Bulgarian Adventures

I will share pictures of recent outdoor trips here, I hope you like them!

A recent wet weather trip, to brew some coffee in the woods near my home town Stara Zagora.



The Surge was of great help



The Lion Steel M5 is one very good knife - Sleipner tool steel and phenomenal ergonomics (for my hands at least)



Spent some time cleaning and oiling the gear when I got home



These ones are from a recent fishing / camping trip - the opening of the fishing season for Carp.

View from the road



My home for the trip - old Daihatsu Grand Move - the 4 seats drop and make a flat and very comfortable double bedroom, enhanced with a soft mat







I can live in that car all summer long !

This pan is great for cooking !



Things I carried for a good night sleep



Sunset, before a storm



5 kg Carp



More to come soon!

Cheers

 

Nice catch on the Carp! Looks like a good trip.

 

Thanks! It is a wild Carp - unlike the more common (at least here) Hungarian Carp, this one has almost no body fat and red meat only. It is a very strong fish.

Some recent outdoor cooking :

Tools of the day



A bit of onion and olive oil



Adding some mushrooms



Scrambled eggs





Adding tomato, lettuce, lots of mayo and some cheddar



I ate 4 of them, I was full



Time for coffee



Chillin on the hammock

 

Some pics of my village, located in the North-Western part of the country. Almost non populated (around 50 residents, from nearly 1000 in the 1900's), great nature and a place I really enjoy.

Chillin on the hammock in the yard



View from the yard door



A distant view of my favourite peak in the area - in English it would be something like "Beak" - in Bulgarian - Kliun.



On my way to old shepherd buildings, made entirely from stone, from a person that worked in the USA before WW2, then returned to make business in his home village, later stolen by the communist regime and now abandoned, quite sad..



Buffalo skull on my way, inside a hunters place to relax



The G45


One of the guardians of the village, survived the commies - around 200 years old



A very old church - around 400 years old, preserved quite well



On my way to the top



An old fortification place, dating back from Roman times



Cheers!

 

Looks like an incredible place, thanks for sharing.

 

!!Iron Maiden!!

 

this is AWESOME!

i love those grassy hills! I could wander those for a long time!

 

Niceouting, sweet blade and badass pistol. Glock 17?

 

Very nice! Being a history person I love those very old places. I would sit for hours just listening to the whispers of times past there.

 

The Warrior - thanks! I am glad you like it!

Andy - indeed it is a Rodent Solution. Excellent handle and steel, the grind however is a bit thick. It is now sharpened to around 20 degrees per side and without the coating it cuts OK. Not as good as the M5 or ESEE 6.

Rich - last year I was at their concert again, incredible show!

Bushman - thank you! I really like Terry Pratchet Diskworld books and the place reminds me of the Chalk from the Tiffany Aching novels - long ago it has been the bottom of a sea, even now you still sometimes see phosils of small sea snails in the rocks, there were tens of thousands of sheeps across the hills some time ago and there is definately some magic remaining from ancient Thracian / Roman / 1st and 2nd Bulgarian Kingdom times. Even in recent years there have been some reported occult activities in the hills, mostly with followers of ancient gods.
Around 50 km from the village is the Magura cave with some of the oldest cave paintings in Europe.

CWB - it is a model 45 - full size G17 grip and 17 rounds magazine, with a G19 slide and barrel, maybe 0.5" shorter than the 17. Light and easy conceilable, I have added the M beaver tail back strap and it is really comfortable.

Anrkst6973 - I also enjoy the history a lot. In another village near, named Archar, there was a full Roman Legion located back in time. One Roman Emperor was born 20 km from the village in a place that is now in Serbia,just accross the border.

 

I will share some gear that I use for outdoors cooking - everything is old military surplus, except the small yellow cup.
The bag and the large cup are Bulgarian army, the two pots with handles are Czechoslovakia army and the canteen cup is old Dutch army one, I think it is made back in '79, according to the mark.

All of them are aluminum, except for the Dutch cup, which is stainless steel. I know that aluminum is not good for food storage, but for cooking it is OK and it's pretty lightweight. When I go car camping I take all of them, when going on foot - depending on if I am alone or with the wife - I take the Dutch cup or the Czechoslovakian duo.

Here is a picture of everything stored in the bag, with my pet tiger



This is how they are stored inside the bag - with full sized spoons and forks



And the whole kit - perfect for 2 people, can serve more if needed.



