Posted on July 24, 2023July 24, 2023 in Vitosha

Dragalevtsi Monastery – Aleko Waterfall – Simeonovo Lakes – Dragalevtsi Monastery

Starting Coordinates: 42.61953, 23.29827

Distance: 10.4 km

Elevation Gain: 320 m

Time: 4 hours

Difficulty: Moderate

Transport: by car, or by bus no. 66 to the stop for Dragalevtsi Monastery

The start of the walk at the southern corner of the Dragalevtsi Monastery car park.
After 50 metres, turn left. Do not go up the mountain!
Seven minutes later, the path divides. Keep left.
One of the bridges across Dragalevtsi River.
The disused Dragalevtsi chair lift.
The path is in forest most of the way.
The fountain with an icon of St Nicholas.
Approaching the rocky outcrop.
The rocky outcrop.
The view towards Sofia.
Aleko Waterfall.
In another 2.5 km, you will come to an abandoned shelter. Turn left here for Simeonovo Lakes.
Lake no. 1.
Lake no. 2.
Lake no. 3.
Lake no. 4 (or the other way around, depending on where you started).

Two walks start from the car park which is above and behind Dragalevtsi Monastery – the walk to Boyana Lake, and this walk to Simeonovo Lakes. They both follow the low-altitude circular trail that goes around the mountain at more or less the same elevation – that is, without climbing or descending the mountain a great deal. But while Boyana Lake really is a lake, Simeonovo Lakes are not what I would call lakes. They are man-made ponds (we even spotted fish in one of them), but they are still very attractive and a popular picnic spot above the district of Simeonovo.

To reach the car park above/behind Dragalevtsi Monastery, you must access the mountain via Dragalevtsi. If you are travelling by bus no. 66, you will get out at the stop for Dragalevtsi Monastery. By car, leave the central square, drive up the cobbled road in the far corner, ignore the turning left to the “Vodenitsata” restaurant after 1.5 km and continue straight for another 3 km. Here is the bus stop for Dragalevtsi Monastery, and on your left, partially hidden by the trees, is a car park with the monastery behind it. Park here.

Go the southern corner of the car park and take the path that goes up the mountain, but only for 50 metres. Immediately join the path going left. This is the low-altitude circular trail. The monastery is again on your left, and the road is now behind you. This path will take you all the way to Simeonovo Lakes. It will be crisscrossed by other paths going up and down the mountain, by bike trails, by leafy hollows, by dry riverbeds, but don’t be led astray. If you have started climbing or descending more than usual, then you have gone the wrong way. Just stay on the path for 5¼ kilometres. It will take you across Dragalevtsi River, under a disused chair lift, through beautiful beech forest, past a rocky outcrop with a wonderful view of Sofia, past a waterfall, and then deliver you to a picturesque spot with tables in the shade. What more could you possibly ask for?

But, like life, just when you think things are going smoothly, a problem arises. The path divides after seven minutes. You didn’t want a choice, but you’ve been given one and are going to have to make it. Keep left (the path is signposted for Simeonovo and Bistritsa). Do not start to climb! The path on the right, signposted for Momina Skala and Kamen Del, may look level, but don’t be fooled – before you know it, you’ll be going up the mountain!

So keep left, and you will become aware of Dragalevtsi River, a river that features heavily in the walk Bay Krastyo-Kikish, on your left. In a couple of minutes, the path turns a corner, and you cross the river by means of two bridges and a walkway. Keep going on this path, ignoring any turnings on the left or on the right, and in another ten minutes you come to the disused Dragalevtsi chair lift (see the walk Bay Krastyo-Kikish). Keep going straight, and in another fifteen minutes you come to a most welcome fountain and bench. There is normally an icon of the Virgin Mary above the fountain, but this time it was St Nicholas. No matter. The water is very refreshing.

Keep going, ignore the dry riverbeds and bike trails crisscrossing the path, and in twenty minutes you will reach one of my favourite places on the mountain – a rocky outcrop I have been visiting for twenty years. Look left, and you will have a wonderful view of Sofia. You can sit on the rocks on either side of the path and have a rest.

But a surprise awaits you! In another 100 metres, continuing on the same path, is Aleko Waterfall, created by Skakavitsa River. This is one of two popular waterfalls on the mountain (the other is Boyana). You are now about halfway to Simeonovo Lakes and are perfectly entitled to decide you have come far enough and to turn around. Simeonovo Lakes is another 2.5 km from here (45 minutes), so it’s up to you.

