Bulgaria is situated in the south – eastern corner of Europe in the zone of temperate – continental climate. It is the zone of 4 seasons.

        Long years Bulgaria was beyond the “Iron Curtain” – our borders were the ones between NATO and the Eastern block. All that had one very nice advantage – many square miles of its area were absolutely forbidden for visits as well as a big area could be visited by a special passing regime only, which saved perfectly the country nature, especially along its south and west borders.

        The territory of the country is 110 000 square kilometers – a little less than Florida (not small for Europe scale). But in this small area we have almost everything you can see in this latitude, dues to the great relief variety in this so small area.

         Last years the Tourism industry has a priority in the country; 2005 it was visited by more than  4 500 000 tourists. Plenty of them visit our biggest resorts – near seaside, or skiing ones winter time – places of “civilization”, but bicycle tours I suggest you are apart from these more expensive areas.

May, 20, 2004 – we are looking for camp place – this place is approx 3000 feet high. The highest part of the mountain is still covered by snow. I would not go up there this season.

Down: September,02,2005. Me&Maya, Jean&Jetje, Guido&Yvette visited the highest part of Pirin mountain - up to the highest pick Vihren along the east edge.

↑   June, 16, 2002.  We are just below the highest pick Vihren, almost 9000 feet. The altitude we are here is approx 6000 feet – the up line of coniferous trees in our mountains.

        Rodopi mountain  - this mountain is not so high – 6000 feet in its highest part, its area is almost 1/5 of country’s area. This mountain  is much more convenient for bicycling, and never mind there are hills longer than 15 – 18 miles, I recommend always 3 – 4 day tour across it and bicyclists have never regretted they did it.  All that region is covered by trees and wood, springs of fresh and cool water are placed everywhere along roads,  plenty of flowers you can see everywhere too.  Small towns and villages are available, so either supplying with food or staying in hotels/lodgings for nights is not a problem.  Areas like it may be found close to Balkan (naming all this region) at its northern part, or in the west part of the country near the Serbian border.

         Typical Rodopi mountain sceneries.  Roads without any traffic, perfectly clean and fresh mountain air, river gorges and woods.

2003 me and Maya bicycled 4-5 days in Rodopi mountain. Do you see road serpentines? At 10 – 11 July we walked our bikes at least 8 hours up the hill to overcome a mountain’s ridge. It was the season of wood strawberry, maybe it was because we walked so long time there.

       Possibilities for off road bicycling here are really the best. We always enjoy to do it, more photos concerning the off road bicycling can be seen in the section “Roads in BG”.

      left – Steve is enjoying the fresh water;

     right – on the rolling hills in the lower part of mountain – fields of flowers.

        River gorges. Another remarkable and scenery places very convenient for bicycling are river gorges – we have a lot of them everywhere in the country.

     Struma river gorge. It is the international road towards Greece, but it is wide enough and I often bicycle there. There are several really  nice places – here is “Kresna” gorge – 7-8 miles long. The river here is faster and some people are canoeing here. 

        It is the gorge I like most of all – the gorge of Iskar river – north after Sofia, it is long 50 – 60 miles. The river cuts the Balkan – it is older than mountain geologically. There is a road and railway along the gorge, but no any traffic because of too much turns. At this distance the climb is 1200 feet – no steep hills here. Rocks are sediment type and change the colors from white to red and gray, some places are like the “Grand canyon” although there are trees here. October is very pleasant for bicycling here when tree leafs are colored too.

       The plain part of the country. It is the Thracian field and the area along Danube river north from the Balkan (the mountain crossing the country from west to east). The first one is absolutely plain, in the second one there are many rolling hills. These areas are beautiful for easy bicycling. I love to be there May and June, when wheat is green and yellow, or July, when sunflowers are flowering. Often I do my tent in the middle of a reap field on the straw.

 The seaside.  Always we reach it, our daily mileage is lowering significantly. The name of our sea is the Black sea. It is because of the strong north and east wind winter time and high waves sinking many ships to its bottom . 

