Gorni Dikanya
After Rila Lakes we headed somewhere where we were able to swim! Gorna Dikanya. Steve and Elisa had arranged to meet Steve’s sister and her husband here.
Gorna Dikanya is a village in a mountainous area, at an altitude of 900 metres. The village is small and only has around 300 residents at the time of writing this.
Next to the village is Dolna Dikanya Dam. This is where our park up was for 2 nights.
As you can imagine one of the first things we all did was get in the lake. The weather had been so hot that everyone got in at some stage just to cool off. As you can imagine though it was Steve and I who were first in .
We were amazed at how warm the lake was! It was like getting in a bath!
As you can see this was just a great location to relax for a few days .
In the afternoon Steve’s sister and her husband arrived. They had a paddle board.
As you can see I did have a go, a few go’s in fact! I had been on one before in the sea in Brighton on a calm day! I was now starting to get the hang of it a bit more!
Sofia
The following day we were moving to Sofia. I was really excited to be going to Sofia because our friend’s from back home were going to meet us there. They had flown out to visit a friend who lives in Sofia and were also planning to see us as well. They also very kindly brought Steve and Elisa’s new driving licences out for them after her sister had posted them.
We left the park up at The Lake quite early as we had arranged to meet Michael and Helene and their Bulgarian friend for an early lunch at around 12 noon. We had a park up right next to a park and we got the metro to go and meet our friends. We could have walked but it was just too hot!
It was so lovely to see them. We went for a very quick lunch in a Turkish cafe style restaurant. Michael and Helene’s friend had lots of things planned for them to do over the 4 days they were in Bulgaria They were heading straight to Veliko Tărnovo after lunch and then a full schedule all the way through! This in mind lunch was a bit if a whirlwind! It seemed to happen so fast! But we didn’t mind, it was just lovely to see them.
Helene is at the end then Michael then Smoychick, their Bulgarian friend.
After lunch we headed back to our park up. The other 4 had all arrived and were sat under some trees in the shade. It was too hot to go out and have a proper look at Sofia until the evening .
Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria, it’s a great city with lots of history and culture. It is nestled at the foot of Vitosha Mountain. There are both ancient and modern influences.
There is the iconic Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a symbol of Bulgarian Orthodoxy. Visitors can explore the historic district of Boyana, recognized for its medieval church and unique frescoes, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
It’s a vibrant place to visit with its lively markets, such as the Women’s Market, offering a glimpse into daily life. The city’s parks, like Borisova Gradina, provide serene retreats for locals and tourists alike. As a cultural hub, Sofia hosts numerous theatres, galleries, and museums, like the National Palace of Culture.
There are many cafes and bars around the city making it a vibrant place to visit with a great social life.
Here is a few photos from our wander around Sofia and as you can see we stopped for a quick beer on the way back.
Gorni Dabnik
We all left Sofia the following day as it was just too hot! We headed straight to Lake Gorni Dabnik which was actually a reservoir, one of the largest reservoirs in Northern Bulgaria. It is situated near Pleven.
Below are some photos we took on route.
It was a really lovely park up. We were there on our own for a day before the others joined us. They had tried to stop somewhere else on the way and it hadn’t really worked out.
We stayed for 2 days. There was swimming, shade and paddle boarding. There were also sunflower fields. I love sunflowers and there were loads growing in both Bulgaria and Romania.
It was a very pleasant 25 degrees which was great after experiencing heat of around 40 degrees celsius.
It was another excellent spot.
This was another very warm lake , again like a bath.
It was hard for us to leave especially when all the others stayed but we were aware that we had to be in France to meet friends at the beginning of Sept and it was now the third week of July and we still had Romania and Bosnia to visit on route and we had to get across Slovenia, Croatia and Italy.
It was time for us to say our goodbyes and move on.
After 3 weeks it was time for us to leave Bulgaria and cross the border into Romania.
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Our Life on the Road 
More interesting places visited. I can understand you not cooking with the heat, we certainly don’t manage with high temperatures anymore, once we would have donned the bathers and sat out in the shade with the sprinklers on, too hot to walk to the pool.
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I love the sun but when it goes over 30 it starts to get too much 🤣
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