The best places to experience are not on a map.

Hands down, Bulgaria is one of the most amazing travel destinations that I have been to. It has the sea, snow clad mountains, forests, traditional architecture, hot water springs and much more. And Kardzhali in the Rhodope mountains is one of the best landscape travel destination for photography.

On my first visit to Bulgaria I got the opportunity to travel with a group of photographers to Kardzhali. My better half was the makeup artist for a portraiture workshop that photoschool.bg was conducting there. The organizer Deyan Nedyalkov, an amazing photographer and tutor, was kind enough to let me tag along. That was the first time I really got to see the beauty of Bulgarian nature. The Monyak fortress, the Kardzhali reservoir, the sunsets, they are imbibed in my mind forever.

How to get there?

Since I used to stay in Varna the easiest route for us was from Varna to Burgas and travel along the A1. Take a turn to Dimitrovgrad and reach Kardzhali through Haskovo.

Places to visit near Kardzhali

Of course the biggest attraction are the two reservoirs – Kardzhali reservoir to the west and Studen Kladenets to the east. But it’s not limited to that, Close to the city is the Thracian town of Perperikon. The highest medieval fortress in Rhodopes, Monyak is just 11 km’s east of the city. The city itself has an art museum, the church of St. John the Baptist from the 11th century and a monastery complex St. Mary’s assumption.

I was more interested in the reservoirs and the trek to the Monyak fortress. That is what I will be focusing on in this travel article.

A beautiful sunset

We left our hotel where we were staying in the center of the city near the park on the first evening. Taking the winding roads to exit the city and passing a couple of villages we abruptly took a turn to get off the road. Not much of a parking space I would say, but that’s where our trek from the outskirts of a village began. Walking on a dirt track we carried on and views started getting prettier and prettier. I was trying to take as many photos as possible but had to carry on since we were supposed to reach one particular spot before the sunset.

Going through dense shrubs, over and under fallen trees we finally made it to a small opening on the mountainside. Believe me when I say, I was not prepared for the view. I could hear a long woooow in my head. What awaited was a rocky structure with a steep drop and beyond it in the valley was the reservoir and the mountains with the golden sky.

After spending some time taking photos, I just sat down a little away from others taking in the view. I was feeling blessed that I can still witness nature at its best.

The Monyak fortress trek

I will not bore you with what happened during the day. I was with a bunch of photographers on a photography outing and they were busy shooting portraiture. I spent the day walking around the town in the park and eating Doners 🙂 What I was waiting for was the trek in the evening.

Monyak, the highest medieval fortress in the Rhodopes, is just 11 kms away from the city. After a short drive we reached the foothill and began the trek. It began as a simple walk winding up but soon the elevation changed and I started feeling a bit breathless. At some points the gradient got so angular that I had to walk with my hands on my knees pushing myself up. To make things worse I had forgotten my bottle of water and was lugging a full camera kit with a tripod.
We were rushing to the top as we did not want to miss the sunset. To get a right photograph one barely has a 5 minute window. And before that I had to locate my vantage point and set things up.
If someone asks me, is there a scene etched in your mind during your travels? I would say this is it. The innumerable colors in the sky, the setting sun and the reflections in the water, little bit of a fog on the mountains far away put a spell on me. I was so mesmerized that for a few minutes I forgot to start setting up.

I made my set of photos and just sat cross legged on the edge listening to the wind whistle till someone called me out. It was time to go back. I got up but made a promise to myself that one day I will come back and experience it again.
This is the place that inspired me to start writing again. I want to show the world how beautiful Bulgaria is, how rich it is when it comes to nature and culture. Read about the petrified stone forest near Varna. 🙂
Stay with me to see some more beautiful places around the country..