A very short but interesting route in the Nature Park Golden Sands, which is a combination of several trails in the area between Aladzha Monastery and Baba Alino. It can be used both for a quick circle in the area (for example before or after the beach, if you are on holiday somewhere nearby), and in combination with other short routes around.
The route is in the shape of an octagon with medium technical difficulty, but this is due mostly to one section at its beginning - from the parking lot to Kovshak drinking fountain. This path is rocky and there are 2-3 serpentines with steps. However, you can easily transform the route into one with low difficulty, if you choose instead of this path to go down to Kovshak drinking fountain on the section, which also serves for ascent. After Kovshak drinking fountain in some places you may come across an overgrown area or a fallen tree. As a physical activity, the route is easy because it is quite short. However, this does not mean that the slope is easy everywhere - there are one or two steeper sections when climbing from Baba Alino.
One of the important warnings is to ride your bike with caution, because the trails are also used for hiking - be cultured and do not startle people!
Otherwise, the route is suitable for riding a bike almost all year round, including on hot summer days, because most of the time we drive in the shade, and its length allows the use of cooler morning or afternoon hours.
Starting point: The drinking fountain at the parking lot below Aladzha Monastery in Golden Sands Nature Park; https://goo.gl/maps/WuKeeFoaJdjY6ZJo7
Length: 4.8 km
Ascent: 125 m
Level of technical difficulty: medium (R1, R2, T1, T2, T3)
Physical load factor: low (PLF = 3)
Duration: 1 hour
Water: 0.5 l (there are three fountains along the route)
Food: Not required
Terrain:
- asphalt - 1.0 km
- country roads - 1.6 km
- trails - 2.2 km
Description:
From the fountain at the parking lot by Aladzha Monastery (point 01) we`re taking the asphalt road up (southwest), looking after 50-100 meters for a path with red tourist markings, turning to the left (point 02). It used to be a pedestrian alley once with tiles and steps, but now it is a little broken and in some places it is quite an interesting and even a technical path. On this path we come out on a country road (point 03) and continue to the right along the same road to Kovshak drinking fountain (point 04, 0.9 km), which is a popular place for picnics among Varna residents and guests of the city.
Going down from Kovshak fountain you should find on the left a path with yellow tourist markings. At the beginning the path is a bit broken and overgrown with grass, but soon it becomes clear and nice. In point 05 (1.2 km) we turn to the left into another path, and at pont 06 we are on the right. At point 07 (1.6 km) the path splits and we turn to the right again, and after 50 m we reach a fountain (point 08) where we turn to the right again, along a pedestrian alley with railings on both sides.
At point 09 (1.8 km) the trail splits – both of them have yellow tourist markings. We ride the bicycle on the right one, which is narrower and runs horizontally through the forest before going down again. At point 10 (2.3 km) we cross a narrow road and continue on the other side, and here the path suddenly becomes difficult to notice and overgrown. The goal is to reach the gully, where there is an underpass beneath the road to the resorts north of Varna.
After the underpass we continue upwards the steep slope to the right and then join a street to the right (point 11) through the villa zone (or area) Baba Alino, carefully crossing the mentioned road (point 12) along the pedestrian alley. We continue only upwards along Sherba Street to point 13 (2.9 km), where we turn right along a very narrow street in the forest (its name is Chumerna). At the end of the villa zone (point 14) this street turns into a country road along which we continue the ascent through the forest.
There is a lot of branching along the route as well as different variants and in order to make the ascent more even, in point 15 we choose the more sloping country road to the right, then in point 16 we are taking the left and in point 17 we are turning right again. There is a slightly steeper ascent to get out in point 18 (3.7 km) of the wide main path through the Golden Sands National Park, along which to the right we reach our familiar Kovshak fountain (point 04).
From here we continue only straight on the country road (we miss the path in point 03, on which we descended from the monastery at the beginning of the route) until we reach the asphalt road in point 19 (4.5 km) – riding the bike along it to the left and upwards after 300 m we reach the parking lot and the fountain below the monastery.
