Tag: birthday

Lakes in Western Greece and North Macedonia.

Sometimes, advice comes from the strangest quarters.

I buy cheese regularly from a stall at Victoria Market in Melbourne. The cheese seller is a biker and of Greek heritage. His mum lives in Niki on the Greece/ North Macedonian border. He told me the lakes and mountains in this area we very special. They are let me show you!

Arnissa is a beautiful little village on the banks of Lake Vegoritida, nestled in the mountains on the Greek/ North Macedonia border

But the best lakes were over the border in North Macedonia.

I was guided to these lakes by a chance aquaintance at Victoria Market.

This is where I buy my cheese and the cheeseman is a biker of Greek origin whose mum lives in Niki on the Greek/ Macedonian border.

He told me the riding and the scenery around Lakes Prespa and Ohrid was magnificent. And his advice was true.

Lake Prespa and Lake Ohrid are divided by a large limestone mountain range. Lake Prespa sits in a mountain basin and is 150 metres higher elevation than Lake Ohrid. The mirky shallow water of Lake Prespa is filteres through the limestone emerging form spings into the crystal clear waters of Lake Ohrid. The Lakes are believed to be the oldest in Europe, having been in existence for more than 1 million years.

Lake Prespa is a place for birds and fishing. The shores are primarily agricultural with a few hotels.

The mountains between the two lakes form the Galicica National Park.

The trails in the forests are beautiful for walking, and the roads are magical for motorbike riding.

The spring sourced from Lake Prespa flows at the southern end of the lake is the Monastery of Saint Naum

The mountains provide beautiful views of the lakes and countryside.

The mountains also allow for paragliding over Lake Ohrid.

The water of Lake Ohrid is just beautiful. The eastern side of the lake in North Macedonia and the western side Albania. The City of Ohrid sits at the Northern end of the lake.

Small villages are dotted around the sure as well as big resorts. This is a tourist lake with some amazing history.

At the southern end of the lake, there is the Monastery of St Naum, which is reputedly the oldest Byzentine monastery in the world.

This is where the mountain filtered spring water from Lake Prespa flows into Lake Ohrid.

In Ohrid the Church of Saints Clement and Panteleimon is also a historic treasure. Both the church and the Roman ruins.

Doing this post reminds me I must once again thank the cheese seller for his wonderful travel advice.

When I’m 64

Maybe its a latter life crisis

Too late for a mid life one – me thinks

Haven’t been to the blog for a while

Feel a bit like the unadventurous adventurer at the moment

In reality its just the piecemeal part

And now I’m 64

A child of Aquarius

My birthday just past

Maybe its still a hangover from the amazing 8 months I had travelling around some of the most iconic and remote places in Australia.

I think I miss a lot of being in the wilderness now Im back in the city.

But there have been little escapes

Trentham and its Falls

On the Mighty Breva onto the Victoria’s Central Highlands

In the rain forests and on the windy roads and trails in the Otway Ranges

I think my late life crisis hit its peak on my last trip to the Otway Ranges

Riding some of the more difficult trails, getting bogged in mud and in sand and having to muscle a big heavy bike out of those predicament

One beauty of the Otway Ranges is the waterfalls such as Beauchamp Falls

It’s also where the rainforest meets the Southern Ocean

But I think what I have missed most being back in a big city is the stars.

The lume of artificial light from a major city like Melbourne robs the night sky of its sparkling grandeur

But camped in the higher parts of the Otways on a clear crisp night with little but a camp fire to compete with the night sky put on a special show.

It’s 2022 now and we are entering the third year of the pandemic and for us in Australia the possibility of travelling overseas again.

I still have a bike in the UK and there is a strong urge to complete the journey to Morocco that I started in 2020 and that was bought to a sudden and abrupt halt in Spain and its first pandemic lock down.

Also there is nothing like riding a motorcycle in the Alps lol

Looking across to Grimsel Pass from Furka Pass in the Swiss Alps

Ps an addition for my friends in the US. In the Otways there is a small stand of Sequoia. They were planted in 1939, only babies in the life of these trees but already they are reaching high into the sky. A little bit of California in Victoria.