The wild Rhodopes: Lisitsite, Chit Kaya and Studen Kladenets reservoir

🍂 One of the most exciting adventures we have ever created for all travellers seeking the thrill of the journey. Encounters with wild animals, a boat trip, mystical places, nature, beauty.... We assure you, it is not to be missed 🙂

🤔 WHAT YOU WILL SEE ON THIS PROGRAMME:

• ✔️ A boat trip across the Studen Kladenets reservoir;
• ✔️ An encounter with the griffon vulture;
• ✔️ An encounter with wild deer and roe deer;
• ✔️ The museum in the town of Kardzhali;
• ✔️ The Konevo waterfall;
• ✔️ The chapel with the ancient oak;
• ✔️ The Chit Kaya sanctuary, the Walled Rock;
• ✔️ The village of Lisitsite and the longest rope bridge in Bulgaria;

⛰️ DAY 1:

All travellers meet the guides at 10:00 in front of the museum in the town of Kardzhali. While we gather and count heads we look around the museum. The museum itself is housed in a very beautiful building, which is also a cultural monument of national significance, and its collection includes over 40,000 cultural treasures connected with the history and nature of the Eastern Rhodopes.

From here we head to an exceptionally beautiful Rhodope village, which is said to be close to civilisation yet cut off from it…. The village of Lisitsite. It lies on the shore of the Studen Kladenets reservoir, among lush green meadows and oak groves. The only way to reach it is across a 260-metre rope bridge over the water. There is nothing to think about, we set off across it, and we assure you, you will not regret it.

We will not even try to describe the views and the emotions that take hold of you there, you will feel them for yourselves. The village of Lisitsite lives in its own world, decades, perhaps centuries, back in time. It is a dreamed-of idyll for those who seek solitude and seclusion. In Lisitsite there are no cars and no roads. Here the streets are trodden paths winding between the stone walls of the houses. Here, walking among the stone houses, you may see flocks of sheep and cattle, and in the pastures by the forest, hares and roe deer, which will glance at you and slowly move away.

Our walk continues to a mystical place, Chit Kaya. Translated, Chit Kaya means the Walled Rock. On the rock complex there was a Thracian fortress built of stones without mortar. Dozens of rock niches, about 50 in number, are carved into the steep rocks on the southern side. We will look at the preserved rock crown with its impressive natural formations, in which the human eye makes out the shapes of faces, animals and objects, and walking past them you can spot the fish, the bird, the skull and the alien sculpted by nature. From here we return and settle into a guesthouse on the Studen Kladenets reservoir, but if you think that is all for today, you are mistaken. To reach the guesthouse we have to cross the reservoir, and that can only be done by boat 😊 Our hosts certainly know how to welcome us, so we happily board the boats and head for the house, and on the way mysterious rock niches and beautiful views await us. The evening passes in dancing and fun, around a cosy fireplace with a glass of wine and spit-roast lamb 🙂

⛰️ DAY 2:

Breakfast, and without wasting much time we jump into the boats again (paid separately). Today's adventure takes us to the bay of a wonderful waterfall which, although it lies in the lands of the village of Byal Kladenets, is known as the Konevo waterfall (about 3 hours). Before we reach the bay of the waterfall we pass a unique chapel with an ancient oak. The chapel was built by the local people of the village of Darets, which can only be reached by boat. The bay of the waterfall borders the protected area "Golemiyat Sipey", in whose rocks griffon vultures nest. Views, photos, and it is time for lunch. We return to refresh ourselves, and once again our hosts see us off by water. On the way home, though, we promise ourselves that we will come back here again, and we start planning the next destinations.