Yarema, Vitosha, 2018

Our traditional annual hike to Yarema on Vitosha. We usually go there at the end of July, when the raspberries are ripe and even gather a kilo or two for homemade wild raspberry jam. This year we kept postponing our hike and on the first day of September the raspberries were almost all gone. We had a few, but they were not very good - the fresh ones were sour and the ripe were mostly a bit fermented. Still, we had a nice leisurely 8 km hike, exploring a new branch of the trail.

This time I decided not to carry the heavy DSLR, but to take pictures with my phone. It is quite a decent phone with decent camera features, but ... meh. It might be good for city walks, but when in the mountains I want my zoom and I want my de-focus and all the niceties I'm used to getting from my camera. So next time I'll probably be packing the DSLR again.

: The raspberries were gone, but the plums were ripe. Hubby is a great fan of plums:

: The trail was a mixed bag - nice shady forest paths

: and sunny hot open areas, some with human height nettles. My right leg hit a stalk of nettles and hours later it still feels like burnt.

: Some of Vitosha high peaks in the distance. We stayed low, at 1600-1700 m altitude.

: While searching for a nice place to have our picnic, we found a pair of deer antlers on the ground. The place was off the track, so probably no one had come upon them for a long time.

: This particular raspberry turned very delicious :)