The village of Tulenovo lies in the far northern part of the Black Sea coast, 5km to the north of the village of Kamen Bryag and 11km to the town of Shabla. It can be reached by taking the old seaside road (the right-hand one) outside Kavarna that passes through several small seaside villages and leads to Durankulak and the border checkpoint with Romania. Even if this road is in an extremely bad condition, the ride is worth for all the romance it offers in exchange.
The small village is a typical rural settlement with hardly any signs of tourism. Its name comes from the old times’ seasonal migration of seals (‘tulen’ in Bulgarian) to those waters. Seals have not arrived for more than 20 years now, but the name of the village is there is remind of them. Yet one can still see dolphins in those parts of the seaside. The dolphins usually come nearer to the land in the early morning or late afternoon, often on their own or in couples and if one is lucky, he or she can even get a free performance of synchronised water dance.
Somewhere in the middle between Kamen Bryag and Tulenovo and close to an abandoned army barrack, those that have chosen to walk the 5km distance between the two villages can visit the so-called Rocky Monasteries (Skalni Manastiri in Bulgarian). A metal staircase that starts in a small hole in the rock climbs down to a complex of cave homes. Thanks to their distance from civilisation and the hard access, the cave homes are well preserved.
Further on down the seaside path from Kamen Bryag to Tulenovo, one gets to a megalithic complex. The megalith consists of spherical forms carved into the rock to illustrate ancient inhabitants’ cult to the Sun. The stone suns have a diameter of above 1 meter, and are grouped into ensembles of two or three.
Following the same path and just before entering Tulenovo, one reaches the Big Cave and the Small Cave, or else called ‘The Caves’. The caves formed into the rocky shore used to host hermits in past times. At present, they are hard to reach without rock-climbing equipment.
