The image above is from the front window of François tonight. Its places like this that make the whole motorhoming/RVing thing worth while. For those who are following you will remember that yesterday we were sitting on the Black Sea. Today we are obviously not on the ocean.
Every one of our trips has the same pattern. The first month we meander along taking it easy, spending several days in one place because we like the vibe or are just feeling lazy, and then at some point something kicks in and we feel pressure to get moving because we have ground to cover. That tipping point happened last night.
The debate last night was whether to head up the coast to the major city of Varna which is the main port for Bulgaria, or head towards Bucharest. Our first exposure to the Black Sea did not wow us, and while we are sure that Varna is a nice city that probably deserved at least a day of visiting, we were not excited about going there. So we decided to push on towards Bucharest.
We were not completely ready to leave Bulgaria. We have been really enjoying ourselves here, so I looked for a place near the Romanian border we could move to. Some research came up with a highly rated campground called Koukery Campground and it said it was next to the Ruseneki Lom National Park, and a UNESCO site called the Rock Hewn Churches of Ivanovo. So that is where we are as I write this.
The drive over was about 200 kilometers and a large part was back tracking over the same ground we covered yesterday to get to the Black Sea. But as Ton said if we had not gone and seen the sea we would have been disappointed. Hopefully, we will return to the Black Sea again in the future.
After an easy three hours we arrived at the parking lot for the Rock-Hewn Churches. Around 1270 monks began occupying the caves in this area and converting them into sanctuaries. Eventually there were three hundred caves occupied and 4o small churches had been carved out of the caves.
There were two sections to the caves, the main cave that most tourists visit and three smaller caves that most tourists do not visit. I chose to take Ton to the three smaller caves first. Traveling to these caves involves walking along a natural trail thru the National Park. Ton was a little nervous as we were the only one on the trail and it was pretty wild. I kept telling her not to worry as the trail was well used so I was sure nothing could happen. Right after reassuring her that all was well we came upon a snake on the trail. It was only a couple of feet in front of us and I could hear it hissing at us which means it was pretty agitated. I stopped short and backed away bumping into Ton. The snake slid off into the brush on the side of the trail. I do not like snakes, but I told Ton it was no big deal as I didn’t think they had poisonous snakes in Europe. Later when I googled snakes in Bulgaria the snake that looked like the one we had almost stepped on was a common European viper, and vipers are poisonous.
When we got to the first of the minor caves it was quite a climb to get up and view it. After we climbed up we were disappointed to see that it had been closed off with a gate. Ton got a picture of the interior of the cave which I think was a living quarter.
We went on to visit the other two caves on the trail, but the climb up to them was even steeper and higher so we passed. At this point we decided to turn around and head back to the Rock Hewn Church.
We headed up to the church site trying to stay ahead of a tour of 40 Romanian tourists. We got there just ahead of the tour group and ended up with about 15 minutes in the church by ourselves, as the tour group negotiated with the Bulgarian ticket takers over what currency to pay for the tour with. The Bulgarians wanted Lev or Euros, and the Romanians wanted to pay with Romanian Lei. I am not sure how the negotiation turned out but it allowed us to enjoy the interior alone.
The interior was beautiful. The space is small, and some of the Frescoes are quite weathered, but the effect is special. Ton and I wandered around the cave in awe of the beauty.
I am not particularly spiritual, but this place impressed me. The dedication to convert a cave on the side of a cliff into a church takes a spirit that most people do not possess. We have seen a lot of religious art on our travels thru Europe and sometimes we become a little jaded. But today I was really awed.
Our time alone with the church came to an end, so Ton and I headed down from the cave back to the valley floor. On the way we stopped to take in some of the views we had rushed by to get ahead of the tour. They were also magnificent.
Yesterday we felt like we were just making a tick mark on our travel itinerary. Today a place that was added to the itinerary on a bit of a whim turned into the kind of day that motivates us to do this kind of traveling.
The cherry on top of a great day was arriving at the campground. Greta Garmin insisted that the best way to the campground was on a dirt track thru some wheat fields. After I double checked her using Google Maps and turned around Greta refused to recognize the paved road Google picked even existed.
The owner of the campground welcomed us with open arms. In addition to running the campground here he also teaches traditional Bulgarian dance in the city near here. He and his students have represented Bulgaria multiple times in international folk dancing competitions. It was great to talk to him and Ton is proud that he is going to add the Thai flag to the 31 other flags on display in the office representing the nationalities of all of the people who have visited here.