Walking up Trescavic.

After a late awakening, I pack and head out with Tonin for morning coffee and small breakfast. I call the French volunteer from Skopje to ask about this monastery, he was there this week end and explains me how to gt up. As we sip the coffee on a terrace in the center i realize i don't know anymore where i put my reserve 55 euros... I start searching trough my bag. Damn Raki, that was on the first night, we had a couple raki and i took that money out of my wallet so i don't loose or spend it. I remember sliding into something but what and where is it??? After saying goodbye to Tonin, I head back to the flat to look for it. Cant find it, it must be in my bag... and it is.
So i am ready to go finally, it is already past twelve, i have at least 2 or 3 hours to Prilep from where i must then walk up 2 hours. The sun is setting earlier and i should hurry a little if i don't want to be caught by darkness.

So off i go, say goodbye once more to Eric and stick y thumb out. First care stops, the judge for the area of Struga. He is driving a modest car and we start speaking (in English) about local crime :) He tells me that when he first started working, he was giving very high punishments but that his colleagues called him and asked him to be more gentle. He though about it and as he went through the past of Struga crime and found out that only 8% of criminals have been convicted twice or more. He concludes that he should be less firm on the first conviction since most people seem to realize they have been doing something wrong but harsher on the second sentence. He slowly drives me to Ohrid as we speak about France and the problems in big cities.
In Ohrid, i will have to wait a little bit before Zoran stops his van to pick me up. Zoran tells me about this Macedonian heavy weight lifter who started a sekt preaching peace and good nutrition. He has opened many healthy food stores and has a product line present in mot supermarkets (that same one i have bought from i will learn in the next days). We speak a ot about spirituality but mostly about life choices. A majority of people are scared and don't make the right choices in their lives, staying suck i what they do not really want: their job, which if you think is actually not their job since they work for someone else. Of course some people don't really have the choice. He choose to be a driver because once the small truck is loaded, he drives, nobody is here to tell him what to do, he just drives to his destination, listening to music and smoking cigarettes. It used to be better when there was no gps, now his company knows when he stops and who fast he drives. Less freedom... His younger brother seems to have made the right choice and found what he wants, he works as a waiter for some private yacht owner and is traveling the 7 seas around the world. He comes home once in a while for a couple month and then he just enjoys himself.
The next thing we speak about are drugs of course you could say. We are two sorta hippies, speak about politics, easy going life and of course at one point weed comes up in the discussion. He to used to smoke a lot and still does a bit but now it is much harder, it seems that in whole Europe it has become easier to find cocaine or heroin that grass. He tells me the local, Bitola version. Here there was a time where they was strictly no weed to be found and that many of his pot head friends who really needed something, well they switched to heroin. It is amazingly cheap and of course of really bad quality, it is mixed with plater or some other white or brown stuff. It has become a really common thing to take heroin and he has lost many friend from this affliction. Once again, and it is not the last time, i discover how affected Macedonian youth i by the drugs. There seems to be a real lack of prevention, understanding and help to the needing people.
We speak about nice subjects as well, the beautiful nature and low population of this area of Macedonia, half a man per square kilometer! He owns a small house (or two , cant remember) in a calm village and he is the proof that for those who want to work and get something, it is possible (even if you smoke Ganja :) He drops me as we pass Bitola, was really nice talking to him and i feel full of energy and ready to go!
Soon a truck comes up, it is the same truck that we met at our water stop in the mountains. We stopped to drink some pure spring water (amazing how in my childhood i naively though this was a unique Evian-Volvic thing but who springs are all over the place in this area) and there was a truck stopped there, we saluted him before heading back off. And now he is there and stops to pick me up. He does whoever not speak English and the communication is not so easy. He transports flour thats for sure :) He drops me in Prilep, the town of dolphins as Zoran told me. Not the animal but the ecstasy, everyone in this town is happy because they produce the best ecstasy of Macedonia... And being told this, next to all the tobacco leaves drying around here i do notice a lot of smiling faces but i believe it is rather because of the returning summer. I stop over for little food, i have to be going on budget, i have only about 10 euros left to gt out of Macedonia. Fortunately i will sleep at the monastery tonight and can leave whatever i feel like. So i buy a little bread, chocolate and apples and make my way up.
First i have to go through the whole town, see smiling kids and elders, smell the fresh Ajvar and ask for my way a couple times. I find the stoned road leading up to Trescavic and start my ascension in the evening light. Beautiful colors on the rocks and vegetation. This seems to me like a bouldering paradise, to bad i have no more shoes to tackle a couple blocks. There are in all shapes in every place around. Mostly rounded shapes with nice cracks for climbing. I will see more and more all along the way up. The place is magical, i get lost a little and am told the right way buy a peasant with his horses. He speak Macedonian but i understand everything he tells me about the way to go. I realize this later as i pass a spot with a rope to help you climb, i though i had understood something like that but didn't believe it until i saw it.
After passing a couple fountains and a beautiful picnic spot, i reach the top of the mountain just in time to catch the sunset. And what a beautiful sunset! These monks knew where to build the monastery! I walk in, are welcomed in the kitchen by Kaliste, the future monk, Goze and a couple others. After dropping my stuff in my room, I get some hot bread with cheese and assist to a very politicized discussion. There is the small, young, maniac Macedonian patriot who wanted me to touch his hard muscles, the wise, calm Serb and one other balancing Macedonian. I don't understand every word and i wish i would because i do understand they speak about Yugoslavia, fucking Greeks and Bulgarians and then the young one is full of contradiction i wish i could point out. Fortunately, Kalistes mother comes in and the discussion switches subject :)
Soon i am exhausted and to cold and go to sleep. This will be a very cold night, the coldest in a long time. I think it must have had a couple degrees under 0. On top of my sleeping bag i put 2 thick blankets and can still feel the cold. I cover my head which is freezing. But after 1 hour of heating the bed and blankets, i am comfortable and fall asleep.