If you wish to continue, you just keep going on the same low-altitude circular trail. You will come to a couple of benches – ignore the turnings left and right! Keep going straight (signposted for Bistritsa and Zheleznitsa), and half an hour after the waterfall you will come to an abandoned stone shelter which people use to light barbecues. Behind the shelter is the stream that forms the lakes. Go upstream (that is, turn right), and you will come to Buda, the destination of another walk. You want to go downstream (that is, turn left at the shelter) and follow the course of the stream. It will take you downhill to a total of four lakes. Wooden bridges crisscross the stream. It doesn’t matter which side you are on, as long as you are following the course of the stream. Having enjoyed the view and decided which lake you like best, simply climb back uphill to the stone shelter, turn right here, and take the low-altitude circular trail all the way back to Dragalevtsi Monastery and the car park.

Don’t underestimate the distance, though. This walk is more than ten kilometres, but can easily be shortened by turning back at the waterfall. Of course, Simeonovo Lakes can be approached more directly from Simeonovo itself (bus no. 67).

Posted on July 10, 2023September 11, 2023 in Vitosha

Bay Krastyo – Kikish – Dragalevtsi Monastery – Bay Krastyo

Starting Coordinates: 42.60447, 23.30224

Distance: 7.3 km

Elevation Gain: 430 m

Time: 3¼ hours

Difficulty: Moderate

Transport: by car, or by bus no. 66 to the stop for Bay Krastyo

The slip road to Bay Krastyo, the midway station on the Dragalevtsi chair lift.
Bay Krastyo station.
Next to the station is a picnic table under a tree and a sign for the E4 path.
After going under the chair lift, the path enters beautiful beech forest.
In ten minutes, it crosses Dragalevtsi River.
Dragalevtsi River.
The first, smaller moraine field.
The second, larger moraine field.
This moraine field offers wonderful views of Sofia and the Balkan behind.
The path to Kikish re-enters the forest.
Kikish mountain hut, a good place to stop for refreshment.
From Kikish, a path heads east to Dragalevtsi Monastery.
The path through the forest.
Cross the road in front of you.
You soon join a much wider path, with Dragalevtsi Monastery on the left.
Our route takes us back uphill.
Back over Dragalevtsi River.
The two paths run parallel, then separate.
At the chair lift, return to the road on the right and take the path to Bay Krastyo, Aleko and Cherni Vrah.
This path goes under the chair lift.
Soon you are at the slip road, which takes you back to the main road.

This is a truly wonderful walk that takes you to one of the biggest moraine fields on Vitosha and offers superb views of Sofia. It also throws in two wonderful glimpses of Dragalevtsi River. You must access the mountain via the village of Dragalevtsi. You leave the central square by the cobbled road in the far corner and drive up the mountain. After 1.5 km, ignore the turning on the left for the “Vodenitsata” restaurant. Continue straight. The road does a big curve and after another 3 km you come to the bus stop for Dragalevtsi Monastery, the starting point for two walks: Boyana Lake and Simeonovo Lakes. Continue uphill and after another 3 km you pass under the Dragalevtsi chair lift. In another 1.5 km, there is a slip road on the right that takes you to what was the midway station on the Dragalevtsi chair lift, Bay Krastyo. You can park under the trees here. This is also the penultimate stop on the 66 bus route.

Walk down the slip road on your right. You will pass a bike trail and a low building on the right, then a restaurant on the left. Immediately after the restaurant is the beginning of a path to Dragalevtsi Monastery on the right. You will come back on this path. But for now continue straight. In front of you is the midway station on the chair lift, now sadly disused. I still remember carrying my young child on this lift and jumping off at the station. It is such a shame that the lift no longer works.

With the station in front of you, there are some steps on your left, a picnic table under a tree, and a sign for the E4 European long-distance path and Cherni Vrah. Climb the steps and take this path, with the station now on your right. It goes around the station, under the chair lift, and immediately enters forest. There is then a sign for Kikish and Kamen Del mountain huts, which you can visit on the walk Kopitoto. A path joins from the left. Keep going straight. When you reach some moraines (large glacial boulders) with a view of Sofia, the path veers left and in about ten minutes you reach a bridge over Dragalevtsi River, your first view of the river. You will see it again further down on the way back.

The advantage of this walk is that for the most part you are in forest, so the path is shaded and cool even on a hot summer’s day. In a couple of minutes, you reach the first moraine field, which continues for a few minutes. Walking across these fields is a little tiresome, especially for our four-legged friends. After the first moraine field, there is a lookout over Sofia on the right. Keep going and in another ten minutes you come to the big moraine field, which is in the open and offers wonderful views of Sofia. It takes several minutes to cross. This and Zlatni Mostove are the best places to see the moraines up close.

