Thursday 24 July

Scheduled as a rest day for JWOC, so an opportunity to take off on an expedition, which for us was to the Rila Monastery. This is situated in a steep forested valley which runs up unto the Rila mountains. 

Best to read about it on Wikipedia or similar, but we can say it is surprising, beautiful, calm, dramatic.

 On the way there we saw people going about their business, 

Keeping an eye on their cows grazing beside the road,

 Wheeling bunches of herbs in an old pram

Selling honey, from nearby hives

Which are predominantly blue or yellow. 

Jane keeps bees herself in Wellington and was able to fill in with information in addition to what the girl managing the stall could tell us (in very good English). We tried herb honey which is the early season honey when all the meadow wild flowers are out, and oak honey which is the end of season honey which is harvested when no flowers left as forage but apparently oak leaves or sap not sure which are attractive. Very tasty too!

Other road users, in addition to quite a lot of trucks, were this baler being taken into town,

 And various carts

A great trip, and we were still back in time for the afternoon party put on by the NZ and Aussie JWOC team at their hotel for their supporters, which was a nice thought. They are all in good spirits and looking forward to the Middle Qualification races tomorrow.

This by the way is one of the infamous dogs which have been a source of trouble to o-ers running around the town streets ... Large and mostly unfriendly but apparently not stray or feral as often chained up like this one.