Looking for mushrooms.

We were supposed to go visit the monastery today, join Aurelie, Yohan and one or two other volunteers from Skopje but Aurelie sent us a message, she is still a little sick and prefers to rest. Anyway we were a little to late for the monastery. So since the weather is not so bad, we decide to go looking for mushrooms in the nearby mountains. It has been raining for quite a while and the sun came out yesterday and today again, ideal weather for mushrooms! Eric, the Swedish roommate and video project collaborator joins in. While they all get ready, i go ask for a good spot at the small store right in front of their building. I could mention that there is one of those small shop in, in front of or right next to each building around here. They all propose a restricted but different (from store to store) set of articles and fresh products. So luckily, the young women behind the counter is speaking fluently english and even has good notions of French. She recommend a village, not seeming to sure of herself but who cares, we just need a goal.
And in fact we will not even go for that village or the bus she indicated. We rather walk all the way tho the mountains, after all we can see them, they can not be so far. So we walk, passively attempting to hitchhike once in a while. The roadside is really surprising, between the field and the road, where a European would expect to find a grass or stone or some other wildly overgrown ditch, there are huge good looking pumpkins growing. One of them is even hanging from a tree. Next to pumpkins, we find plum trees, berry bushes and nuts. The fields a bit further are once yellow of dying corn, once green and red from the apple trees (huge red dots in a sea of pale green).
We take a shortcut over a dirt road and get closer to the mountain. Green paturages pastries, goats, old woman with a hat and a cane, huge cows, grape fields, corn plants growing on the boarders of the fields, an old men picking the corn and trowing it on his wooden carriage while the pulling horse is peacefully eating grass. And at our feet, plastic shoes, tin cans, old woolen shirts or scarfs are growing out of the muddy road. We get into what first seems like a ghost town. Deserted streets and abandoned looking flats. But w find a shop and as we walk inside, all heads turn and check us out. i am used to this and don't worry, especially when i have company. Eric however prfers waiting outside and observing the scene and faces as i ask for a knife... We just figured we forgot to take knifes and that they would be good to pick the mushrooms and cut our picnic. But the faces straighten as i ask for the picnic first and then for a knife explaining in my basic words that we will need it to cut the salami. They smile and offer us the knife. One of those small Chinese fruit knifes that will do a perfect job for what we need it for. We still need water and wont find any... all the stores here only sell coke, lemonades or gas water. We get a bottle of the later, empty it and fill it at the main squares fountain. The main square is overlooked buy a building that could be the majors house and on the faced a huge Albanian flag is painted. Albanian flags a dancing in the wind above our heads and Albanian is the local language. I use my even more restricted vocabulary to great people. As we pass a couple houses on our way to the now very close mountains, we can smell once again the peppers being grilled and peeled in preparation of this winters ajvar reserves. As the road gets steeper, we find white chunks on the floor smelling like mushroom, it aint a complete mushroom and we imagine the huge size of the smashed mushroom. This is announcing as a good mushroom day!

