Seven Rila Lakes - Part One - Getting some altitude [My Travel Blog]

Seven Rila Lakes - Part One - Getting some altitude [My Travel Blog]

You know that feeling when you simply must go somewhere, no matters where, just to escape every day worries and relax a little bit. That feeling that days are heavy and when you are asking yourself 'where did I make wrong turn'. That was exactly how I felt those days. It was early September and my work went bezerk followed with my private obligations, and I was on the very edge.

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Do not get me wrong - I am one big bloody optimist, always smiled, with reserves of energy to power small town for weeks. I really like my job and my coworkers are more my friends than colleagues. But, I was so damn tired and I needed something... anything!

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It was a Tuesday when I called few friend for pizza. Somewhere at middle of the evening, or to be more precise at third beer, one of them told us that he want to climb Mont Blanc next year. Now, he is a strong guy, most likely strongest one we know, but his knowledge of climbing was absolute zero. He is road cyclist, strong enough to ride Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur craziness, but ... Wait... How do you mean what is randonneur?!? You do not know about them?!?? Oh Boy... OK, a little digression...

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Randonneuring is a very long distance cycling in form of sport. Competitors claims that it is not a race, and that there is no winners, but they exactly know who finished first and what was his time ;) They start with distances of 200 km and progress during a season to 400 and 600.

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Mentioned Paris-Brest-Paris is a little bit longer - it is 1200 km long race! Yep, 1200 is exactly 750 miles, and competitors have relaxed 80 hours to finish it. 80 hours, technically means that if you do not make breaks for sleep or food or basic needs - you can ride at easy speed of 15 km/h. However, if you do have needs, like most of human beings do have, then it is a little bit more than 3 days of suffering, pain and maximum dedication to cycling you can imagine. If you ask me - it is absolutely impossible ;)

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So, one of those strong enough for that cycling suffering was sitting in front of us, with death wish to start mountaineering with climb to highest peak of Europe. To be honest - climb to Mont Blanc is not that hard how it may sound. It is hard, but almost everybody can do it. There are a couple dangerous places, but probability to fall in some crevasse or end up in avalanche is very low. But, it is 4810 meters high sucker, and air is so thin at that altitude that you need some preparation. If you go just like that, at least you are going to fail. At worst, your lungs are going to kill you.

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So we had to do something. Talking him out was wrong approach - anybody dedicated enough to ride 1600 km long race, will not going to simply bail out because couple old mountaineers told him that he cannot do it. Instead, we make a plan to prepare him as much as we can. And we had to do it as fast as possible, his window for climbing was in something like six to eight months, with winter approaching... he needed to start immidiately.

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Ten minutes later, some peaks higher than 2000 meters were chosen but our favorite weather forecast site was showing that next weekend is going to stay unused because of bad weather, unless... Gap of clear sky was above Balkan range in Bulgaria. Some very high peaks are there, actually highest peak of Balkan peninsula is mountain Musala in Bulgaria. As I needed some time out of everyday madness, ten minutes later we had plan - we are going to visit Rila National Park. More precisely - we are going to visit Seven Rila Lakes.

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I heard about those lakes before, but never had enough time to visit them. National park Seven Rila Lakes is group of glacier lakes in northwest part of Rila Mountains in Bulgaria. Lakes are located at altitude of 2100-2500 meters, perfect for our needs. Also, they are at hour and half ride from Sofia, capital city of Bulgaria, so we could reach them in 7-8 hours of casual driving. Few phone calls later we had few more people interested for little adventure and plan was complete: Friday afternoon we are going to Rila.

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We reach Rila at Saturday, early in morning. It was 3 o'clock when I step out of car and breathe mountain air with full lungs. In same second my anxiety disappeared. I was a new man. As it was too early, we decided to sleep for a few hours before climb. We were at some 1500 meters and plan was to climb to 2500 meters to those lakes and get back in one relaxed day. As group was mixed, we didn't want to push - we just wanted to enjoy the day.

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Climb to 2000 meters can be shorten by lift located in bottom of National Park. If you are visiting this place as tourist - you should use it. It is fast and easy way to get altitude without any effort. And it is ridiculously cheap comparing to its counterparts in Alps. But that wasn't option for us. We wanted to climb those 1000 meters, and that's why at first dawn we put our backpacks, fill our supplies of water and went for 'short' walk.

