We are cycling the wonderful Trans Dinarica route through the Western Balkans having started in Tirana, Albania 10 days, 8880 m of climbing and 600 km ago.  (See previous blog).  The route takes us on and off-road through beautiful mountainous and very rural areas.  This blog starts in North Macedonia by Lake Ohrid. 

The map below shows the route we took in North Macedonia,  (Note: you can not see the maps if you are viewing this in the email version. You need to click on the website)

Cycling from Ohrid to Sveti Naum

We set out along the edge of Lake Ohrid on cycle trails for 3 km before joining the main road, which thankfully was not busy.  There had been a myriad of coach tours leaving Ohrid about the same time as us, so they had mainly gone by the time we reached the road.  We were heading for the Saint Naum Monastery which will, no doubt, be the destination of all the coaches.

It was a pleasant cycle, with only about 500 m of climb and lots of flowers, meadows and woodland on the way.

We stopped off at the Museum of the Bay of Bones on the way.  This was a Neolithic Site that has been rebuilt as the original floating village.  We luckily managed to time our visit between two loads of bored looking school children,  so had the place to ourselves. 

Then, after the big climb, we arrived at the tourist site that has built up around the tiny Monastery of Saint Naum.  We have booked ourselves into the hotel here for two nights, so after rolling past a mile of tourist nicknak stalls we were able to leave our bikes and have a wonder around.

The Monastery of Saint Naum was founded by St. Naum himself in 905.  It was interesting but very small.

From Sveti Naum to Carev Dvor via Galicica National Park

It had rained all night but had stopped by the time we had our rather grim hotel breakfast.  It was still cold, and like last night at supper the few guests were all wrapped up in warm coats as they ate.

We were climbing as soon as we started.  Outside it was 15 C but felt colder in the strong, cold headwind.  The first 6 km, back up to the Galicica National Park turning was fairly steep, between 7%-10%. But once we got to the Park road, that motorists have to pay to enter but it is free for bikes, the gradient decreased to between 5% – 6%, so the climbing was pleasant if a little long.

Because of the charge there were very few cars, which was lovely, so we were able to stop to listen to the Nightingales singing and to photograph lots of flowers, which changed as we went up to 1600 m.  We have heard lots of Nightingales on this trip, the first time we were high up and very cold in Albania and the singing really cheered us up.  The views down to Lake Ohrid initially and later down to Lake Prespa and the surrounding cliffs and towns were amazing.  But the drop was vertiginous so Bernie spent a lot of time cycling on the other side of the road while I took pictures to show him later.

It took about 2.5 hours to get to the top which felt freezing, 10 C with a howling cold wind.  We wrapped up warm, had a quick snack and started along the flat, exposed road into the headwind before descending through the woodland at ear popping speed.

At 600 m we arrived at the bottom next to Lake Prespa.  It was very different here, with old crumbling and very shut holiday camps and hotels.  We eventually found a hotel and restaurant,  the Lakeside, which seemed to have awoken from a long sleep, but we got a nice enough and much needed lunch.  Even though we were lower we were still freezing and our legs were really tired, so we decided to stop at a hotel we could see on the map in Carev Dvor.  A very modern looking place in an old village.  It’s run by a family who seem to have a computer business on the first floor as well as several other jobs they were rushing off to when we arrived.  As there was going to be no-one around later and their kitchen was now shut they made us a salad to eat for supper.  We were just glad to stop and finally get warm.

Carev Dvor to Bitola

After a nice breakfast cooked by the Grandad we set off in the sunshine.  There was still a headwind but it was pleasantly warm.  It was an easy day, only 33 km but there was one climb up 400 m on pavé or cobbles.  This wasn’t too bad as it was generally between 5% and 6%, and took us up to the Pelister National Park,  formed 1948.  This is home to quite a few mammals including bears,  wolves and  lynx, but skirting around the edge in the middle of the day we didn’t see any of course.

