Good morning and how are you doing today?
I hope you're having a splendid day
Today I'm going to take you to see around belogradchik starting with a fort
amongst those amazing rock formations on the hill so let's go and enjoy this
beautiful day it's sunny again blue sky it's getting hot already and I'm up
early so I don't get too toasted hope I brought my hat go on let's go
Good morning ticket for one
Now the original fort was built about by the Romans in about three AD but the
Fort in its current state at the moment I think was built about the 11th century
and it's naturally built between these pillars and rocks on a commanding hill
with fantastic views so a very good bit of protective architecture and when you
climb up to the top
look at the view you get
About 20 minute ride from Belogradchik
that's it about a 20 minute drive from
Belogradchik where the fortress is you will find this cave this is Vanetsa
Cave now this hasn't been open that long maybe two years, just drove here you
there's no public transport here so if you want to get here you either have to have
your own car or talk to your accommodation about renting a taxi in town it's not that
expensive I've heard, I think about 15 euros for a taxi so you take you there wait and take
you back, but I'll see if I can find any more info on that, anyway
apparently it's very fascinating,
obviously this northern Bulgaria is
the place to see caves,
we went to a cave yesterday,
or was it the day before? anyway
we've seen one cave now
we'll have a check out two caves hopefully today this is the first one
this is the the newer opened one and the less visited one there was only
three other cars in the car park
which is just down there, and you've got about a
200 meter [background noise from a phone]
what the....?
my phone just went bananas then
anyway parked in the car park
then it's about a 200 metre walk
through a leafy avenue on a very good road, tar path
hopefully, I can see a building ahead, to the entrance
this looks like the entrance
lots of things in languages I don't understand
let's go in and hope they understand me
this looks like a place to pay
good afternoon
wait here
oh that's at the time,
ah three
wait okay okay
and for ticket?
or pay at 3?
8, okay
can I buy a ticket now?
thank you
merci
now it appears the tours go in groups at certain times so she wasn't
showing me the piece of paper she was actually telling me the time
which is 1500 hours, three o'clock
and then the next group go down
I paid my fee and got my
ticket that was eight lev which is about four euro and I've got about half
an hour to chill before we go down into the caves
now ice cream? I thought I saw ice cream...
well at least I saw cold drinks
and it's a beautiful place to wait
That was Venetsa Cave which is amazing
they've put lots of lights in there that
keep changing colours to change the mood
and a guide goes down with you I think
during the working hours which I'm not quite sure what they are
I think they finish up five
I got that much
I'm not sure what time they start in the
morning so sorry about that
they go on the hour every hour and the tour takes
about 30 to 40 minutes so
a guide comes with you, you get a hardhat which is
essential I still clobbered my head through the hard hat thankfully many
times because you go through some narrow passages you go down under some arches
it's nothing really that claustrophobic although its underground but it's very
beautiful and quite amazing unfortunately the guide and all the other
people there were Bulgarian so, and she didn't speak English, so I had no idea
what was going on pointed to various things so I sort of
made it up as I go along but yes stalactites, stalagmites, pretty things
drippy things, bat holes, bat homes, different shapes, different sizes
lots of cave
pretty much
but it was great it was really nice and it was incredibly
cold in there again
I'm not used to that I'm used to going in a lot of caves I
suppose it's a combination of having lots of bats living in them normally and
there wasn't that many bats in the sections of the cave we went to and a
lot of the caves I've been to like in the Philippines and in Thailand
they've had the Indian Ocean water coming up under them which creates a
very humid warm atmosphere, there it was actually pleasantly cold slightly damp
feeling in fact one or two other people who went in with t-shirts and shorts
were pulling on long sleeves and trousers because it was that, I wouldn't
say cold, cool
I found it very pleasant it was quite nice in there
I hope the photographs did it justice to give you some idea of what it's like