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Category: Bulgreek Trip

15.08.09 – Musala Hut – Granchar Hut
By Garik and Lena

We woke up at 06:30. Lena felt better, but now we both hungry! After a short visit in the toilets, and a small snack of figs, walnuts and a waffle from the Bulgarian Air breakfast, we wanted to start our journey as soon as possible. But rain kept us in the hut till 08:00. At 08:00 the rain still didn’t stop but we had to move.

After a short walk we met the Czech couple, they camped near some lake for a night. We met them yesterday on our way to Musala hut. They took the same bus from Samokov to Borovets that we took. Poor guys had to seat with their big bags on their knees… We were the first to enter the minibus, so we put our backpacks in a small baggage and didn’t leave a room even for a handbag. We tried to communicate with them, but they speak only Czech and German… So we used the ape language… Anyway, we continued ascend side by side with them, well we tried, they were a little bit in a better shape, so we met again in the Everest Shelter. We took a rest there; the Czechs ordered a soup and offered us traditional Czech bread. We kindly refused, but offered them dried figs. They were really exited! We thought we will find a soup in the meteorological station.

We reached the peak of Musala close to 12:00. It was difficult! I don’t know why, but it seams like the weight of our bags is not the reason, probably the height and the fact that we didn’t took a day off for acclimatizing. Now when I think about it, there was another old guy with us at the Musala hut, but he stayed there today and he came with us yesterday, so maybe this is what he did… The weather was awful! We were covered with clouds. Not that we couldn’t see the Olympus Mountain, we couldn’t see sometimes 100 meters ahead! I tried to take some panoramic pictures, they didn’t turn out well. We saw a family; mom, dad and a son, came up here only to kite! We took some pictures though; soup is not served at the station, only black coffee or tea. And when I think of it now, it was a mistake to stay at the Musala hut; it would be better if we continued to the Everest shelter and spent a night there. The place was much nicer and warmer and cleaner! And I bet more cheaply!

From here and on, things went as yesterday. Lena was very tired and couldn’t stabilize her breath. By the map, we have a lot of walking today till the Granchar hut and the path is going to be not easy. We descended and ascended about 600 maybe even 700 meters every hour or so… Lena stopped often and I knew this will take a bit longer than we thought. Meanwhile Czechs passed us, but then they stopped for a break so we passed them, anyway, the last time we passed them, was the last time we saw them. Since they slept in a tent they had no reason to stay in huts, so probably they just continued walking on their own pace till the seven lakes.

At last, barely standing on our feet, hungry, tired, and moaning, we reached the split that will take us to the hut. We read on the internet that it’s a 20 minute walk, well; it took us almost another hour to reach the hut! We hoped that this hut will be better than Musala. We were lucky, just as we entered the hut, downpour started.

In the hut, we tried to communicate with the locals… At the beginning, an old woman tried to calm us and told us to wait couple of minutes. We couldn’t understand her, so some local young (relatively) guy explained us in English! He told us that they are very busy today because a big group from Israel is about to arrive… The group we met on the plain to Sofia!!! “We saved!!!” we though. We started hallucinate how we take a ride with them, no matter where or exchange Euros to Leva.

We had a small talk with the English speaking local guy; it appeared that he did in one day what we did in two! He walked from the Yastrebets hut to Granchar in one day! But now he suffers an injury in his knees and can’t continue…

Later on, Shay, the guide of the Israeli group entered the hut with someone from the group. We’ve spoke with them a little, told them what we went through, they told us what they did, they were very nice! We felt very uncomfortable to ask them for a favor… At some point, Lena asked the guide to exchange with us Euros for Leva. He was kind and gave us 200 Leva. Meanwhile, we got our supper, two soups and kebabs. But from now on, we eat like we were a king and his queen!

The group supposed to have their supper in the main hall, but they were moved to another room because it was a saint Maria day, and house keepers’ wife, her name is Maria, so they held a big fest there in the evening, and that is why they wanted to keep the main hall for all their friends to come.