So we walk in the woods, make stupid jokes, play and fool around but don't find much. Blue, sticky and shiny ones. Tiny brown ones, those with a long millimeter thin stem and a small hat. Bigger, round one with no stem, brown outside, white inside with a marshmallow softness... Too bad, we spent our time making pictures and fooling around with sticks. A kids day out. We are now quite hungry and stop for lunch. The salami is actually mortadela and everyone gets disgusted by the consistent of it and its lack of taste.
As we are attempting to get higher and maybe still find some mushroom, i get a very unexpected and pleasing call from my friend Remy in Australia. He is sitting in a pub in kings cross as he tells me about his freakin great life in Sydney. What a pleasure to talk to him. He lives just a couple blocks from where i used to live, in south Maroubra. As is sit down to talk with my mate, it soon start to rain a little and then a little bit more. We head back down but not trough the woods this time, rather on the dirt road. We are stupid kids today, playing, laughing farting and pulling silly jokes on each other. The dirt road is soon way to boring for us so we cross through the forest, into the steep part of it. Partly sliding, partly running we get down much faster the we went up and not really thinking where we are going we find ourselves fighting a way trough mean plants and rocky terrain before getting back on a path. It is now raining heavier and we are back close to the village. As we get in there, we get a fresh beer and start walking home, screw the bus, we can walk it and it will be a lot more fun. It is in deed, we talk more stupid stuff (the zombie, Peter Jackson talk when we where coming the other way make no comparison). And as we get back on the road, Eric and Tonin start a water fight. Not with water guns or balloons, they use their soaked shoes and the flques on the road to get each other wetter than wet.
We finally arrive in the flat, exhausted and wet to the bones. We are all already sick so it cant get worse :) still we have a hot tea with a piece of cake before cheering with another beer. Tonight there is a concert in the other great bar of Struga (not that of the first night). A rock concert and we get there just in time for the last song. Tonight I take my camera with me. Not so sure this is a great idea right then, but it will turn out to be. After a couple drinks here with Eric young friends, we all hit the only club in town. The mood here is quiet, nobody dances or seems to have a good time at all... I try to make jokes with a couple of Erics friends and get a couple (or maybe just one...) smiles out of them. I give it up and me and Tonin start stupid routines on the dance floor(stand floor tonight). The band is making poor covers of poor songs... We still manage to have a good time and get acquainted with a bunch of youngsters.
As we walk out the club it is pretty late and we are quite drunk as we hit the only opened burger house in Struga. actually i am most probably the most drunk and annoying on judging on the crazy amount of pictures i took of Tonin and Erik in that moment and their faces as took more and more. To bad there is no sound, i am pretty sure i was making a fool out of myself. We get home safe as daylight kicks in. Good morning!

Walk to the cross.

