Lake Burgas

Worth a detour

Vaya is the biggest natural lake in the country at nearly twenty-eight square kilometres, and it looks the part: flat, brackish and wide, with the Burgas petrochemical works standing on the far shore. Some 254 bird species have been recorded, which is the reason to stop. This is a lake for binoculars, not for swimming or scenery, and the cold months are the good ones.

Story

Background

The lake is about 9.6 kilometres long and up to five wide, shallow and brackish, sitting immediately west of Burgas with the town between it and the sea. It was designated a Ramsar site under the name Vaya in November 2002, and it forms one corner of the Burgas lake group, which also takes in Atanasovsko, Mandrensko and Pomorie — the largest group of lakes in the country.

The bird list runs to around 254 species, 61 of them threatened nationally and nine globally, alongside some 23 fish and 60 invertebrates. Vaya was a serious commercial fishery until the petrochemical plant was built on its shore; catches collapsed, and although pollution figures have improved over recent decades, the refinery is still the first thing you see and the reason the lake gets fewer visitors than it deserves.

Access is around the rim rather than at any one point: the Dolno Ezerovo side to the west, where boats used to run out onto the water, and the northern shore along the Sofia road. There is no hide and no interpretation, so this is the one Burgas lake where you are entirely on your own. Go in winter for wildfowl, or catch the tail of the autumn passage in September.