Kolokita

Worth a detour

Kolokita is the headland immediately south of Sozopol, between the town and the Alepu lagoon, and it is protected for its coastal vegetation. Nothing is built on it. In a stretch of coast where every accessible bay has been developed, a bare cape with a path over it and nobody on it is worth an hour of anyone's time.

Story

Background

The interest is botanical rather than scenic. The capes and dune fields between Sozopol and Ropotamo carry a transitional Mediterranean flora that survives almost nowhere else on this coast, with sand lily, sea holly and a range of specialists that cannot tolerate being walked over repeatedly. Protection here and at the neighbouring dune sites is what has kept them.

The cape itself is low, rocky at the point and grassy behind, with small coves on either side and views north to the Sozopol peninsula and south towards Medni Rid. Walking on it is not prohibited; driving on it, camping on it and picking the plants are.

There is nothing here at all — no car park, no sign, no shade, no water, no lifeguard, and no phone signal in the dips. That is the appeal and also the caution. Come in the evening after the beaches empty, or in May before they fill, and keep to the trodden line rather than making a new one across the dune. If the wind is up from the north-east the point is unpleasant and the sheltered side is the place to sit.