Bulgaria - Day 15

We drove south to the Strandzha national park. On a noticeboard we found a walk starting from the village of Kosti, so we drove there and parked. The path went out of the village, through a field, then over a very rickety bridge.

We then followed a river through the forest for a while, before heading uphill into the forest.

We think we saw an Eastern Imperial Eagle at one point, and also a large bird with a long yellow beak perched on a log at the river.

The path wasn't well marked and was quite difficult to follow, but eventually we found a waterfall near an old abandoned barbecue area. There was a lot of tourist-type infrastructure around, like a viewing platform for the waterfall, but it was all in a bad state of repair and obviously hadn't been used for years.

We then found our way back to the car and drove further south into border country, and went for a walk along a river. This wan't very exciting, but we did see a tortoise which we think is a Eastern Hermanns Bulgarian Tortoise, which is a protected species.

We drove to the village of Balgari, which is famous for the local tradition of fire dancing on hot coals, but there was nothing happening today.

On the way back we were stopped again by the Border Police, but they didn't ask to check the car this time. We stopped at the coastal town of Tsarevo, where we had a walk round a park at the coast, then went down to a beach bar for a drink.

For dinner we had the rest of the burgers with spiced potatoes and salad.