Follys Galore!



Hotel Kalina



We left the hotel Kalina on a damp and gloomy Sunday morning heading further east into Bulgaria in search of the relatively newly discovered Roman ruins at Perperikon. The sky soon cleared giving way to intermittent sunshine with a backdrop of distant rolling thunder. The roads were almost empty and the riding great. On the way we spotted a sign for an ancient hill top fortress which we thought might be worth a bit of a detour so headed of slightly to the north of our route up into the mountains. The road was really good for such a byroad and had obviously seen an injection of those ever flowing EU Euros… We road up through a small village and received welcoming waves from many of the people we saw. There were of course the inevitable empty bars and hotels built, one can only guess, on the unfulfilled promises of hoards of tourists visiting the fortress…

At the far end of the village we found a single sign for the fortress pointing left, the only problem was that there were in fact two tracks both heading in roughly the direction the sign was showing; we chose the slightly better but still unsurfaced one and got it right first time. About 2km of fairly good gravel road brought us to a good sized car park containing just one vehicle behind which was a nice new reception building with, it seemed, 4 staff!  It was a stiff walk from the car park to the “fortress” but the view from the top meant that it was well worth the effort! The fortress however required some vivid imagination to envisage as there really was very little to see inspite of the large amounts of money spent on building a walkway right around the perimeter of the mountain peak; yet another bureaucratic folly!

Arriving at Perperikon late in the afternoon we were amazed to find our first Bulgarian tourist site that appeared to have a reasonable amount of visitors in attendance, at least judging from the number of vehicles in the car park, although there were still far more kiosks selling tourist “tat” than the numbers could possibly support!

We opted to find a camp site and visit first thing the following morning as the guide book suggested that it would require at least 2 hours to do it justice. Yet again lady luck smiled upon us and another superb site was located quite close to the local village in the midst of a lovely, mature beech woodland, complete with our own spring! We have all really taken to wild camping to the point where we no longer even look for established camp sites, preferring the tranquillity of a secluded spot hidden in either woodland or along unused tracks.

Tuesday morning saw us back at Perperikon by 9am and paying our pittance of an entrance fee and even smaller parking fee before yet another long uphill hike to the remains. There were quite a few vehicles already in the car park but these turned out to be the Archaeologists’ vehicles rather than tourists, we were in fact the only tourists up there at that time! Once again however the hike was well worth the effort expended, both for the views and the ruins themselves although once more a vivid imagination was required to see it’s former glory. I have absolutely no knowledge of archaeology but I find it incredible how they manage to interpret a few rocks and come up with not only a complete floor plan but also tell us what went on in the various rooms is beyond my completely comprehension!

It was time to turn north towards the Shipka pass and Motocamp Bulgaria but of course not by the direct route! Our meandering through the “roads less travelled” led us to another wild camp high in the mountains before arriving at the small town of Shipka at the foot of the Shipka pass where we discovered the Shipka Memorial Church, an amazing church with huge golden “onion” domes.

Then it was off up the pass and a visit to the Shipka Memorial and the incredible Buzludja building which was a celebration of the founding of the Bulgarian Communist Party but now, sadly left derelict and rapidly decaying along with the business of two adjacent hotels!

Our visit to the Shipka memorial coincided with that of the Bulgarian president, which meant that instead of being able to ride almost up to the door we had to walk up over 600 steps to it; nobody can accuse us of not getting any exercise on this trip; once again the agony of the walk was well worth it for the views. However the Shipka memorial was completely overshadowed by the Buzludja building, a huge tower (the tallest building in Bulgaria) adjacent to a spaceship like dome sat high on top of the mountain.

Unfortunately the doors which were previously open, had now been welded shut so the faded glory of the interior was hidden from us. It was still quite a spectacle to behold and a ongoing monument to the stupidty and megalomania on the communist machine. The ride down from the pass was horribly slow due to the amount of heavy traffic which put us at Motocamp Bulgaria in time for a nice cold beer before dinner.