Walking Macedonia day 7 (Oct. 2013)

Needed to walk back to D. Disan to find 2 bottles of the original wine we drank and bring them home with us.

All day in the vineyards

The cold wind comes. We find shelter in a shake on the side of the road. The wind cut right through the sleeping bag.

Walking Macedonia Day 6, part 2 (Oct. 2013)

We watched the cloud cover the mountain and us.

waiting for our ride

Invited in to the shack to eat with the tractor guards. They all thought it was a ‘wtf’ moment to have Americans walking through Konopishte.

Two pistles displayed on the wall.

Found  Pepi’s restaurant near the bus station in Kavadarci and took a rest day

Walking Macedonia, Day 6 (Oct 2013)

crossroads to Kavadarci

Heard wolves howling in the middle of the night.

There is a mammal that comes out at night that I have heard through out the Balkans. We call it the ‘night squirrel’. It seemed to complain about the wolf this evening.

A man and 12 dogs came out of the forest, hand out stretched and a big smile. He sat in the hay and observed our morning packing efforts. I asked him if he heard the wolf and where did he sleep last night. He just shrugged. His woolen clothes were shades of green. It rained a lot yesterday and I wondered why his clothes were dry. We now call him the ‘werewolf’.

Road walking

Konopishte new friend/tractor man picks us up in his tractor and decides that we need to get off the mountain.

Photo: Wilhelm Cortez

Walking Macedonia, Day 5 (Oct 2013)

Krnjevo to 9km past Konopishte.

Distance ceased to be calculated today. We have no idea how we walked 20 plus km in what seemed like 2 hours.

Darkening all day. When we got to the crossroads it started to rain heavy. Nothing around accept an abandon farm.

We sheltered under one of the eves of a structure for a few hours. Lightning and heavy rain, we decided to cook.

We drank mass quantity of strong tea.

Photo: Wilhelm Cortez

Walking Macedonia, Day 4, part 3 (Oct 2013)

Arid

In a well traveled cross road a tree with apples, golden plums and thorns grew. It looked like the fruit had been grafted on. Mythical Greek tree.

Spring would bring a totally different picture.

Walking Macedonia, Day 4, part 2 (Oct 2013)

Vast ecosystem

Piles of stone once were structures.

Signs of ancient agriculture.

Walking Macedonia, Day 4, (Oct 2013)

No sign of Stragovo.

Our camp. The plastic is still holding up after all the use.

South across the flat land.

Mycro stalked and flushed quail for the first time.

We met up with 2 engineers who offered us food, coffee and water at there build site. They even fed Mycro a tin of pink meat.

We found Stragovo. They are cattle people.

A bunch of grapes fell off a turning truck. Sticky fingers.

Border police buy us coffee.

Apple man is demanding. Gums are sore from eating back to back apples.

Walking Macedonia, Day 3, (Oct 2013)

Walked up and down all day on boar trails.
Rose bush stickers
Thorn bush thorns. These actually mature into a tree who loses the thorns.
Cliff drop on one side and prickly pine, rose and blackberry on the other. Choose your pain.

Found a white crumbly pass through the canyon.

Flat on top.

Donkey carcass

Photo: Wilhelm Cortez

Walking Macedonia, Day 2, part 3 (Oct 2013)

I felt like I needed to be serious about finding water. I found a runoff coming out from under a barn. I looked and smelled clean. It’s not sewage.

When I alerted Bill about this water I was about to collect, unknown to us an actual fountain was 20 meters farther up the hill. When we officially united with this fountain who was built in the 1930’s we needed to cook and wash up. Camping near fresh water is always a stress relief.

Across the canyon from our camp we could see a large cave entrance.

 

Photo:  Wilhelm Cortez

Walking Macedonia, Day 2, part 2 (Oct 2013)

Last year around the same time of autumn I had heard about Macedonia’s abandon villages. Here we are standing in one.

G. Disan is a bottle cap on the canyon. Fig trees grew wild here. The fruit black on the outside and dark red on the inside.

Photo:  Wilhelm Cortez