Day 2 - Bulgaria, BANSKO --- For this International Trip
Ascent of Musala. We turned off a the main road 84 at Yakoruda onto a dirt track. I drove as far as our 650cc car would take us along this dirt road, we had to take great care as the vehicle bottomed out many times as we ascended the dirt road - more suited for a 4x4. I decided that the road really had come to the end for this vehicle and I needed to park the vehicle and continue by foot - a bit further along the dirt track it turned into a lake and far too deep for the car. It was always the plan to drive as far as we could along the dirt track and then find a suitable place to park..
I marked the map where we had left the car (our co-ordinates) - from here we followed the trail to Granchar Lake which was beautiful - there were a few wooden mountain Lodges here and we were able to say hello to some local people who were staying in the building. From here we crossed a footbrigdge and continued our route to a saddle / ridge to the NW and then N towards our destination Musala. On reaching the ridge we could see a large reservoir on the West side Beli Iskar Dam. We needed to ascend and descend 5 summits before reaching Musala. One of these summits being Malik Bliznak (2777m ) the other summits being 2750m.
We eventually reached Musala and took in the surrounding views - incredible - a place I would love to share with my sons at some point - a fantastic country. From here we needed to return the same route - an out and back route. The weather was perfect and I was able to use the map features and contours to the land with ease - some excellent experience gained. By the time we arrived back at the car the light was starting to fade and some of our journey back along the dirt road was done in the dark - an interesting return journey. This expedition was a very long day in the region on of 14 hours and 30kms.
Musala (2925m) is the highest mountain in Bulgaria and is within the Rila National Park and mountain range. On the summit of Musala there is a number of buildings - an Enviromental Observatory builing, an Alpine Meteorological building and an old disused cable lift.
