June 24, 2016
Friday 24 June. Day 8: Gostivar to Mavrovo
The alarm woke us at 4.45am. From the hotel window I saw about 20 lycra clad cyclists on road bikes with decent sized saddle bags or small back packs heading in the direct we planned to go – but we never saw them again, so have no idea who they were.
The hotel restaurant had the night before packed sandwiches, fruit and fruit juice for us (in lieu of breakfast) which was very kind. Processed meat and 2 different kinds of cheese, tomato and cucumber. A tasty breakfast, which we had about 5 km out of town, before the climb to Mavrovo began.
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The road had started narrow, with lots of speeding trucks and buses and no shoulder. However as the climb proper began, there was an overtaking lane for those going uphill, which lasted until we turned off the main road. It made a massive difference – people used the lane and left us lots of space.
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On the whole, Macedonian drivers were really sensible, courteous and left us plenty of room. It only got a little ugly on the really steep bits when trucks were already in 1st gear labouring up the hill, and came past us at the same time as a car was passing them, and there was oncoming traffic. It didn’t happen too often. There was a little bit of horn tooting, but all of the ‘just letting you know I’m behind you’ or ‘woohoo, climb that hill you heroes!’ varieties. Not the usual Sydney ‘get off MY road you f***ing a***hole’ tooting that I am used to… Even the ‘A’ roads regularly had tractors; small, crappy and slow trucks; or motor bikes with ‘lawn mower’ motors (plus the odd other push bike), so I think drivers were generally more used to slowing down and going around.
Today the landscape started to get awesome. Apart from the numerous gravel pits which festooned the road. Also, there was a carpet of spring wild flowers, which (in spite of anti-histamines) started affecting me. Yuck.
The first part of the climb on the main road lasted about 12km. It was a pretty consistent gradual climb with some shade from trees due to the earliness of the hour and the low position of the sun. At the junction with the turnoff to Mavrovo, there was a small shop/café which was very welcome by this time as the sun was getting hotter. It offered a cold soft drink and a cold Nescafe concoction for us both. Plus clean toilets!
The turnoff to Mavrovo also marked the start of road works. We chatted with a friendly road maintenance employee with lots of hand gestures, bits of English, Macedonian (I assume) and German! He was really impressed that we were heading up to Mavrovo by bike and kept miming the internationally recognised symbol for ‘strong’ (feeling your own arm muscle, flexed) and saying ‘bravo’. I felt that this did not bode well…
We had a nice new road for about 3km, a gravel surface ready for tarring for a couple of kms then the old crappy cracked road (which needed the roads works) for the rest of the way. We were now in the national park and the road felt much steeper - but the surface was mostly worse and it was hotter, maybe that made it seem steeper?
Around this area, all the road signs (direction markers etc) were given in Macedonian and Albanian. There was a war for linguistic supremacy evident, with on some signs all Macedonian text spray painted over with black, and on others the Albanian. Seems like a war no-one would win! The history of ethnic Albanians in western Macedonia is really interesting - you can google it if interested!
At a shade break (one of several we had taken) behind a billboard advertising a TV news service - ‘Feel the news!’ - we were joined by a little dog. It was terrible. He followed us for over 5km, trotting to our left, to our right, in front of our wheels and all over the road around cars. We thought we would lose him on our first downhill but he followed for a while at 25KMH for a LONG TIME. Our hill became steeper and we lost him at a collection of little shops and cafes. Hopefully he found some friendly folks there.
We left the main road through the park, turning left over the dam wall to ride beside the lake. It was pretty. But it was definitely the ‘off’ season. This area is essentially a ski resort with very little summer business. We arrived hot and tired at the Hotel Golden Palace to find it empty except for workmen and an infestation of flies; and the pool (about which I had been fantasising) completely empty too. The hotel was in a bad way. After being shown to our dirty room with a bathroom so badly plumbed that there was water all over the floor and mould all over the walls in the bedroom, we left and continued on to Mavrovo proper.
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After trying a couple of other overpriced, rundown and empty places, we came to the Hotel Bistra. An old-school ski resort hotel – lots of wood, taxidermy animals, open fire places (inactive) and recreational facilities.
At lunch, consisting of cheese in the form of a pie (it was fresh from the oven and the best of the whole trip) and a salad with cheese, we chatted to Miroslav (the waiter) who was home in Macedonia after 10 years working as a waiter on cruise ships. He had tried to move to Melbourne (where he had relatives) but was unable to get a visa. BTW – Miro was not the only Macedonian we met who had done time on cruise ships. Over 30% unemployment and an average monthly salary of €350 in Macedonia compared to USD3,000 per month on a cruise ship.
We were the only guests in the 60 room hotel I think, but there were plenty of staff, friends of staff, children of staff, people borrowing kitchen equipment from staff, blokes coming to wash their trucks using the hotel’s hose, and staff (with friends) playing impromptu games of football on the terrace to entertain us. There was also the Jacuzzi in our room. Whoop!
Dinner was also great. Grilled meats and vegetables plus ajvar and salad. And a great view down to the lake from the window next to our table.
Today's ride: 29 km (18 miles)
Total: 137 km (85 miles)
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