Devil's Throat Cave or a damp squib.

The next day we started the return journey to Dobrinishte. The evening before we had looked on the Internet for interesting things to do on the way, slightly off the route was a cave called Devil's Throat Cave. It's website described it as this amazing cave, with one of the largest waterfalls in Bulgaria within it, not to be missed, you know that type of thing. So, off we set all keen and excited, gaily following directions from the satnav. 

The roads started off well enough but then we turned off up this side road which quickly became more and more bumpy, less and less  tarmacked (not sure if that last word is a word, or if it's spelt correctly) and increasingly water logged. Eventually, it got to the point where we couldn't see round a bend, so  I jumped out of the car and ran ahead to see what the road was like and whether we could use it. We couldn't, enough was enough but of course this then meant we had to turn around and do the same trek back, wibbling ( there I go making up words again)  and wobbling all over the place. 

Eventually we got to the cave, hooray! Outside it looked very promising, although all you could see was a door built into the mountainside, there were food and craft stalls all around and a proper car park. Tourists were milling about and this seemed the place to be. 

We tried to take the dogs in but that wasn't happening, this time a man came up and told us , "No" waggling his finger and gesturing to the dogs. So, we decided to do the visit in two shifts, with David and I going first. 

Well, I tell you it is a bit of a non event! It sounds quite promising as you go in as you can hear water 

thundering down and as you make your way along the very dark path, you expect at every turn that 

the waterfall will come into view, it doesn't! Maybe, to be fair we might have gone at the wrong time of the year, but I don't think so as we didn't even see a trickle and yet the sound effects were good. Mysterious! 

Just inside the cave was a mini cave cut out of the rock with this interesting figure carved on the wall. 

After a long walk you come to some very steep stairs which lead you higher and higher up, until you can see daylight glistening through an opening in the top. 

You exit through this opening and you can actually see water running down the mountainside from the outside, and that was that. 

Lucky David, he got to do it twice!  He  went back with our daughter as I looked after the dogs. 

Snow White cave

On the way back from Plovdiv to our lodgings in Batak we stopped off at the Snow White Cave. It is called this because of the lovely rock formations inside some of which are said to resemble Snow White and the dwarves. 

We found the cave easily enough , with a long scenic drive up a mountain and we parked in a small car park at the side of the road which is there for visitors to the cave. From the car park there are steps and a winding path continuing up the hill, which gradually became steeper and steeper and my thighs became sorer and sorer and my breath became heavier and heavier. Why, oh why does everything need to be uphill? 

As we were trudging up the hill, with the dogs beside us, David decided to read out information on the cave from his geocache GPS which stated that it was a 45 minute walk to the cave, sometimes ignorance is bliss!  Honestly, I felt like crying, mainly because in the back of my mind I thought here we are mountaineering up this mountain to a cave which in all probability by the time we get there will be shut as it was quite late in the day already. I was also thinking to myself that we wouldn't get in with the dogs so I would need to wait outside so should I just wander around with the dogs down near the carpark rather than keep on struggling up. 

Turning a bend we came to a sign saying, " Nearly there! " with a smiley face so I kept plodding on. 

Eventually we came to the caves, where we saw a man going up to the cave door and shutting it, that's it I thought too late but thankfully he was just shutting the door and they were still open for business. Remarkably,  they allowed us to take the dogs in too! 

You just wander around the cave by yourself, not with a guide. It is not that big but it was very interesting and the formations were well lit and very interesting to see. 

The dogs walked around it quite happily which I was a bit surprised at, as there were some awkward steps for them and it was quite dimly lit, so a bit gloomy and ominous in bits. Monty the pup did need a help with the steps and I think felt braver because Stella was there to look after him. 

On leaving the cave we of course had to make our way back down the track. David was wanting to find a nearby Geocache , so he went off slightly in one direction while we continued walking down the path towards the car. 

To the side of us,  through the trees,  we became aware of a group of men who were making their way down the hillside some on horseback , others just walking down with  their horse at their side. 

The men and horses would sometimes be on the same path as us but  sometimes when it was too steep they would go off slightly and meander down a different path. All the time we were aware that they were just behind us,  as we could hear the tinny metal chiming of the things that they were carrying. 

At one point my daughter asked if I could walk a little faster as the horses were starting to catch up, so I sped up, only for her to say that I didn't need to walk that fast as they were still a bit behind us. Suddenly all I heard was my daughter shouting  "RUN, Runaway horse." So I took off, dragging Monty behind me, with my daughter and Stella not far behind. It is amazing how fast you can run when you need to. Eventually we got to the steps which led down to the car park, making a last dash for it we bolted down the steps and ran to hide behind the car. 

