I have brought two visits together on this page: one on my own, and one with Vesko and Toni. The photographs are from our outing together. The solo walk is the one I wrote about below.
That solo outing felt like a little send-off to the forest at home. By then, I had explored so many of the paths above Sliven that I was beginning to feel I knew the place properly. There were still things to find.
Over roughly ten kilometres, I visited Pesechnika, Kaloyanovi Kuli, the small Buchvata cave, two springs and the dense woods of Kushbonar. Much of the route followed the ridge, with the forest around it full of flowers.
At one point, I took a shortcut. It turned into about two hundred metres of climbing in less than a kilometre through thick bushes and woodland. Barely walkable is probably the fairest description. I came out on a high rock with a view I was very glad to see.
I noticed all sorts of flowers on the way, including fritillaries and cowslips. They were another reason to slow down and look closely at a place that already felt familiar.
I came away scratched and happy. Knowing so many paths in the forest above my hometown means something to me. I like that there are still corners of it that can surprise me.