The Boyana River Trek

Easy to go to. Hard to go through.

Boyana river in the Vitosha mountain runs right above Sofia, Bulgaria's capital. A trek starts from the suburban district of Boyana, near an old church bearing the same name, and reaches the waterfall in only about an hour and a half of walking.

At first you start on a steep street with paved with cobblestones and you pass through a raw of villas on your right as you are going uphill. Maybe you see a child swinging under a fruit tree or you attract the bark of a few dogs from behind the fences. Running water can be heard from a channel somewhere to your left.

Then you hit the forest, go up a slope and then you start on a narrow but level path and you think it's quite nice. Barbed wire and warning signs to your right keep you away from where armed people patrol the area far below near the river bed.

Soon after you leave that area behind, you reach a point where you cross another stream - a tributary to Boyana. Cross how? I don't know, use your imagination. Jump well. Walk on stones or pieces of wood. Build a bridge. Wait for the dry season or get soaked.

After that part you wish you had brought better shoes.

Although there are markings with green paint on trees, the path becomes easy to lose. And it goes steeper now. Sometimes you step on rocks again or in mud. Soon it will all be rocks at more and more awkward angles. Mind your ankles.

You are moving on the left side of the gorge now. You feel the chill. You hear the noise.

Sometimes it's almost deafening all the way up to the waterfall.

It's now slippery. Sometimes you have to take larger steps, putting one foot much higher than the other. Mind your knees. Grab a stick and use it for support. Help your companions.

That way some of them will be silly enough to come back with you if you couldn't take the best pictures the first time. Some of them will be crazy enough to come and climb the frozen Boyana Falls in winter.