       Last years the tourism industry has a priority in the country and its development is great. Near the seaside we have several big modern resorts, always crowded with many many tourists. There you can find hotels where bed/night is $80, or more. In our tours we avoid these noisy and expensive places.   

       Nevertheless there are still several beaches without any tourist invasion. Here is  8 miles long beach near Duranculak, at the north, close to the Romanian border. No many than 20 tourists all the summer there. I like to do my tent on the beach and to stay there 2-3 days. Such beaches can be found out near Krapec, Shabla town, mouths of Kamchia,  Ropotamo, Veleka rivers, Iracli, Pomorie town, some of mentioned places are saved zones, easily reached by bikes, and always possible to stay there for a day, or two in the wilderness. I know all these places, many times I have been there – by bike or walking.

       Our sea is an unique one. It is closed by the land and water exchange with the ocean is almost not possible. The fresh water coming in it by rivers and rain is more than water evaporation, so the salt content in it is 18/1000 comparing with 36/1000 in the ocean. Water temperature is 18° – 22°C May, June  and  in the end of September and 25° – 27°C in July and August. All that and the finest sands make it very exciting  to walk along beaches or play and swim in sea waves.

         To the and of 60ty we fished and ate fishes in the sea, so no industrial fishing now, only for fun.  80 – 100 meters below the sea surface in the water is solved SH2 because of anaerobic microorganisms so no another life there.

         There are two kinds of sharks in the sea, but they are no longer than 3 feet and live far from beaches. Never mind, we will eat all them very soon.

The mouth of Veleka river

A boat walk along Ropotamo river

Typical Black sea view

The beach near Primorsko town

Me and Maya – summer 2003.  This country is even better with us :)))))))

Yes, bicycling here is not so much!

Kamen Briag (Stone Shore)

The north part of the sea side

Emine cape - a nice off road bicycling is possible there

       Another special place at the sea side – near Pomorie town (6 mile long desert beach). It is the sunniest place at our seaside and just behind the rocks (my tent is over there – the little white spot - summer 2004) there are lakes for obtaining a salt after sea water evaporation. Near lakes there is plenty of a magic mud, it has been used since an hoary antiquity up to now by people having pains in arms, joints, knees, waists and so on. Covering places of strong ache after several procedures they say they feel a significant pain release. 

         Here I try to see if it is true …. I can not say it is my favorite occupation, I just want to demonstrate this beautiful opportunity absolutely free over more. But if you like to wallow in the mud – it is the place you can do it without any restrictions – nobody will say you anything, nobody will laugh at you.

        My experience show that after such a treatment it is a little hard to remove all that from you, and after it several days women keep away from you maybe because of the smelt   :-§ ))))))))))  .

         Another such place you can find out to the north – Tuzlata. The nature near this place is remarkable - almost 1000 feet high white rocks just behind the beach, unluckily I still have not a photo. It was the place Roman soldiers stood to treat wounds after their wars with Dachian long long ago. 

        Yes, we love all these places very very much and all that variety constrains us summer after summer to visit them over and over again.

           Nesebar (Messembria) town, established by ancient Greece.  The first photo here shows a mediaeval Byzantine church – an art gallery now.  In a small area in this town you can see more than 30 such churches, or church remains. Me and Maya like this place very much, bicycling in this region we always visit it and have a coffee there.

          But do not hope to find bike parts in it if you have some problems with your bike – it is not an easy task here ……

Three photos from Sofia city - Bulgarian capital.  I love it spring and autumn time.

Plovdiv town is down - the second town in Bulgaria, having its own style and charm

Varna town - our lovely seaside capital, I love it! .... the traffic  here is a little complicated no signs, no labels ...

Burgas town - many songs for this town .... everyone in Bulgaria has memories with places near it.

In the end - Pernik - my native town .... from time to time I like it ....perfect areas near it for each kind of bicycling - road, down, off-road, fields, mountains - low and high ....

In the end a special link to the place I love so much - Melnik  town ..... what a wine you can find out there .....