Mushroom Hunting

Hizha Yavor

This weekend I went with my friend to Hizha Yavor (Yavor means Sycamore in English). Her family is redoing the mountain ‘hut,’ which has been left unused for the last 10 or so years.  It was built in 1975 with a bar, two floors of sleeping rooms, eating area, bathrooms, kitchens, etc. And, Hizha Yavor has a great location—only a 15 minute walk from Gushovski Monastery, on the way to the Chiprovtsi Waterfall, accessible by two dirt roads, 6 km on foot from the Three Chuki (border peaks).

My friend, her husband, and her father worked all day- replacing glass, cleaning, hooking up water, etc. There is a lot left to do-someone has torn out all the wiring and the interior paint has some damage, but it’s very easy to imagine it functioning similar to the Hizha in Belasitsa. After they finished working for the day, J and I went in search of mushrooms. We spent a good 90 minutes wandering the forest, but only found one edible mushroom, a Manatarka (Boletus).

Comparing the boletus (in J.'s hand) with a non-edible mushroom.

We returned to the hizha, played some ping-pong, and hiked down to the car. On the way down, her husband briefly walked to the edge of the forest returning with a small bags worth of Boletus and Chanterelles. It’s unfortunate that I am such a bad mushroom hunter, but I am very happy to have friends that share. They tasted fantastic.

Boletus and Chanterelles