First thing today, i shave, sick of that beard.(yea i know, who cares...) I have my baby skin again :) Then though yesterday i decided to go there this morning, I head of for the cross at about 2pm. I take a couple shots on the way, walk trough some small streets of Skopje and find the end of the road coming down from the cross. I start my walk up. it will be a nice but o so long walk up. After 2 and something hours i arrive at the red cross located at the end of the public part of the asphalt road. Here there is a big parking and restaurant for the lazy and the rest of th road is restricted to bikers, walkers and official cars.
I am walking and figuring i will be there soon but it takes me at least one more hour. Damn cross always seems to be so close but it never gets closer :) It is so big (said to be 80 meters but even when i got there i could not believe that) that it seems you are right there all the time.
As i make it to the top, after a beautiful view over a green, orange and red autumn forest, it is already past 6pm. The sun is setting on the mountains, a slight wind is blowing and i am to tired and cold to walk back down. I can see the workers working on the mobile phone antenna and thinking it might be Natasas friend from para gliding, i walk in their direction. It turns out not to be him but i still salute them, leave them to their job and walk down. After passing a military base and taking a couple shortcuts trough the woods, i make it back on the road just in time to be picked up by the workers driving down!

I make it back to the city in time for tonights short film session at the film festival but Aurelie is sick and staying home tonight so i give up on it, don't feel like going to the movies alone. So i walk back, and guess who is honking at the red light. Well i don't know either, until i get closer and can see through the windows of a black Mercedes, the dudes who brought me to Skopje the first time! Small world once again...
I make it to Aurelie place, we cook a nice hot dish of pasta with mushrooms, a pity they don't taste that much and are just releasing a lot of water... Hihi and a friend of hers join us for couple hours and some nice chats. Se says her nose is getting badder again, i know it is in her head that it is getting badder, not for real and joke “it is because you didn't see me in too long time” It sure has been a long time since the last party.

Up on Mt Magaro.

This is todays big goal, the highest summit of the park. The kilometers from yesterday got me quite tired and soar. But hey, i am used to having soar feet by now :)

So i walk along the deserted road for one or two hours until i get to the start of the track. There, an old shot through sign says that this a boarder area and should not be penetrated without permission... I am not to worried by the sign which is outdated but rather by my low level of water and tiredness and consider simply hitchhiking down. We will see, first a little breakfast and rest in the soft morning sun.

Soon the first group arrives. A whole bus of older walkers from Serbia. They salute as they pass by and laugh. Must be a funny sight, this lonely walker, bare chested, barefooted, laying in the grass in his shorts in the early morning. Then the next group arrives, dutch people. Then more, Israelis. I make up my mind and decide to go, it would be stupid to give up so close. As i walk up quite hastily, i catch up with the Israeli, then the Dutch and as i turn back i see an other youngster almost running up after me. We get a little lost on a longer steeper way to the top but make it. There the Serbian group is already having its lunch break and enjoying the beautiful views... We share the left over water, i eat my last food and we head back down.

The fast youngster getting up the unofficial track to the top

Did it!

It is good i did not have to carry my bag all the way up and could walk light. Also nice that my friend has a bit of water down there in his fathers scooter. And even better that i almost imediately get a ride back to Sv. Naum beach.

Sv. Naum

Aaaa a swim! it is nice and fresh and relaxing to float in those sea like waters. I then decide to use todays sunset to take a couple pictures at the clear waters of the spring. And what a surprise to find some other friends there.

The incoming boat carries the English family i met on the mountains yesterday. They invite me for coffee, i tell them how yesterday ended for me, we talk about para gliding and traveling. Nice happy family, was glad to bump into them again. They kindly drop me off at the camping where i decided to stay tonight since the sky is a little dark and it looks like it might rain. Unfortunately there are no 5 euro trailers, they are 15 euro piece and you can share them to divide the price. So i leave the camping, pick some black berries and plums, thinking of the Rainbow advices :)

I find a nice quiet room with a very nice and friendly family. The host s Kid is named Andre, his kids are great, curious and overactive future swimming champions and their neighbors kids too. They use their little English and ask all sorts of questions. Besides a nice bed, a welcome shower, lots of questions, I also get dinner and beer served at their table. I however soon decide to head for bed. Rest, my feet feel so soar.

First day in the Galicica Park.

Its Monday, i wake up in my nice quiet spot. however, in daylight, the parking spot 250m away from here looks more like a youngsters sex meeting point, tissues and condom packing all over the ground. Anyhow, it was very quiet and i had a nice night of sleep. Early wake up, picking wild bitter almonds (those the dude at Rainbow said where full of B12 vitamin :). I start my climb up. The bag is too heavy, i got all those useless clothe, books and other stuff...

