Cherna Gora Mountain

A couple of hours ago we returned from a lovely hike in the Cherna Gora mountain - a very low terrain mountain to the west of Sofia, about an hour's drive from home. Or theoretically an hour's drive, unless it's a sunny morning on the weekend and everybody is trying to get out of the city - an hour after we started from home we were still only some 10 km away on the ring road, crawling in the traffic jam. It's such a nuisance that about two million other people have also chosen to live in Sofia :)))
We've been enjoying an unusually warm March weather this last week and after last Saturday's alpine Vitosha today we wanted sunshine, warmth, spring flowers and easy tracks - and Cherna Gora is just that - its highest peak Tumba is only 1129 m.

A panorama from the summit Tumba - from here one can observe the snow covered peaks of Vitosha and Rila and the dozens of smaller mountains in the Kraishte area.

On peak Tumba

Our picnic place with a beautiful view, accompanied by bird songs (I did some sock knitting here, while hubby was having a nap).

We went down from Tumba and then hiked a different route and climbed a few other lower peaks (probably Kitka, Garvan, Gradishte)

Dam Pchelina in the distance

This tree reminds me very much of a fractal

Our starting and end point  - Giginski monastery

Our first stork sighting - a family nesting in one of the villages we past through on our way.