Rhodope Mountains: Endless adventures
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A vacation in the southern Bulgarian mountain Rhodope can easily grow into a veritable adventure for those who are in love with mountain beauty and who are keen to shun tourism clichés. Either walking, riding a bicycle or a horse, driving a snowmobile or a sledge, such people are happy to get in touch with wild nature. Anybody who has been on holiday in the Central Rhodope Mountain during autumn will tell you this is the perfect season for a mountain adventure. Late autumn usually offers relatively warm daytime temperatures and in Bulgaria’s southern mountain the air is crystal-clear and sunny weather is very often around. Sunrays illuminate a breathtaking landscape with the forest painted in a diversity of warm colors – from light yellow through red and green to velvet brown. Vertical canyons and crevices in the Rhodopes are a blessing for lovers of high mountain climbing. Caves are another challenge – and not only for keen cavers. In the Trigrad Gorge there are two caves rendered accessible for visitors– Yagodin Cave and the Devil’s Throttle. Their interiors offer railed passages for the sake of tourist safety. Those hungry for extreme emotions can enjoy a brand new attraction – accessing The Devils’ Throttle in a boat. A steep and not particularly safe track runs down to the cave’s exit cut out by the ice-cold waters of the River Trigrad. The underground route sets out from here. Seated in an inflatable boat adventurers are taken 100 m into the dark cave vault, the habitat of a large bat population. Caves in the River Arda valley abound in underground mysteries. The guys from the local cavers’ club will tempt you to experience the thrill of the so-called Alpine pendulum. Tied to a rope hanging from the cave’s 40-m vault, adventurers dive into a deep chasm. Anybody who has tried this exercise will tell you that a powerful shot of adrenalin is guaranteed. |
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