At the end of the moraine field, the path dives back into the forest and the shade once more. In three minutes, there is a path on your right signposted for Dragalevtsi Monastery. This is a more direct route, but we will continue to Kikish mountain hut, the furthest point on the walk Kopitoto, so that we can say we have covered the whole of the front of the mountain. The path begins to climb, in ten minutes it reaches a kind of summit, with a path on the left and right, and then it descends to the mountain hut, which is fifteen minutes after the earlier path to Dragalevtsi Monastery.

Kikish is a good place to rest and have some refreshment. There is a small pond and a stream, with chairs and tables. If you continue on the path you were on, you will repeat the second half of the walk Kopitoto, which is not necessary. So now you want to head east on a second path to Dragalevtsi Monastery that starts next to the stream, on the opposite side of the pond to the hut. It takes just over half an hour to reach Dragalevtsi Monastery from here. The path is a little steep in places, but again shaded. In 25 minutes, you will see the road on your right. Ignore this, continue down for another couple of minutes, cross the road in front of you, continue on the path on the other side, and in another five minutes you will come to a much wider path with Dragalevtsi Monastery on your left.

However, unless you want to visit the monastery, now turn right and go uphill. The path is very lovely because it is wide. In ten minutes, the first path to Dragalevtsi Monastery we ignored earlier joins this path from the right. Keep straight. In another ten minutes, you reach a second bridge over Dragalevtsi River. Five minutes after the bridge, you must leave the path and take a higher path on the right that is signposted for Bay Krastyo and Aleko. The two paths run parallel for a while, but then separate, as all paths do. Continue to climb, and in a couple of minutes you will be back at the chair lift with the road on your right.

You now have a fifteen-minute walk uphill to get back to the midway station, Bay Krastyo. Two or three paths all complete this ascent, intersecting and dividing as they go. It doesn’t really matter which path you take. At the chair lift, you can take the larger path uphill to the road. Then go right for fifty metres until you come to some steps on the left signposted for Bay Krastyo, Aleko and Cherni Vrah. Take this path, which goes uphill, then left, uphill, then left under the chair lift, uphill (the midway station now visible in front of you, the chair lift on your right) until it joins the slip road where we saw it earlier. At the slip road, turn left and in five minutes you will be back at the main road.

Posted on May 1, 2023April 5, 2024 in Vitosha

Dragalevtsi Monastery – Boyana Lake – Dragalevtsi Monastery

Starting coordinates: 42.6197196, 23.2976008

Distance: 7.3 km

Elevation Gain: 165 m

Time: 2½ hours

Difficulty: Moderate

Transport: by car, or by bus no. 66 to the stop for Dragalevtsi Monastery

The cobbled road with the road to Dragalevtsi Monastery on the left, the car park next to it, and the bus stop on the right (the red sign marks the shared trail to Boyana).
The path as it leaves the cobbled road.
The large boulder on the path.
The impressive forest.
The road is clearly visible from the path.
The road as it performs its large loop, with Sofia in the background.
The fountain next to the first moraine river.
The second moraine river.
The third moraine river, which has a clear view of Sofia.
The stone plinth.
This grassy area has a wonderful view of Kopitoto with its distinctive TV tower.
The path descends to the lake.
Another grassy area has two shelters. People use this area to light barbecues.
The lake through the trees.
A view from the west side of the lake.
A view from the east side.
The bus stop for returning to Sofia. The stop (“for Dragalevtsi Monastery”) is marked in red.

This is the first of several walks for which you need to access the mountain via the district/village of Dragalevtsi, south of Sofia. The walk follows the path that links Boyana and Dragalevtsi. It is fairly flat and, were it not for the distance (7.3 km), I would classify it as easy.

Dragalevtsi is famous for the fourteenth-century Dragalevtsi Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God, which can be reached by a cobbled road from the central square. As you are going up this cobbled road, there is a turning on the left marked “Vodenitsata”, a traditional Bulgarian restaurant next to the start of the Dragalevtsi chair lift (no longer running). If you take this turning, you come to a roundabout, where you turn right, and in a short while you come to the monastery gates. Keep on this side road, and you come to a large car park behind the monastery.

If you continue on the cobbled road and do not take the turning to “Vodenitsata”, the road does a big loop and in three kilometres you reach the same car park from the other direction. Park the car here, or alternatively get off bus no. 66 at the stop “for Dragalevtsi Monastery” (the third to last stop on this route, an optional stop, you must inform the driver you want to get off). The monastery is on the other side of the car park, behind the trees. The bus will continue up the mountain in the direction of Aleko, where there is a ski slope and from where you can set out for the summit, Cherni Vrah.

