A day of walking uphill, although without yesterday's problems with route finding.
After breakfast consisting of some interesting pastry things wrapped around in a spiral with yoghurt and cherry jam I was off down the road to where the track to the rocks of Babin Zub started. After fording a river, removing my socks so that they did not get as wet as my boots, the climb started. It was up through trees for the next few hours, first oak trees, their leaves bright green and freshly unfurled. Then some beech, and higher up silver birch with vivid leaves. Above them the buds on the trees had yet to burst, and there were many broken branches, maybe snapped by the weight of snow this winter. By Babin Zub itself there were no trees but instead creeping juniper.
Babin Zub means Grandma's tooth, although the mountain has a row of several large rock formations like a row of teeth. The Stara Planina resort was at the top of the track I had walked up, I had booked the Babin Zub guesthouse for the night, but was undecided whether to follow the road straight up to it or climb up to the rocks first. In the end I diverted up to the rocks, rewarded by views back to places I had been, places I would be going to and places, like the peak of Midzor one of the highest peaks in Serbia, which I would not manage to include in this trip. I tried hard to avoid stepping on the many purple crocuses that were bursting from the dead, yellowish grass.
Snow still interfered with short bits of my walk around Babin Zub, as you might expect given the height, the top of Babin Zub is at 1740 metres. Ski lifts and the paraphernalia of ski runs littered the area. I walked down a particularly steep "black run" to the "Ski Cafe" where I stopped for a cup of coffee, watching the people, younger than me, sitting on deckchairs with their beers, admiring the view.
My hotel was a short walk from the Cafe. Not for the first time booking.com had booked me as two people at the Babin Zub guesthouse. In compensation for paying the extra money for two, they gave me full board and I had a late, generously sized, lunch (just as well as the Ski Cafe where I hoped to eat was not serving food). Now the sun has just set with a display of pink and red bands beneath the darkening blue as I write this in the lounge bar of the hotel enjoying a quiet beer.
20.6 kilometres walked today but with a 1480 metre ascent. A gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or the route can be downloaded from Outddoractive.
After breakfast consisting of some interesting pastry things wrapped around in a spiral with yoghurt and cherry jam I was off down the road to where the track to the rocks of Babin Zub started. After fording a river, removing my socks so that they did not get as wet as my boots, the climb started. It was up through trees for the next few hours, first oak trees, their leaves bright green and freshly unfurled. Then some beech, and higher up silver birch with vivid leaves. Above them the buds on the trees had yet to burst, and there were many broken branches, maybe snapped by the weight of snow this winter. By Babin Zub itself there were no trees but instead creeping juniper.
Babin Zub means Grandma's tooth, although the mountain has a row of several large rock formations like a row of teeth. The Stara Planina resort was at the top of the track I had walked up, I had booked the Babin Zub guesthouse for the night, but was undecided whether to follow the road straight up to it or climb up to the rocks first. In the end I diverted up to the rocks, rewarded by views back to places I had been, places I would be going to and places, like the peak of Midzor one of the highest peaks in Serbia, which I would not manage to include in this trip. I tried hard to avoid stepping on the many purple crocuses that were bursting from the dead, yellowish grass.
Snow still interfered with short bits of my walk around Babin Zub, as you might expect given the height, the top of Babin Zub is at 1740 metres. Ski lifts and the paraphernalia of ski runs littered the area. I walked down a particularly steep "black run" to the "Ski Cafe" where I stopped for a cup of coffee, watching the people, younger than me, sitting on deckchairs with their beers, admiring the view.
My hotel was a short walk from the Cafe. Not for the first time booking.com had booked me as two people at the Babin Zub guesthouse. In compensation for paying the extra money for two, they gave me full board and I had a late, generously sized, lunch (just as well as the Ski Cafe where I hoped to eat was not serving food). Now the sun has just set with a display of pink and red bands beneath the darkening blue as I write this in the lounge bar of the hotel enjoying a quiet beer.
20.6 kilometres walked today but with a 1480 metre ascent. A gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or the route can be downloaded from Outddoractive.
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| The rocks of Babin Zub form a distance |
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| There were lots of purple crocuses |
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| Ski lifts making the mountain feel rather commercialised |
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