An overcast day, all day. Set off just after 7am with cloud hovering low. The temperature dropped from about 8 °C to 4°C as I climbed, very slowly. The narrow road - in reasonable condition - ran for a while next to a mountain stream and then snaked upwards through low woods, scrub and small meadows. Not many birds - but could hear the rat-at-at of woodpeckers every now & then. No-one about. Every few kilometres there would be a roadside house or two - all abandoned and semi-derelict. Farm buildings falling down. Villages too were mostly abandoned. Very few churches and no mosques (even abandoned ones). Near the summit it began to rain - but not heavily.
On the descent - about 50 metres ahead - a glimpse of a wild boar and two boarlets as they scappered off the road.
The Kadin Bridge at Nevestino, built by the Ottomans in the laste 15thC, is in fine shape after 500 years - and must in its time have had an important function. Now leads off the Kyustendil to Kocherinovo road to a side-street.
Got to Kocherinovo - about 28km short of the Rila Monastery (which I plan to visit tomorrow) - but the AirBnB room I'd booked proved hard to locate - it was at neither of the locations indicated by AirBnB or Google Maps. I messaged the owner Adrianna - and waited in the village café for her to find me.
Which she did quickly. She & her partner Peter have just opened their B&B. I was their first guest. They kindly asked me to join them for dinner. Adrianna speaks quite good English - Peter just a few words. She works in her sister's shop, he teaches sport at a primary school and also works part-time in a shop. Both friendly & forthcoming.