I usually use a little steel stove from thin sheet metal to cook with, but open fire also works great with all of them and a substantiation amount of food can be cooked, especially in the Bulgarian army one, which can also be used for french fries or boiling a full pack of spaghetti.

The next one is an outdoor kit I have assembled in a Maxpedition Fatty - it has some essential items for comfortable time in the woods and in a survival situation I believe that it will be of great help. I still have to add some water purification tablets or filter in it. I also have a spare Leatherman ST300 that I was thinking of adding in it, but I came to the conclusion that a MT is rather frequently used item, so it is best to stay on the belt or somewhere easily accessible in the pack and the SAK makes a nice backup to the tool - either a Surge or ST300.



That's a Fat Fatty!



Opened up - the key is a spare one for the gun safe, hidden from the wife



The content of the left side - some thick Zip ties, emergency blanket, band aids, Combat Gauze bleeding treatment and a bit of bandage, to wrap around the Combat Gauze if needed.



Contents of the right side - SAK Hiker, 2 Olight battery "cartridges" with 2 lithium CR123 in each one, separated with a thin plastic piece, to avoid making contact. Signal whistle, BIC lighter and a fire kit.



The fire kit has a full sized LMF Army firesteel with striker, some birch bark, fatwood, cotton and bicycle inner tube in a fairly watertight bag.





The hidden pocked ! The cordage shown is 10 meters long, strong synthetic rope.



Contents of the pocket - a couple meters of wire, duck-tape, small fishing kit, MRE carbs/vitamin drink and a small sealed package, from MRE too, with a box of matches, coffee, cream, some paper, salt, pepper and a piece of chewing gum I like that it is completely water tight, so it is another last ditch fire starting option.



The kit comes really handy and I have used it for some field repair of gear. I have left it at home a couple of times and always needed something from it, so it now lives in my backpack 24/7.

 

Thank you, Strigidae!

This forum is awesome, with so many great threads and pictures. I love to browse it while at work and forced to sit in front of the PC

 

@Bozho

Man, I absolutely love seeing adventures from different parts of the world. Your pictures and outings are incredible!

Keep them coming!

 

Thank you man! I am planning some mountain trekking later this month and will make some photos for sure!

 

I went to two awesome mountain huts in the weekend.

The first one - Partizanska Pesen -reachable with a regular car - surprised me quite a bit, as it was like a hotel, but a lot cheaper - under 15$ per person for a night. They had a pet deer, some fat cats and a German Shepherd - very cool.

Here's a photo of the yard, I make no more photos as I was busy drinking beer and Rakia.



Next morning - on our way to hut Mazalat - which was such an incredible place, I hope that the pictures show a bit of its beauty, as in person it was stunning.





The little chest bag was awesome! It held the gun and a spare mag in total comfort while hiking, it was also comfortable on the waist or diagonally on the chest in the hut. I like it a lot.



EDC



6 on the hike, 4 in the hut



Here how the gun actually sits in the chest bag - it has no option for velcro holster, but it was surprisingly nice





Vehicles are prohibited, but there were some guys with dirt bikes..

National Park Central Balkan - Balkan is the old name of our largest mountain - Stara Planina (Old Mountain), which geologically was formed really long ago (than the other mountains here) and crosses all the country, separating the North from the South



I saw lots of tree fungus along the way, it was hard as a rock, not really suitable for tinder



Out in the open, rain is on its way!

 

2nd part, lots of pics









Central Balkan - I love this place, I feel at home there.

We continue to Mazalat





We have reached it! It was my first visit of this hut, but I will return many times, I am sure. It is amazing.

MAZALAT :



Bulgarian Tourist Union / 1520 meters above the sea level / Hut Mazalat



Time for beer and Rakia, after the hike



More beer



View from a nearby hill



Going on a short hike to the tallest hill behind the hut, around 2 and a half hours to go there and return to the hut

 

3rd part





Here it gets steep, I love using the steel ropes for assistance





New friend















Both knives were used often and performed excellent. They cut all the food for 8 people for 2 days and on the second day helped with the fire. I split a few larger pieces of wood with an axe, then made all the kindling with the 6 - a lot safer when you are on your 10th beer

The 6 did some splitting and the 4 a lot of feather sticks - they cut really, really good. The handle of the 4 seems a bit small when you just hold it, but when you put it to work it actually feels quite good. When I got home I put new edges on them with a Norton India coarse / fine / ruby ceramic / BRKT black and green compound and they are ready for new adventures.

 

this is amazing! I love those massive rolling hills!