Day 14 – 19

Km 404 to km 555, Anton to Kom Peak

Day 14

07/05/2022 – 0 km hiked

Day off in Sofia. Buying a few supplies and trying lots of different food. In the evening I went to the airport to meet Zach, then we had dinner in the city centre.

Day 15

08/05/2022 – 10km of the trail, plus 7 to get back to the ridge from Anton

Before getting the train back to Anton we bought some food for the trail. I couldn’t find a plastic jar of peanut butter anywhere so I’m carrying a heavy glass jar. Oh the weight!

There are coffee machines everywhere you turn in Bulgaria, and I finally tried one with Zach. He had a coffee, I had a hot chocolate (0.35€). I thought it was really good (I’ve had a lot worse cost a lot more).

Once back in Anton we began a big climb (1100m) back to the trail. It was 3pm by the time we reached the top and once there needed to fill up on water for 17km plus what we needed overnight for dinner and camping. We hiked for a couple of hours more with our heavy packs before finding a nice spot to spend the night.

Day 16

09/05/2022 – 42km

Today we slowly descended off of the open ridge into forests, very much reminiscent of the earlier trail.

Around mid morning we met a Danish guy section hiking the Kom-Emine/TEAR and we spent the rest of the day walking together.

The way was fairly easy, but we finished the day with a 20km waterless stretch and we were all quite tired when we reached the next spring and set up camp.

Day 17

10/05/2022 – 39km

We spent most of today hiking through a green tunnel of forest, every once in a while emerging into a sunny meadow. It’s hot at the moment, and we hike from water source to water source.

At one point a man rode past on a horse with a homemade saddle, smoking, on the phone and with two more horses in tow. Such is Bulgaria.

Tonight we’re sleeping in an abandoned house. I wouldn’t want to be here alone, but company makes all the difference.

Day 18

11/05/2022 – 35km

We passed a lot of horses on our way down into Gara Lakatnik. There seem to be a lot of horses in Bulgaria and we were wondering what they do with them all.

In town we bought a small resupply for two days and treated ourselves to ice cream and drinks. We had each got a large plate of fries at the train station for €1.50 each.

It was a hot day, and just out of town we came to a very nice swimming hole. It felt great to be in the cold water and wash off some dirt and sweat.

Day 19

12/05/2022 – 25km plus 4 to the hut

The final day on the Kom-Emine. The morning was a beautiful cruise along an open ridge, followed by final climb up to Kom Peak in sunny weather with very little wind.

After enjoying the view and taking the necessary photos we descended to Kom Hut. There we met a Spanish hiker who joined us for dinner (I had a salad, a bean soup, fries with cheese and an omelette with cheese).

The people at the hut were very friendly and we had some funny interactions when they tried to help us with navigation using what looked like a map from the 90s that only showed the main roads.