I bump into a local shepherd with his donkey. He is about 60, white hair, tanned face, big smile and surprisingly speaking English very well. As we chat, the donkey keeps walking the track, carrying his load of wood to destination. He tells me there are 5 more hours up to the hut, so there is a hut! good to know. I start walking again in this beautiful morning setting , on a fortunately almost always shaded and fresh track. Along hillsides, in a low forest, soft ground, white rocks, green hills across the valley. Down in the valley i can see yellowish cultures of corn, the low growing, pale-green cabbage gardens, the rows of brighter green bushes, probably the peppers. Separated by a row of fruit and olive trees, lays a browner parcel of potatoes. I cant see, but i can also hear very distinctly a man cutting wood and regularly swear of his anger and frustration.
The path is well marked but not on the map... can’t understand how they worked this map out... After some hours of walking, it takes me to a plain. The sight is a mix of lunar, deserted and mountainous landscape. The rocky islands in the middle of very yellow, dried out grass are surrounded by higher Mountains. My compass, the highest peak in the distance and a smaller one nearby help me to find my position on the map using the level lines. I should be nor more than an hour from the hut. It is noon, I rapidly walk through the heat, no more shade in this plain and despite poorer marking and numerous misleading jeep tracks in the grass, i find my way to the hut rapidly.
Surprise, it is closed and no one is around. But there is water. Plenty of it, nice and fresh. It is too hot to go anywhere and i use some of the shade to get a rest, read, sleep and relax. So nice and quiet up here.

Not a soul around except the English couple and their energetic, singing kid walking to the small summit for the view on both lakes. We chat a bit and they give me the phone number of the national park office. I call and am told the hut is closed (don’t know why, if not now when does it open???) and that i should not be there without a permit because of fire restrictions... How was i supposed to know... Never mind, we agree that its their fault and that if they would be more organized we would have known and gotten the permit and all other info. I still don't know what i will do, go back, go on, sleep here, sleep further ???
The family walks back down, i remain a while in the see of green grass under the trees. The place, at the boarder between the very contrasting dried out plain and green forest is an oasis of freshness and comfort.

Dirt road through deserted land

Around 5, as it is getting freshener i walk one more hour south, in direction of the old ski resort. There i find shelter and a nice view on the other lake. I cook some delicious pasta with olive paste. The simplest dish is so good when you are in a nice setting, somewhere in the nature after making a bit of an effort (25km after all...)

Shot through communist era info billboard.

Abandoned ski resort, too windy to sleep in, i will choose the hut in the valley.

The other lake, Prespa on the east side of the mountains.

Falling night

The moon light is strong, the surrounding magical, i get some good sleep in what once was the ticket house for the ski resort. I think that actually this place was better used in communist times... Now there are only the years old, falling apart signs from that time and rusting ski installations...

Para gliding!

We wake up early, hope for great weather and drive up the mountain, on the top, wind is blowing in the wrong direction. But this changes soon and we have counter wind, light, nice and easy. After preparation, Mina takes of first... she flies away! I m getting excited! Ivana comes next and then it is my turn. But things don’t happen quite like we would like them to.

Two other women slides in and takes Ivanas turn. Tourist, picked up on the beach, they probably were charged her a bit more than us, and they got first despite Ivana has been waiting for 3 or 4 days... We wait and wait and finally we drive down. At the bottom, surprise, we drive back up, 7 of us in a jeep, Natasa in the trunk and a crazy frog guy on the roof. We will all fly since we found experienced par gliders to control the tandem.

My tandem is called Mendo Veljanoski, he is number 20 and something in the world top ranking of Aero flying. He regularly does crazy shit and i am getting real excited, i feel like i am the luck one. On the drive up he talks about speed gliding which he is testing wings for, about Tigne were he flies every winter, about Australia...

This man lives for extreme sports and especially para gliding, I am fully in trust and very excited thinking i will get a good ride with strong sensation. Para gliding can be like an old mans ride in his air chair or better than the best roler coaster. Despite asking for the roller caster, i will get a very quiet flight... :( he does couple turns, takes a thermic and a couple more turns before landing. All easy and soft. mmm I am a bit disappointed, i flew and it all seemed so natural and almost boring. The view was exceptional however.