Once we got there we just started laughing and turned around to see the horse at the bottom of the steps with a rather flustered and irate young lad who I think was supposed to be in control of it. The other horses meanwhile were slowly trundling down another path and eventually made their way into the car park. 

Breathless but giggling we stood there watching them as David emerged from the bushes on another side blissfully unaware of what had just happened. Climbing back into the car we headed off to our lodgings and a much needed rest. 

At the lodgings our daughter had a very uncomfortable looking bed which Stella joined her on. Monty prefers to sleep under the bed and you can just see his little head poking out. 

The road back to Dobrnishte  the next day led us passed many  fields of sunflowers which were lovely to see. 

Plovdiv

We had an interesting night in our lodgings, first of all the toilet flush system broke, I for some reason was blamed for it, with me supposedly being too rough when pulling the flush. The flush was like a big button on top of the cistern which you pulled up rather than the normal pushing in. David did try to fix it but we could only get the toilet to flush by lifting the cistern slightly. This worked for a while but then that also stopped but interestingly the toilet then started to flush constantly, so we had the constant sound of a filling cistern serenading us in our rooms. We soon got fed up with that, luckily the stopcock for the cold water was right by the cistern, so when we went to the loo we had to switch the water on and then after flushing leave time for the cistern to fill and then switch it off again. When we arrived at our lodgings we were shown our apartment by a man who understood very little English, but we had also spoken to his daughter on the phone as she could speak English. It just so happened that she  phoned that night so we told her about the saga with the toilet, she said she would mention it to her dad and he may pop round. He didn't! So we had two days fighting with the toilet plumbing. 

The next day we headed for Plovdiv which is the second largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia. It is a beautiful city with many old buildings with very interesting architecture and a lot of Roman ruins. Plovdiv is surrounded by 6 hills, there used to be 7 but one was destroyed when they used stones from it to make buildings. 

In what is classed as the new town there are many interesting statues and buildings. This is also where you can see the remains of a Roman coliseum, in which chariot races once took place. This meant it was very long. Unfortunately, because we had the dogs with us we could not go to the tourist centre to find out more about it but we could see the remains of one of the ends. 

The new town is also where all the main shops are. Plovdiv has been chosen to be the European city of Culture in 2019, of which they are very proud. 

There is a lovely precinct area to wander around in the new town as well as a park. Luckily for David  there were several geocaches in the area, which helped to keep him out of mischief although it did earn us some dodgy looks from passer bys as he ferreted around benches, scrutinised bins and stroked railings! Thankfully we did find some, so he went back to our lodgings with a smile on his face. 

The dogs behaved very well and Monty seemed to enjoy city life. 

If you look closely at the seating in this area you will see the seats look like big buttons. A geocache was under one which was right beside an elderly gentleman, He didn't say anything but you could tell he thought we were behaving  a bit odd. 

This is some of the Roman remains. 

We then wandered up to the old town, which has lots of little cobbled lanes and very interesting old timber framed 19th century  buildings. By now though we were getting very  hot and tired and being extra careful not to over tire Monty we headed back to the car. 

The photo below shows art work on the gable end of one of the buildings. 

We would definitely go back to Plovdiv , as it is a beautiful city with so much to explore, unfortunately we were a bit limited because we had the dogs with us. 

A wee break away - Batak

Once we were back from our trip to Croatia we were basically biding time waiting for Monty the pup to be old enough to travel. We spent the time doing housework, DIY and gardening at our daughter's house, a real busmans holiday ! We did however manage to fit in a few day trips and even had an overnight stay close to Batak,  in which we also visited Plovdiv. 

Batak was recommended to us by a friend who told us all about its amazing history. It was the scene  of an horrific massacre, with the Turks basically killing all the men, women and children who were in the village at the time. Out of an estimated population of 8 to 9 thousand only twelve to fifteen hundred survived. 

This is the church in which bodies were found piled three to four feet deep outside , inside the church were more bodies which the Turks had tried to burn. 

Nowadays,  you can still see evidence of the burned beams inside and there are also four big casket type containers inside which contain skulls from the victims. 