The path to Boyana Lake is a shared trail (for walkers and cyclists) marked “Boyana” which leaves the road almost next to the bus stop. It climbs a little, passes a large and interesting boulder, and then continues in a north-westerly direction more or less on the same level all the way to Boyana Lake (3.5 km away). You pass through beautiful beech forest and cross several moraine rivers (moraines are large glacial boulders and form a common feature of Vitosha). At the first moraine river, after fifteen minutes, there is a fountain on the right. In another fifteen minutes, you come to the third moraine river, from where there is a wonderful view of Sofia. In another fifteen minutes, there is an open grassy area on the right with a stone plinth and an excellent view further west towards Kopitoto (“the Hoof”, where there is a hotel next to the TV tower, both visible from Sofia). It is an ideal spot for a picnic.

At this point, the path begins to descend gently towards the lake. You pass another grassy area on the right, where there are two shelters used for barbecues, and in twenty minutes you reach the lake on your left. From here, the path continues north towards Boyana Village. Another path heads west from the lake in the direction of Boyana Waterfall. You can walk all around the lake. In May, it is full of croaking frogs! If you have a dog, I advise not letting your dog drink the water, since it is pretty stagnant.

Once you’ve enjoyed admiring the lake from different angles, you simply head back up the path you came on and retrace your steps to the cobbled road with the bus stop and the car park. This should take less than an hour.

This walk will easily fit into an afternoon. If you are feeling keen, you can easily combine it with a walk from the same starting point (Dragalevtsi Monastery car park/bus stop), but going in the opposite direction, eastwards towards Aleko Waterfall and Simeonovo Lakes. Both walks skirt the mountain at more or less the same elevation (1000 m). This walk is described in a separate text.

Posted on February 14, 2022May 27, 2024 in Waterfalls

Aleko

There are two waterfalls on the outskirts of Sofia, on the lower slopes of the mountain that overlooks Sofia from the south, Vitosha. They are Aleko and Boyana. Aleko is the name of the last stop on the cabin lift that climbs the mountain from the Simeonovo district of Sofia and finishes a few hundred metres shy of the summit, Cherni Vrah (‘Black Peak’). Aleko Waterfall, however, is much lower down the mountain, between the districts of Dragalevtsi and Simeonovo.

To reach Aleko Waterfall, the best way is to head to Dragalevtsi Monastery, one of the oldest monasteries in Sofia, which has an old church with valuable frescoes. Above the monastery is a car park. From the far corner of the car park a path leads directly up the mountain, with the monastery residential building on the left, but you don’t have to go any higher up the mountain. Instead you take a path that forks immediately left (with the monastery behind you and on your left) and then you stay more or less at the same height and wind your way around the mountain. Within a few minutes, the path forks again. Do not be tempted to start to climb the mountain; take the left fork and continue until you reach two wooden bridges crossing the Dragalevska River. This is a charming spot, with the river threading through the forest, and there is a wooden walkway between the bridges to help you keep your feet dry!

Continue at the same height. The path winds through a wonderful beech and pine forest. After a short time, you reach the disused Dragalevtsi-Goli Vrah chairlift, my first experience of taking a lift on Vitosha Mountain. It was like sitting on a park bench suspended in mid-air and for me, a novice at the time, it was a terrifying experience. I gradually became used to it, but sadly the lift has been discontinued. This is a shame since it offered a very useful way for walkers and mountain bikers to head up the mountain.

At a later stage, you will come across a fountain with a bench and a small icon of the Mother of God. All the time, paths continue up the mountain or drop down, but there is no need to change your height. After about an hour, there is a rocky outcrop with one of the most beautiful views of Sofia down below. Be careful not to go too close to the edge! This is an ideal place to stop and take some refreshments. You are now two minutes away from the waterfall. Continue along the path, and you will come to the waterfall, which when I visited in February was partially frozen and made for a wonderful sight.

The waterfall is formed by the river Skakavitsa, and I understand there is a second, smaller waterfall further down. You now have a choice to retrace your footsteps (if you have left the car in the car park) or to continue to Simeonovo and the Simeonovo Lakes, a set of small, artificial pools, which takes another half an hour. Buses go to and from the districts of Dragalevtsi and Simeonovo, so whether you retrace your footsteps or continue to Simeonovo, you should be able to take a bus from there back to the centre of Sofia.