Bulgaria

We hadn’t really planned to go to Bulgaria (particularly as they joined the Schengen zone earlier this year), but we ended up doing a week long detour into the Rila mountains due to a problem we were having with our gas.

After our last LPG fill we had been getting wafts of gas around the gas locker. It wasn’t happening consistently but tended to occur in the afternoons at the hottest part of the day. We also couldn’t get one of the tanks to work and having done some investigation it seemed to me that the tank had been overfilled and gas was being released through the safety value as it was expanding in the heat of the day, but it was difficult to know for sure. Gas is something that worries me, I don’t know enough about it other than its potential to go boom!

So after some discussion we decided we needed to talk to the experts at Gaslow (our LPG is a gaslow system) to work out if this was something serious we needed to worry about. We can’t make international calls on our local Serbian sim cards but luckily, we were in fact closer to Sofia across the border in Bulgaria than any major town in Serbia, so it seemed sensible to slip across the border into the EU where our home Sim cards would work and where there is an actual motorhome repair company (based in Sofia) if we needed it.

We crossed the border without any issues other than a lengthy queue, which turned out to be quite helpful as it meant we had plenty of time to see all the neon Vignettes signs and realised we needed to buy one before crossing over. After a quick internet search we were able to do this online while waiting in the queue.

Once across the border we found a place to pull over and make the call to Gaslow. Long story short, after a very helpful and detailed exchange, we concluded that in all likelihood, our last LPG fill had been an overfill due a faulty pump and that once the tank we were using had emptied, the overfill tank should start to work as normal. Most importantly, they assured me that there was absolutely no chance of the aforementioned Boom. If this didn’t happen we needed to call them back.

So with that in mind, we needed to find a campsite for a few days to settle down and monitor what was happening. The campsite we found was only a 30 minute drive from where we were, in the foothills of the local mountains which meant the potential of cool nights despite the heat wave that was still engulfing the Balkans.

Sometimes with campsites you can really luck out and in this case we hit the jackpot. Blue Gates Camping was owned by a Bulgarian/Canadian couple who were really friendly and set us up in a lovely spot that had shade for most of the day.

The campsite was based on a large, mostly shaded plot and the owners had marked out some walking trails that climbed up the ridge behind the camping area, which we explored. But by far the best thing about the campsite was the overground swimming pool, which was clean, cool and very refreshing.

After a couple of days of R&R at this lovely campsite, the gas tank switched over automatically to the overfull tank and, much to our relief, started working properly again. With that panic over, we were able to move on with our travels.

Since we had a few days left on our seven-day vignette we thought we’d make the most of it and see something of the country. After quickly consulting a map, looking for mountainous areas that would be cooler, we settled on the Rila Mountains.

First up was the Rila Lakes hike, a lovely mountain trail which can be accessed by a chairlift. We free camped for the night in an area just below the main car park and then first thing, moved up to the chairlift car park to beat the crowds and jump on the lift as soon as it opened.

The great thing about the chairlift was that it took us up above the treeline to over 2000m and took away a lot of the uphill grind.

The hike here is around 10km long and takes in 7 alpine lakes of varying sizes. It’s a popular hike but as with most hikes in the Balkans if you start off early you’ll be pretty much on your own.

After leaving the 7 lakes area we had to drive down out of the mountains and then back up again to access a different area. We wanted to visit Rila Monastery, the most famous monastery in Bulgaria.

This impressively ornate monastery is surrounded by high stone walls and was founded in 927 AD.

The central church is surrounded by a colonnaded walkway and is covered in frescoes.

The monks quarters are built several stories high against the interior of the walls of the complex.

 The quarters were added during the reconstruction of the monastery in 1469 after a series of raids destroyed it.

To finish off our day and our week long excursion into Bulgaria, we parked up at a mountain restaurant for the night where we treated ourselves to a meal out. Our first and last, in Bulgaria.