A Hike Around Zheleznitza

On Sunday husband and I had only half a day off, so we chose a short hike in the vicinity of the village of Zheleznitza, some 35 km from Sofia. Zheleznitza is at the foot of two mountains - Vitosha and Plana. Starting from the village, we usually hike on Vitosha, but yesterday we decided to go in the opposite direction - to the thermal springs on Plana. The forecast threatened with rain and thunderstorms, but we were lucky and the weather kept cloudy, but moderately warm and fresh. The rain came late in the evening and it's still raining now.

We followed the path out of the village along the Vedena river.

After 20 min of brisk walk we came to a bridge over the river and the path soon lead us to the first thermal springs. The water is about 30C warm and there's some sort of a public bath built on the spring.

We continued along the path up a hill

through juniper and pine trees

until we reached one of the tributaries of Vedena river - Yagulia riler.

We walked up and down the path in search of a ford, for a while we considered walking along a fallen tree trunk

but in the end we took the safe way - took down our shoes and waded through the broad shallow part of the river. The water was freezing cold!!!

We hiked up and down the hills across for an hour and then had to go back, as we were running out of time.

Some small creatures on the path - a fire salamander

a big snail

We crossed the river again on foot and followed an alternative path back to Vedena river

and back to the village of Zheleznitza.

I'm so glad we used our half day off for a breath of fresh air.