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Rozhen Monastery makes a great excursion from Melnik, and although it's accessible by bus, anyone who's able would do better to walk and enjoy the scenery. The classic trail over the hills (6.5km; 1hr 30min) is signposted in Melnik and later marked by paint. It starts at the northeastern end of the village in the Rozhenski Dol ravine, just below the Lumparovata kashta hotel. About twenty minutes beyond the point where the watercourse widens, take the right-hand gully and follow it for ten minutes, before tackling a steep, stony path to the crest of the ridge, where your efforts will be rewarded by a stunning view of knife-edged crags and mushroom-like slabs of hard rock poised upon eroded columns. In Robert Littell's thriller The October Circle , it's here that the blind Witch of Melnik resides, foretelling the townsfolks' destiny for lumps of sugar in lieu of silver coins - a character based on the real-life oracle Baba Vanga. The only scary part of the hike is the final, downhill stretch to the monastery, which is perilously steep and narrow - people with heavy backpacks, or a fear of heights, should seriously consider approaching Rozhen from another direction. A longer route (2hr 30min) with nice scenery and few gradients involves heading southeast to the village of Zlatolist and then north to Rozhen. The trail begins in Melnik in the first gully on the right, beyond the Kordopulov house; ignore subsequent paths to the right until the watercourse divides after about fifteen minutes, at which point take the right-hand gully and then a fairly obvious track over a pass and down into a broad vale. From there it's a level (but unshaded) hike to ZLATOLIST , which has nowhere to eat or drink but will soon be able to boast a nunnery built in honour of local wise woman Prepodobna Stoyna (1883-1933), a precursor of Baba Vanga. Pass through the village and take the left fork, whence a 4WD track leads to Rozhen Monastery. If you'd rather catch a bus (two daily; 15min) or walk the 7km (1hr 30min) along the road from Melnik to Rozhen , look out for the 100m-tall sandstone pyramids on either side of the road, and the ramshackle village of KARLANOVO , where tumbledown houses and subsistence agriculture seem a world away from touristy Melnik. A gravel road from the centre of the village leads to the chapel of Sveti Iliya and the grave of Todor Aleksandrov , the IMRO leader after World War I who was assassinated by power-seeking colleagues in 1924. Carrying on from Karlanovo towards Rozhen, the road (unlike the walking trails) brings you to Rozhen village first instead of the monastery. One final word of warning: heavy rain causes subsidence in the sandy area around Melnik, so none of the above itineraries should be attempted (either on foot or by car) if there's any chance of a downpour
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