Published: 01.10.2019
Day 30, from Orlovo to a spring near Kiladenets.
In the morning, we had breakfast at our accommodation, then we went back on the dirt roads. After a short time, we took a wrong path and had to walk back about 400 meters! We kept losing the right way over and over again! With temperatures at 31°C and little shade, walking through rough terrain in search of the right path was very exhausting. In the late afternoon, we arrived at the village of Kladenets and went to the local shop. We just wanted a shower and a bed. The shopkeeper told us that there were no rooms available in the village, which only has about 10 houses, and camping was not possible either! He showed us two villages on our map where there should be rooms and camping spots, but they were at least 7 km away from our route. The shopkeeper closed his shop and left. We stayed at the benches in front of the shop to think about what to do next. After about 20 minutes, I saw two older men getting into a Mercedes to drive away! I walked towards the car and stopped the driver to ask him about places to stay overnight! The friendly man got out of the car, I put the road map on the hood and asked again about rooms or camping spots with water. But the man immediately waved off the question about rooms or camping in the villages mentioned by the shopkeeper! He spoke to his passenger, who seemed to be his father, and indicated to me that he was going to drive to ask someone. I sat down again to wait. 10 minutes later, he came back and told us that we only needed to continue in our direction for about 1 km to find a good spot where we could camp and there was also a spring. When we started walking, the shopkeeper's wife came after us and handed us a box of chocolate cookies. After about 25 minutes, we really found this good spot. I decided to drink some water from the spring where the locals get water all day, but I immediately spat it out because it smelled like manure! But it was enough for washing! Later, when we had set up our tents hidden behind trees, I realized that the water didn't smell like manure but like sulfur. We had set up our tents only about 6 meters apart, which turned out to be a big mistake for me! After trying to fall asleep for about 3 hours, but failing because of Willis' groaning, yawning, and opening and closing the sleeping bag and tent zipper 12 times! I didn't want to use earplugs because I wanted to hear the sounds of the night animals. So I had no choice but to move my🏕➡️ about 20 meters further away in the middle of the night! When I tried to fall asleep again, I heard his groaning and yawning again! But this time, I didn't want to move my tent again, so I finally put my earplugs in, which still didn't bring the desired success, and now I could only put on my good wool hat and pull it over my ears - finally, there was silence 😴 - but unfortunately without the sounds of the forest.