In 2017, on August 14th, I hiked to see the Seven Rila Lakes (Bulgaria). I had booked a day-trip from my hostel in Sofia. We were 8 people doing the trip. We started our journey to Rila in a mini-van. Because the funicular wasn’t working on that day, we then hopped on a jeep. The thing is the jeep was made for 5 passengers, so we had to sit on top of each other to all fit in. Add to that the ground that was far from being flat, and you get yourself some pretty strong emotions before the hike even started! There was only one lane, and we could see sellers carrying their merchandise on groups of donkeys attached to each other. Epic! After that bumpy ride, we still had to walk to reach the starting point of the hike.
A Rapid Pace
We had to walk fast because the guy in the hostel had told us that if the weather got bad, we would have to take shelter in a mountain refuge. The last funicular to go down was at 4pm. Since we finally had taken the jeep instead of the funicular, we were hoping that the guy would wait for us. Despite that hope, we were still walking pretty fast.
The hike started with a steep climb and we started taking off our jackets, because despite some wind, the weather was pretty hot (August, duh). At the top of the mountain, some of us stopped to eat something and take a short break. An older Chinese woman was the last in our group, and a Swiss woman, used to hiking, was the first and clearly at ease with mountain roads.
Several Rila Lakes
We walked past several Rila lakes, some of them entirely covered with fog. The whole thing was eerie, I like imagining stories when I see places like these. Also, I took a lot of pictures because everywhere I looked, the nature was beautiful.
And then, it started going up again, and I got jealous of the people who had brought hiking poles. It seemed to really help them. The ground was now made of moving stones. We reached one of the Rila lakes and, with the Chinese woman and two other girls, we sat down while the rest of the group went higher up to reach another lake. We couldn’t see the top of the mountain because of the fog, and we thought that it wouldn’t be worth the effort. Plus, we were seriously exhausted.
Running Back To The Jeep
We didn’t realise that the way back from the Rila Lakes wouldn’t be the same as the way up. It actually took more time to go back. So we started nicely, chatting and taking pictures. But when we saw the refuge from the beginning that was far far far away, we started panicking. From that moment, we stopped taking pictures and chatting and the hike turned into some sort of cross-country race. We ran through rivers, itchy bushes, in the mud, in rolling stones, all of that while going up, short of breath.
With the Chinese woman, we were last and for a while, we couldn’t see the rest of the group and got a bit scared. When we finally arrived at the refuge, I still took a few minutes to go to the toilets. Some others did too. The Swiss woman wouldn’t stop and was way ahead of us. After this short break, we continued our race to the jeep.
Some people told me I had burnt, and I told them the same. We were so much into the hike and, because of the wind, we didn’t feel it, but the sun had done its job, and we all had nice lobster colours.
We went back to the hostel, I took my things and took a taxi to the airport. I arrived, exhausted but happy to have seen the Rila Lakes, late in Bologna, where I was living at that time.
To see more photos of Bulgaria, you can visit the gallery Bulgaria.
