeared. The cave quickly opened up to be very high, quite wide and covered with interesting rock formations. There were some exhibition boards with information about archaeological finds and a map of the cave itself which showed that it was very deep and had a complex network of interlocking passages and dead ends. You really needed a guide to explore the cave properly but there was a shorter route which was visitable without one. The route went into the mountain to a point where we had to climb upwards to a large room, apparently the room has such good acoustics that it has been used for classical concerts in the past. From there the ascent continued through a tight gap that lead to another smaller room high above and connect to the passage below.
The visit to the cave and the monastery took a large bite out of the day and we chose to head back to our base camp in Bojenci for a quick dip in the pool at our residence and some intense relaxation.
The final part of our tour had culture at it’s heart at Veliko Tarnovo and Tryavna.
