Rhodopes (2) - Smolyan, waterfals and Marvelous Bridges

At first I planned to stay in Smolyan just for the night and resume the hike northbound the next morning, but after reading a bit about the surroundings and the city I decided to stay for two nights. One of the interesting landmarks in the area was a small natural reserve called waterfalls canyon which I visited next morning, but I also hiked around the city a later during the day and enjoyed great food and beer at night. 

Smolyan centre

 Cathedral of Saint Vissarion

The next day, despite the heavy snow in the morning I started my hike to the the waterfalls. Soon the snow turned to a rain and after some time the skies cleared and a beautiful day was ahead of me.

Orpheus waterfall

View on Smolyan from waterfalls canyon hike

The waterfall canyon was a short but a very scenic hike, and because of the weather and the season, I was there all alone - which made it even more enjoyable. I learned that there was a foot path from Perelik to Smolyan that passed the waterfall's trail so it is probably a better way down to Smolyan than what I did the day before. During the second half of the day I was wandering in the forests nearby the city, enjoying the warmer weather and the silence in the woods.

Pretty much the whole town of Smolyan

I had a very pleasant dinner in the evening (a place called Rodopchanka with live Pianist and great food) and on the next morning I took a bus to a town called Chapelare resuming my hike from there. It was a snowy day and the higher I climbed from Chepelare into the Rhodope mountains the stronger it snowed and windier it got. I saw a lot of fresh tracks of animals in the snow, and later some big mammals (deers or elks) - which I even managed to photograph somehow.

The path was harder to follow, and I decided to carve my way downwards to village Hvoina where I rested for the night. I stopped in a small family hotel, where I and some workers that were fixing a road nearby were the only guests. The owner was an extremely interesting and nice man, who tried to talk me out of hiking through the forest, we had an interesting conversation about his life and he was eager to hear about me. I told him about my plans for the next day. Later, he said that the village's Mayor, who is a also a hunter urged him to convince me not to go to the forest because the forests were full of wolves and bears. On the next day he gave me a short ride back south and I hiked from there to another great wonder of nature in the area - Chudnite Mostove - huge hollow natural caves or "bridges" carved by an ancient river from in the mountains.

Marvelous Bridges

Marvelous Bridges

I enjoyed the view near the Bridges, hiked and walked towards the "Roman's road" - an historical landmark that is located nearby and started my way back directly to Hvoina, despite the wolves and the Bears. Going down was pretty easy and I managed to catch a bus and arrive to Plovdiv before dark. That was my second time there - but the first was only short overnight stay on my way to Rhodopes.