The  centre of Batak has recently been done up and in theory should be nice to walk around , with wide open streets and pedestrian precincts lined with cafes with outside seating. However, although we tried three different places, we could not buy food only drinks were being served, even at an hotel.  So we ended up in a supermarket and buying good old crackers and cheese, which is what me and David have resorted to many times on our travels. 

This is a nice wooden carving carved out of a tree trunk showing a bear and wild boars both of which are still present in the woods of Bulgaria. There were also many statues lining the precinct area. 

The main thing that stood out for me in this town though were  the stray dogs milling around, some just seeking a friendly face while others were foraging in bins for much needed food. 

The Batak Dam. 

There are many reservoirs and  dams in the Batak area and we actually stayed on the shores of one of these. We had rented an apartment for the three of us , as our daughter came too,  along  with the dogs, Stella and Monty. We had problems finding our lodgings so stopped outside a house where an elderly man was sat enjoying the sun. Armed with my iPad which showed the lodgings details I approached the man, who quickly called out someone's name. Another man appeared from inside the house clutching a bowl of soup and once he had figured out I spoke English , took out his phone and called someone. The next thing I knew was I was speaking to his son who could speak English. After a brief conversation with the phone being passed between me, the man and his son I was basically pointed along the road a little bit. In fact the man actually got in the car and showed us right to the door then walked back. I must say , most Bulgarians are very helpful and indeed are very eager to help even when it is not really wanted, to the point of it being forced on you but it is done so nicely and genuinely that you don't like to complain. 

Stella is enjoying the view from our balcony. We were given an upstairs room which I thought was odd seeing as we had dogs but I was to learn that this seemed to be the norm, with us always  being given upstairs rooms,  even in places which only had lifts. 

Plitvice Lakes - Croatia

Very early the next morning we set off for the Plitvice lakes so we could beat the crowds and try to make the most of the day. You can buy either one or two day tickets into the park but we only had the one day before we were setting off again. So, in our heads we thought if you can buy a two day ticket there must be enough to do for two days, so we better go early and get as many hours as we can. As it turned out we had ample time in the one day and we did the second longest walk around the park, so I am so glad we didn't go for a two day ticket. 

Driving to the park we inadvertently missed car park number one which is lower down the hill and ended up higher up at car park number two. Which actually turned out to be a very good starting point for touring the lakes although when we got there the car park was mobbed. There were people milling around and queues to get into the car park. As we drove through the car park, passing people who had already parked and got out of their cars, I realised that so many were in very sporty Lycra outfits and were doing strange warm up movements. A bit extreme , I thought but also what am I letting myself in for? I also felt slightly under or over dressed, not sure which, but casual walking gear and sandals was not cutting it with this crowd. Getting out of the car we threaded our way through the people to the ticket booth where there was a large poster advertising that a marathon race was being run there that day. Typical the day we chose  not only had lots of runners but also family members supporting them , although to be fair once we were out of the car park we didn't see any runners until we were heading back to the car. 

Walking out of car park two you need to cross a bridge and walk down to the entrance of the park. At this point there is a board which has a list of walks you can choose to do, telling you how long on average it would take to complete it. You then continue on to catch a little boat which takes you across one of the lakes to where you can either walk around that area, or catch a bigger boat to take you to the lakes in the lower area. As we were doing one of the longer walks we decided to explore the upper part first. 

The park is absolutely stunning and turning around every corner there were amazing sights to see. The water was so clear with lots of fish, there were also dragonflies and frogs around. 

To start of with we were basically alone but as time passed and bus loads started to arrive we gradually began to be caught up with crowds. 

 A lot of up and down hill walking is involved but it is worth the effort . There were several people there walking the dogs which seemed a bit strange they are definitely more dog friendly in mainland Europe. We often saw dogs in tourist attractions and restaurants on our travels, which in Britain would mainly be frowned upon. 

The lizard in this picture ran right in front of us. 

At some points there were just holes in the ground where the water had worn away the soil making large plug holes for the water to run through. 

There was water cascading and waterfalls everywhere. 

We climbed these big steps which led up to a cave. 

This is the tallest waterfall in the park. 

We had a great day there and went home hot and weary from our exertions. On the way we decided to treat ourselves to an ice cream, a wee treat as they say. Arriving at our lodgings we passed the elderly couple who run it, who seem to spend the day sitting on their porch watching the world go by. We were in our room for about ten minutes when we had a knock at the door, the lady owner was there with two ice cream sundaes for us, which was absolutely lovely and went down a treat but I must admit we didn't really need it after our earlier ice cream.