A long, slow drop on cobbles took us back to about 600 m and into the bustling city of Bitola.  Being Saturday it was seething with people and the noise level when we walked past a cafe was almost deafening.   We stopped in one on the central square for a while to watch the world go by before cycling the wrong way up quite a few one way streets to our hotel.  Where they were having an event for diabetics that involved traditional music and dancing.

Bitola to Krusevo

Started a bit tired this morning as the hotel was not exactly quiet overnight.  The breakfast was all cooked at once and left out to get cold.  Rubberised , cold fried eggs and various other things I didn’t  feel like.  But once on the bikes it was a great day.  It was full sun all day but the heat was mitigated by a cooler headwind until the 10 km climb began at midday in the full 35 C heat.  

But before that was an almost totally flat day through a very wide, fertile valley.  There were strips of different crops as far as the eye could see and lots of tiny tractors buzzing about.  I had seen people planting what looked like lettuces from a distance, but when we passed a parked tractor with the small plants in the back I thought they looked like Nicotiana that I grow as an annual flower at home.  I now had an idea why they were planting acres of this, as everyone smokes like a chimney here.  So I stopped and asked what it was.  Turned out I was right, it was tobacco.

We eventually found an open shop in a very small village,  unlike Albania shops here close on Sundays.  They let us drink our cold drinks sitting in the shade with them and I thought I was doing quite well chatting to them using Google Translate.   Unfortunately, like many languages Google does not have a voice for Macedonian, but luckily it is written in Cyrillic which is phonetic so I made a stab at it. 

At midday we had the 10 km climb up to Krusevo perched high up on the hill top.  Higher still were all the paragliders circling around.  They flock to the town for this.  Rather them than me.  Eventually we arrived, exceedingly hot, in Krusevo.   After lunch we continued to cycle up the very steep, cobbled backstreets until we found our hotel.  We are the only guests and inside the hotel was like stepping into a fridge.  After showers we had to come back outside to warm up.  Now sitting in one of the many trendy bars drinking green tea.

Krusevo to Kicevo

It was steeply up from the first pedal this morning, about 11% on cobbles up through the town.  Then it continued up for several kilometres  past the ski station and topped out in a beautiful beech woodland full of birdsong.  According to the Merlin app we were listening to a Song Thrush, a Short Toed Tree Creeper,  a Wren, a Blackcap and a Chaffinch.

We then plunged steeply down a narrow country lane to below 900 m and through a lovely rural village of old stone houses.  One old man holding a large scythe said “Bravo” to us as we passed, which made me wonder what was coming next.  I soon discovered.  An even steeper hill, on average about 13%.  It was really hot by now and not a breath of wind.  We each had an annoying cloud of flies around our heads.  It was beautiful though, and we could take our mind off the climb by looking at all the butterflies,  there were 100’s of them.

Every now and then the gradient would reduce a little and we would stop for a drink.  I have always struggled starting again up a steep hill with a loaded bike.  I was trying to start across the road, which was very narrow, and didn’t quite make the turn up the hill in time.  I lost my balance and tipped over with my foot still clipped into the pedal.  A slow fall always tends to be painful but thankfully I didn’t put my arm out to break my fall.  So just a few bruises.

Bernie brushed me off then gave me a push to get started again.  When we reached 1100m we turned off-road.   Luckily the track was hard packed mud, although deeply rutted from the rains.  We still had 250 m to climb, but it was lovely with wonderful views, even more butterflies and flowers.  Just before the top we met two heavily laden forestry lorries coming down.  Great relief to reach the top, it was so hot!

We headed down steeply on a much wider track that had been recently graded, in fact we passed them working at it.  I assume they will be doing a lot of logging up here soon.

Then we had a long and gentle descent on tracks then roads that got steadily busier.  We stopped off for lunch at a small restaurant and sat in the shade by a stream.  We were about to leave when Bernie looked down and saw a snake about 2 m long curled up near his feet!  As soon as we moved it slithered away.

