April hiking trip to Zlosten

That day, my friends and I planned to hike to the Zlosten area. It is located in the Eastern Stara Planina, about 10 km. from the city of Kotel.

Our journey began on a broken gravel road, at the very beginning of which we could see snow in sections.

There was a climb and on both sides of the road it was full of the beautiful yellow flowers of the Primula veris.

In places, going through puddles and mud was challenging.

We came to dilapidated farm buildings.

We walked about 5 km on this road and came to a sharp bend from where the signs indicated that we should take the dirt road.

Here the mud became even more and the walking even more difficult. Two people in the group refused to continue, but the rest did not.

We did not walk on the muddy road, but moved between the trees.

We also had to walk along the road when it was impossible to sneak through the bushes.

On many of the trees there were inscriptions, and on some of the trees we discovered drawings of flowers.

We walked more than 2 km. on the dirt road and the markings on the trees confirmed that we were moving in the right direction.

We found large wood mushrooms on the trees.

Soon the forest began to thin out and a sight opened before us that made us hold our breath.

Unfortunately the weather outside here was very cold and besides the strong wind it started raining. There was so much more to see, but we couldn't go on.

We saw a memorial plaque to Georgi Rakovski - a Bulgarian revolutionary. The cave in which he hid from the Ottoman authorities is also located in the area.

We promised ourselves to come back here again when the weather is much better and see everything we couldn't see.

On the way back we saw cows with small calves resting on straw.

I also picked up a bouquet of Primula veris and felt happy about the pleasant April hiking trip.

**Thank you for stopping by!**