From Lake Ohrid to Pelister National park, Macedonia

Friday 11th June

Got up and left the campsite to find something else around the lake. Before that we headed back into Ohrid to get some shopping, mainly booze and BBQ items for my birthday tomorrow! We also headed around the old town, which was much nicer.

We ended up wandering into an archaeological site that was having some presentation going on. We found out that the man who was speaking was the actual Prime Minister of Macedonia and he was awarding special rings for the top university students for that year!

We then carried on around the lake towards Ljubanista and found a cheap campsite right on the lake. As soon as we drove in we came across a big 4x4 truck that we recognised. This turned out to be the Jones, a family who we had met in Morocco! Goes to show what a small world we live in. After a good chat finding out where each other had travelled, we found a great spot overlooking the lake and set up camp.

Saturday 12th June

Woke up to great sunshine and heat, after breakfast opened up some birthday cards I had received and Lorna’s present of a hammock.

This turned out to be a great present, as soon as it was set up I lay back in it. It’s amazing how much you slow down when lying back in a hammock!

This rest of the day was spent doing very little in the sun, apart from having a lovely bbq. That evening though was England’s first game in the world cup and a first to have one on my birthday! Only problem was there were no bars near the campground, so nowhere to watch the game. What made it worse was that all around the campsite all the locals in their static caravans were watching the game! I headed round a few times to try and see the score, but as the commentary was in Macedonian and the tellies were small I wasn’t able to see. I did ask a few people the score though.

Sunday 13th June – Monday 14th June

Spent the days doing very little in the hot sun, with the exception of a kayaking trip to the shops. We headed off across the lake to the local village, tied up our canoes and bought some goods. Stuffed them in the back of the kayak and paddled back slightly weighed down! It was rather a unique way of going shopping. Kayaking in the lake we also were shocked to find little creatures heads sticking out. As we got closer we found they were snakes swimming and it sort of put us off going for any more dips in the lake!

Also we found an old footpath around the edge of the lake, this took people around to some old lakeside clubs.

These were apparently open in the summer, with one of them doing work ready to open. Also we found a small chapel in a cave, with painted ceiling and walls.

It was a very nice place to while away a few days. The nights though were very hot and hard to sleep through and our tiny 12volt fan was pointless! I can see why people have air conditioning.

Tuesday 15th June

Decided to head away from the campsite over the hills and to another lake. We said our goodbyes to the Jones family, although we may well bump into them again as our routes seem quite similar and headed for the hills. It was a lovely drive across some beautiful scenery, occasionally having to avoid road-crossing tortoises!

When we arrived at the lake though we were disappointed in finding it had a collection of lakeside bars and horrible mobile home type campsites and decided to continue our journey. The lake wasn’t as beautiful as Ohrid, but it did seem to have a large flock of Pelicans on it, they looked huge even from afar!

We continued on to Pelister national park, right on the border with Greece. This has in it Pelister Mountain, which has a small ski resort. We thought as it was summer this would be a good place to wild camp, as they would have plenty of parking around the mountain. After a drive up a small road through a little village, waiting a while for some cows to cross and the farmer giving us a comical shrug, we started climbing up the road. At the top was a hotel, so slightly further down we found a spot to park up for the night.