Kicevo to Mavrovo in Mavrovo National Park

Today was mainly a hard and very hot slog along a busy road.  But initially our route took us through some small rural villages on a quite road.  The Trans Dinarica team had written that this was a cultural day, but not why.  I think our cultural experience started yesterday when we arrived at the hotel and the very serious, unsmiling young man on reception expressed surprise that we didn’t have a guide to tell us about the Orthodox Monasteries and churches, more than the days in the year.  Even more surprise was expressed when he asked us if we were Orthodox and we said no, and horror when Bernie mentioned we had visited Mosques and synagogues as well as Monasteries.

We started by cycling small lanes though the tiny villages and noticed that the Albanian flag was flying everywhere.  We stopped at a tiny cafe for some lemonade and could tell they weren’t speaking Macedonian, but couldn’t tell if it was Albanian.   The old proprietor of the cafe came out and mimed that he wanted to give us coffee, on the house, which was very kind of him.  This led to about 10 minutes of miming about who we were and where we came from.

In the next village we noticed a stone memorial plaque, again with an Albanian flag, and an inscription which translated to “We wish for a free and sovereign Albania.”   We had also noticed a lot of different graveyards near each village and I am guessing this represents different religions and ethnicity.  There was at least one Mosque in every village and no Orthodox Churches.   When we returned to the main road there again was a Macedonian flag and a church.

All in all it was a very tiring day, and we have ended up back at 1300 m, in the ski resort of Mavrovo next to a lake of the same name.  We may stay here an extra day and do some walking as our legs were struggling today after several hard days.

Mavrovo – Day Off Walking in the Mountains

We decided to take a day off from cycling while we are up here in a ski resort and stretch our stiff legs by walking up a steep hill.  We had seen lots of walks going up behind the hotel, but we were told it was too dangerous.   There are two or three female bears with cubs in the area, which are quite aggressive at the moment.

So unfortunately we had to cycle back over a hill and 7 km to the previous village and walk up from there.  It was a lovely walk up through dense woodland and then out onto open flower meadows where we had our picnic.   I couldn’t really relax though as I was always keeping an eye out for bears.  When we cycled the Great Divide we had bear bags for our food, bear bells and bear spray,  here we just had to hope for the best!

Mavrovo to Tetovo

We had a lovely morning.  It was bright and sunny, but not too hot as we left to cycle around the lake.  At the far side we turned off and had a great cycle for 10 km off-road on a gravel / rocky / mud road that took us from 1300 m down to about 600 m.  Some of it was a bit sketchy as it is used by the dreaded quad-bike groups, particularly on the corners where they had thrown up lots of rocks.  Luckily it was dry as the mud was very slippery in the odd wet place.

We came out in a small village that had a tiny bar that we only noticed as an old man in a wheelchair was sitting in the road outside it, drinking coffee, as he couldn’t get up the steps.  We went in for a cold drink, but when we came to pay the owner said they were on the house.  It’s the second time that has happened.

The rest of the day got busier and busier as we neared the sprawling conurbation on Tetovo.  Our route tried to keep us off the busy roads, but that meant we were constantly climbing up the sides of the valley.   By now it was a very humid 37 C, with a thunderstorm forecast.   We stopped for an ice cream before tackling the final fume filled bit of road into the busy city.  It was the busiest place we have been on this trip.  Although we were going into the centre on a dual carriageway, the usual Balkan custom of double parking, or just stopping anywhere they like meant  total traffic chaos.  We were able to jump most of this and eventually arrived at our hotel in a hot, soggy heap.

We had a great lunch in a Turkish restaurant,  everything seems to be Turkish here.  Then walked back to the centre to visit the painted Mosque.   Then more ice creams, the walnut and fig being the current favourite! 

From here we will be cycling across the border to Kosovo, which will be the subject of the next blog.    Since we started in Tirana, Albania we have cycled 950 km and climbed 13,600 m.