Mountains are always beautiful, of course, but there is a short very special time of the year during the spring when you can witness an amazing combination of white, green, purple and blue that is so amazing that it can almost bring tears in your eyes. During the whole April and May I participated in a cleaning initiative in our town every weekend so I wasn't visiting the mountains at all and I almost would have missed that purple gorgeous period this year. But one day me and my friend met the hut keeper of the small hut near the second of the seven Rila lakes and he told us that he was going to be away from the town for some time and he offered us to go check the hut during the weekend. It doesn't work out of the summer tourist season and he is only going there from time to time to check if everything is all right up there. We of course were more than happy to do that.
So Saturday 11th of May after several hours of cleaning we went home very tired, prepared a dinner for later and remembered too late to check the working hours of the lift, that we had to use to get us higher in the mountains. It turned out we would be late, so we called them and asked if they could still let us go with a 15 minutes delay but they said no. I wanted to see the purple crocuses fields so much and I was so disappointed! Usually in the touristic season there are jeeps in the mountains that drive tourists to the end point of the lift. We are not at all fans of going with cars in the mountains but we had no other options as we were too tired to walk all the way by foot in the dark. The chance to find someone to drive us there was not very big as it was late and also too early spring so we were not sure that the "jeeps season" had started at all because of the melting snow. We were lucky though and we found one very crazy guy that told us that exactly the previous day he managed to do his first for the year ride to the top. So after a very extreme trip that changed completely my understandings about where a car can get you we were at the end point of the lift and started our hike to the hut. The weather was nice, the sky was beautiful and it was just amazing around us.
Our way to the hut near the second of the Seven Rila Lakes
The first of the Seven Rila Lakes
We were the only people there so the whole hut, all the crocuses fields, the lakes and the mountains were only for us. We arrived shortly before the sunset and we used the time to enjoy the beauty around us and to take some photos until it got dark. The sun was showing up and disappearing behind the clouds, the light and the view were changing every minute so it was fun.
Searching for the perfect angle for a photo of the crocuses, the peaks and the lake
These sights were waiting for us near the hut
Me and Haramiyata Peak
The view from our home for the night
The sunset
The diversity of colors and lights that we experienced for less than a day spent there was amazing. This is my favorite part of the nights spent in the mountains.
...and the morning
It became very cold when the sun disappeared so we lit the fire, warmed our delicious dinner and had a nice evening of chilling and reading. There was no electricity in the hut but plenty of candles and also many interesting books. I even took several for home that I am still reading. We didn't have time to hike more around the other lakes as we had to come back for the cleaning. Our plan was to return the next week to see more, it would have been the perfect time for more of this purple paradise, but as it sometimes happens - plans fail and we missed it, so it will be next year. I am so grateful that I still managed to go there and see that this year even for such a short time In the morning we said goodbye to the hut, the mountains, the crocuses and the lake and went back to continue with the cleaning supercharged with beauty and mountain energy.
We were hut keepers for a day - I would really like to be one for a lot more than a day. Several years for example living in the mountains and cooking bean soups for tourists sounds great :).
A photo of Peter Deunov in the hut. A spiritual leader from the previous century that used to bring his students exactly there - around the lakes
Thank you for stopping by!