The afternoon, we relax, swim and laugh. We rapidly stop laughing when on of the beginners goes into a deep spiral and does not get out of it... he crashes into the water at full speed. Poor man survived the impact but lost consciousness right after it and never woke up. Those are the dangers of para gliding. Not a sport for me i think. To long to learn and to dangerous. But i might give it a try. Mendo said you got the best schools in France and I should learn it there.
Tonight, Mina and Ivana leave for Montenegro. i still feel tired and stay one more night, get a lot of sleep.

Para waiting.

I wake up to that beautiful lake, a sunny day and nice friend around me. I expect a nice flight today, but today, not much happens, i discover the other side of para gliding, para waiting... Since the conditions are not good for beginners or tandems, we will not fly toady. So we lay on the beach, play stupid, swim, eat, and go out for dinner again. a nice and calm day like i did not have any for a while!

Beach

Mina and Natasa, para waiting :)

DOWnkey!

Sunset on Ohrid

Swimming, sunshine and ice cream.

This is what the day was mostly about. After waking up, with a slight hangover for some, a big one for others (and none for me) we head for a healthy breakfast. Of course this does not really exists in Serbia and we get a sort of Serbian adaptation of the English breakfast. No beans, but fried eggs, kajmak, a soft feta, sopska salad and not so good sausages. Tasting like everything but meat. None of us will eat them. Nenad is upset that restaurants serve such low quality food, just for the sake of low prices and tourists. It didn't use to be like this all the time, bake in the days when it was a little more quiet, restaurants could not afford to disappoint their customers, now there are so many people coming around that they just serve anything and don't care about quality.
We then head to the overcrowded swimming pool. The only shade being under the cafes umbrellas we spend the afternoon there drinking coffee, eating ice cream, playing card and occasionally getting up for a quick swim or a game of fuzz ball.

Our home :) Thank you Nenad!

At night, Nenad heads back to Krusevac, it is Sunday and tomorrow is an other working day. We are left with the keys and a whole floor for us. Kitchen and big living room included. After watching the local water polo game, between two sides of fired up supporters, we cook up some nice fresh tomato sauce for a big pasta plate. Tonights rest is welcome as tomorrow we head back on the road for Tara national park, Kusturica‘s village and then Sarajevo.

Walking down

The Bivuak in morning light.

This park has lots of Orhids but i did not earch enough and saw only those flowers by the path.

Muuuu
Imagine a little bit of snow here.

The sun is shining again, and i finaly get to the valley were Deni will pick me up!

End of the Ridge

Finaly, the end of that other very long day, loads of pictures...

Still walking the ridge, sun is setting slowly, luckily for us... and we can see the end of that ridge


Something like the blue mountains next to sydney....

The path up, sometimes steep, rarely shaded like here

Looking down, evening wind blowing up.

Looking all the way back... the right is not even were we started.

Taking a break on the ridge, behind us, it goes down down down.

Finaly it is fresh and we know that after about 10 h walking, we are getting realy close!

5 minuits to the bivuak!!! sitting down, checking out the view!

Group picture!

The sun is setting now...

and i can hold it in my hand :)

One final view down on the valley before we get down to the hut on the other side for a rich dinner, lots of laughter and a good (so we hoped) night of sleep!

New compagions on the ridge

Back on the ridge after getting more water, i meet an other group of walkers, three of them, younger, faster. They will get for sure to that last bivuak on the ridge will Andrei and Alex are more into taking their time, shooting pics and enjoying the view. I join them for the rest of the walk.

Looking back...

Walked quite a long way in the blazing sun allready...

but there is much more to come...

A lot of sweating later we are much closer but not quite there yet. But it is getting a lot fresher so it makes it easier and more confortable

"all roads lead to Rome" i guess i took the official, easy way but in the end even if you have to climb down a bit, its all the same :)


Walking the ridge...

Another look forward
Another alternative to the official way :)
Rocks rocks rocks.... under the blazing sun