Good evening all!
In this blog post I will tell you about our experience in the magical Chernelka Eco-trail. While we were in Todorovo we decided to go to Chernelka- an eco road close to the villages Gortalovo and Kartozhabene. Actually back in the days there was a trail connecting Todorovo with the eco road but now the trail is not maintained so we decided to go with the car. We left our car in the beginning of the trail and the first thing that we saw was a large field of nettles. Both my supervisor Misha and me were shining with happiness because we love using nettle in all types of vegetarian recipes. We promised to each other to pick some nettle when we come back.
Our trip began. I was so excited for this walk because I felt like I have been disconnected from the nature in the past few months so the first thing that I did was to remove my shoes. There is no better feeling than the feeling of the ground beneath my barefeet. Immediately I felt energized, I was back home and I could feel that my body was thanking me.
As you can see in the map the road was going through numerous small bridges across the Chernelka river. Unfortunately, we discovered that most of the bridges from the middle of the road till the end of it were broken or missing so we rolled up оur leggings and passed through the river barefoot. The feeling was amazing. The water was cold and reviving. Since there were no bridges there were no tourists or local people as well. We were the only ones in the whole 7km eco road. The grass was pretty high and the nature was wild and untouched. I managed to walk most of the eco road barefoot which made me feel so proud. One of my 2024 goals is to walk as much as I can barefoot. I felt so grateful and connected with the nature around me. Misha was helping me in recognizing some herbs and animal species which is another goal of mine, to learn lots of new plant and animal species. We stopped for a lunch break and we were lucky to find a large field of wild sorrel. We filled our cotton bags with it while dreaming of cooking nettle and sorrel soup.
When we reached the end of the road the sky was filled with dark clouds, any moment was about to rain so we decided to walk to the center of the village Kartozhabene and to grab a taxi to the beginning of the eco road where we parked our car. We reached the center and we found a small and beautifully maintained church. There was a woman close to it gardening. We discovered that she is the key keeper so we asked her to let us in. She was so kind to unlock the church only for us. I was so grateful for her kindness. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that she or some of the other church members were quite creative because they decided to use old cinema seats for chairs in the church. I could feel that this place was filled with love and taken care of by good people. Our trip ended here. We found the local taxi driver and asked him to bring us back to the parking lot of the eco road. He told us plenty of interesting stories that only the local people know. When he left us in the parking lot we thanked him and Misha and I kept our promise of gathering nettle for our future “dream” soup. I used plastic bags as gloves while she was brave enough to use her own bare hands. We left the trail tired but satisfied and promised to each other to come again when the lilacs have bloomed.
Thank you for being part of my journey! Next time I will tell you about the seed library that we created in the pensioner’s club in the village of Todorovo.
See you soon,
Polin
