Today started early with the local train from Burgas to Varna. After heading inland to Karnobat (1), the train uses the easternmost rail route through the Balkans, which is a gentler ride than the two lines through the mountains further west.
Approaching Varna, there is a narrow deepwater inlet (2) (called Varna Lake) with extensive port facilities that extends some 15 miles inland, the sight of which signalled our arrival back at the Black Sea.
I had been in touch with Galin (owner of a local kayak company) about a paddle in Kavarna, about an hour northeast of Varna in the southern Dobruja Oblast/Region of Bulgaria (3). The original plan was to go on June 6, but the weather forecast was for thunderstorms and higher winds that day, so Galin convinced me to go today and even arranged to have a couple who also planned to paddle today drive me up from Varna.
Kiril and Petia kindly met me at the train station and we headed north. Kiril had studied marine engineering in Varna. His wife showed me pictures of a metal helmet and battering ram from Roman sea battles with Carthigians. Kiril was on a marine archeology team that had found the artifacts off Sicily. The couple were married in the charming central Bulgarian town of Veliko Tarnovo.
Suddenly, Kiril's car (a diesel Audi) sputtered and began to spew smoke. The car limped off the road and he popped the hood. We did the guy thing of looking at each other for ideas. I just shrugged. There was nothing to be done; they called Galin to cancel the tour and handed me the phone. Galin suggested I could hitch-hike up the coast (4). I just walked to the street to hail a cab (5). The driver raised an eyebrow when I gave Kavarna as the destination, which was about 40 miles away (6).
Arriving in Kavarna, Galin was easy to find; the town is small and he had kayaks on his car roof. We drove further north to Bolata Beach (7) and launched the boats, accompanied by Christian (8), a local teenage boy. We paddled past Cape Kaliakra then turned west back towards Kavarna, where Galin's girlfriend (Francesca) had gone with the car. After weathering the cape, Galin was concerned about the waves coming from two directions associated with a shift in the wind, but it didn't phase me much (maybe 2 foot seas), so we pressed on.
A cacophony of sound emerged from the cliffs. It's nesting season for cormorants, pink starlings (9), and bee-eaters, which nest on the narrow beaches at the base of the cliffs. We stopped for a break at a small rocky beach only accessible from the sea, after which I saw a baby dolphin bobbing on the surface that had not survived.
A few hundred yards from shore at the end of our 9 mile paddle, I saw lightning strike inland and picked up my pace. We arrived just before the storm.
Because of the delays getting started, I missed the last bus back to Varna (which left at 5:40 p.m.; Kavarna is a small town). Kiril drove me his taxi-driver friend's house. His friend had already had a glass of rakia, so he called the other taxi driver in town who agreed to take me (and my wet clothes) back to Varna. While this was all happening, Francesca and I were eating white cherries we had just picked from the cabbie's tree; yum.
(1) The train takes a lot longer than the bus, which follows the hilly road along the coast. But the train is a much more comfortable ride.
(2) I would say tidewater, but tides are de minimus on the Black Sea.
(3) The Danube flows west to east, forming a natural border between Bulgaria and Romania, before taking a sharp northward turn near Silistra. The region south of the Danube east of this sharp turn is called Dobruja and had a mixed Bulgarian/ Romanian population. Its status was settled after World War 2, when southern Dobruja was assigned to Bulgaria (a) (b).
(a) A castle formerly belonging to the Romanian king is in Balchik, Bulgaria.
(b) Later in the day, a taxi driver on the ride back to Varna told me his mother had to learn in Romanian when she was young because the whole territory was Romanian.
(4) I had noticed a bus stop nearby with "гара" (pronounced "gara" and meaning rail station) as the destination, and figured I could get back into town, which was my plan at this point.
(5) The main coastal road runs between Varna and the seaside resorts at Golden Sands, so cabs were frequent.
(6) Taxis are cheap in Bulgaria. I was not sure if he was pleased with the fare, or disappointed he had to drive that far.
(7) It seemed incongruence to ponder that 250 to 300 miles (c) across the sea are Odessa and Kherson in Ukraine, between which lies the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
(c) Less than the distance from Boston to Phildelphia.
(8) Christian (Chrish-TEE-ahn) likes to come along in a real kayak to paddle in something other than his inflatable (d) kayak.
(d) Francesca originally said "inflammable" kayak.
(9) Galin said he had not seen the Pink Starlings in 5 years. They vary their nesting location each year based on the food (insects) available at breeding time. There are apparently a lot of bugs on the coast of Bulgaria this year.
Burgas Station
It's poppy season in Bulgaria
The flowers grow in profusion along the railway
The powerful Skoda (10) electric engines from Czechoslovakia (11) dating to the Communist era
Climbing the Balkans
Cleft in the mountains
Patiently waiting
View of the "wonderful rocks" formation from the train
Back at the sea
Bolata Beach
Setting out, North side of Cape Kaliakra
Rounding the cape
On the South Side
Approaching the beach stop
Storm clouds gathering over Kavarna
(10) The company still exists today, mainly making cars as part of the Volkswagen group.
(11) Czechslovakia (e) was an industrial and engineering leader in the former communist block in Eastern Europe (f). The engine felt like it could go from 0 to 60 at the speed of a Masarati.
(e) The country split into Czechia (a.k.a. The Czech Republic) and Slovakia in the 1990s.
(f) An old joke about a visitor to the Soviet Union being shown the country's modern marvels, many of Czechoslovak origin: "They must be great friends of the Soviet Union" the visitor says (meaning the visitor assumed Czechoslovakia was friendly because of all they gave to the Soviets), "Yes, they must," the Soviet guide responds (meaning the Czechoslovaks had no choice).
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