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That climb can be a little bit harder walk if you are following wriggly supply road. At first few miles we were flowing that road but soon we got bored and decided to use shortcuts. Now, this can be serious climb. At some places we had to choose very steep parts and pretty soon we were all sweaty, but smiles were wider and wider.

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We were following lift poles, for almost an hour when lift started to work above us. Quick look at our maps showed us that we are near to end of lift and first refugio in our path. With few last steep parts, we reached flatter land and end of the lift at same time when first passengers started to get out of it. We reached first step in our plan.

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While approaching first Refugio, or 'Hiza' as Bulgarian call them (chalet or hut translated to English), I could not stop to watch people around us. River of people was flowing from end of the lift and most of them looked like they went to little walk, not mountain. Youngsters, couples in everyday clothes, older people, mothers with kids, even couple pregnant ladies were there. At one moment, I told to Marko, my good friend and companion in almost all adventures for years - Did you ever seen mountaineer girls in mini skirts? Now is that day - our prayers are answered :)

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We rest a little in first 'hiza', took excellent breakfast and refreshed ourselves with few beers. Now, I maybe owe you explanation about beer and mountaineering. There are two streams when beer and mountaineering is in question: First one, which believe that moderate consumption of beer is good because it gives you a lot of energy, compensate some electrolytes lost in sweat and refresh you. Key word is moderate! I am follower of this approach. Second stream believe that you should not use any alcohol based drink while you are in mountains; no beer, no schnapps, no brandy - nothing. As I never meet anybody from second group, I believe that they are just myth ;)

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After some rest, we went to much longer part of of our walk, but much flatter. Area of Rila Seven lakes is wavy, with easy climbs and moderate downhill part. That explains mix of visitors and mini skirts - it is easy. So easy that if you use lift, everybody can do it. It is almost walk in the park. From first hut, you may expect one hour of easy walk with moderate uphill and some beautiful views. Oh I didn't mention how beautiful it is? Well, probably because I was very surprised. Shocked to be honest. Approach to Rila Lakes was surprise at every step.

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Beautiful hills and distant peaks are trademark of first part of our voyage. Open space. Endless fields. Blue sky. Distant peaks. Rila is beauty hidden in Balkan mountains and huge surprise. No one of us expected to be so beautiful. Step after step we were climbing into amazing world of Rila, and smiles on our faces were as wide as they can be. We were enjoying every second.

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At one point, we reach wavy fields of open space. Scene was stolen from some movie about heights of Tibet and so calm and peaceful that I decided to stop and rest. Soon everybody joined. We were quiet and everybody went somewhere inside himself to find place for beauty around us. I was so calm, relaxed, peaceful... Slowly, I close my eyes, and for first time in days I slept without any worries or weight on my chest...

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Half hour later I woke up, refreshed, new, full of energy and renewed. Quick look assured me that everybody else were sleeping there on grassy field with only blue sky above. Slowly, they wake up, one by one, with same calm look on there faces. It was one of those moments in mountain that bonds you and made group of individual people to start thinking and behaving as one. It was mountain at the best.

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In few minutes, we continue our journey. We still had some miles to cover on our way to lakes. Yep, believed or not - we still didn't reach lakes but that was about to change in next few minutes. While approaching end of field area (bedroom was logical name we give to that field), we reached some higher ground and suddenly, first two lakes were in front of us. In early morning they looked clear and deep, almost like they hide some mystical secrets. We could not wait to reach their shores and feel their waters. We were reached next step of our little adventure. We were at 2300 meters.

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[This is the end of first part of our journey across Rila National Park.


Second part and beauty of lakes you can find here.]

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All photos taken with Canon PowerShot SX50 HS, and post-processed in Adobe Lightroom CC
All photos are clickable - click on them to see them in full resolution

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This blog entry is part of My Travel Blog series. All my posts are !originalworks
I have many more travel stories in my bag, so stay tuned.

To see all mine travel entries, click here to visit my @SteemitWorldMap author link.

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