Most Macedonians have heard of Pelister - its image and name grace bottles of one of the nation's most well known mineral waters, Pelisterka. Pelister National Park is also Macedonia's oldest, formed in 1948. At 2601m/8533ft, Pelister is the crowning peak of Baba Mountain, the third highest mountain massif in Macedonia (after
Korab and
Šar). It towers over the city of Bitola, on the edge of the vast Pelagonia plain, its stature earning it a place on the list of
European Ultra-prominents (peaks rising more than 1500m above their surroundings) Located in the far south of the country, the range continues on into Greece where it is known as Varnous. Unlike much of upland Macedonia, which is predominantly limestone, Pelister is comprised of granite. Lots and lots of granite. The slopes of the mountain are a stronghold of the rare, five-needled Molika pine tree, found on only a handful of mountains in the Balkans.The park is also home to a huge variety of fauna, including the brown bear which we were fortunate enough not to bump into.
Of the various routes up to Pelister, the appropriately named Rocky Trail appeared to offer the most interest. As the name suggests, the way ascends over rock - in this case, huge blocks of granite that look like they were cast down from the summit by some angry giant. We followed up this thoroughly entertaining ascent with a gentle, if long descent through the Molika forests of Palisnopje. The walk came in at just over 14 miles with around 4500ft of ascent. Weather was (predictably) hot and sunny...
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| The route, clockwise from the green flag, top right |
Our walk started from the plush hotel Molika, on Pelister's lower slopes and an hour and a half's pleasant drive from Ohrid. We were there early and the only other people around were a couple of park rangers doing a spot of litter picking as they came off-shift. We exchanged pleasantries. When one of the rangers realised we were English he came out with that comedy gold response, with thumbs up "Ah, the Beatles!" (to be fair, that's the first time we've heard that one. It's usually 'Manchester United' or, rarely, 'Wolves'). This was followed up by a smattering of classic British rock bands, most notably Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin - our ranger friend also played the guitar and loved British rock music, so we shared some common ground. We wandered over to the end of the hotel car park, to a National Park noticeboard that identified the start of the Rocky Trail and dove headlong into the cooling shade of the Molika forest.
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| Start of the Rocky Trail |
We climbed steadily through the trees on a well-marked trail and soon reached a clearing at the remains of the recently fire-razed Kopanki mountain hut, situated at the top of Pelister's small ski run. There is a memorial here to Dimitar Ilievski-Murato, a Bitola resident and, in 1989, the first Macedonian to climb Everest. Sadly he perished on the descent.
We ducked back into the trees and carried on our way. Here the angle eased as we crossed the flank of Pelister's northern ridge, before a series of zig-zags took us up steeply onto the ridge crest.
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| Memorial to Dimitar Ilievski-Murato |
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| Climbing gradually through the forest |
So far the going hadn't been in the least bit rocky, but up here on the crest of the ridge we were met with giant granite boulders. The route cleverly picked its way up, round and across the huge blocks and we soon emerged from the trees to be met with our first stunning view of the summit ridge. The nearest peak, and our first destination was the 2468m top of Stiv, from here looking like a giant pile of rocks. Molika pines grew in abundance on Stiv's slopes, apparently from bare rock. Such cascades of rock are a feature of Pelister and are known as 'stone rivers' as many seem to cascade down through the trees like raging torrents, reaching a couple of miles in length.
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| First view of the summit ridge and Stiv peak |
A short amount of clambering later and we arrived at a viewpoint with a wooden platform. A fine place to stop for a second breakfast and admire the stunning views north into the heart of Macedonia, and east to the vast, flat Pelagonia plain.
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| Stunning views into Macedonia from the viewpoint |
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| Leaving trees behind for bare rock |
A short distance from the viewpoint we popped out of the tree line and were met with our first view of the summit of Pelister, standing proud behind Stiv, its top crowned with a TV transmitter. The way ahead involved a good couple of hours clambering and scrambling up bare rock, aided in places with fixed cables. Nowhere was the going difficult, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable way to gain height, with plenty of hands on rock and surrounded by ever improving views.
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| Handy cables to aid progress |
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| Stiv up ahead with Pelister back right |
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| A short rocky staircase |
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| The summit of Pelister |
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| Stunning views back down the ridge |
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| Catching a bit of shade under a rock, with a view across to distant Galičica |
As is usually the case, the fun was over all too quickly and we soon popped out onto the summit of Stiv - every bit the sharp rocky point it appeared from below. From here the summit ridge, a bare spine of jumbled rocks, curved round to Ilinden Peak then finally on to Pelister. Although Pelister looked fairly close, it was still an hour away.
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| Summit ridge: Ilinden (left) and Pelister (right) |
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| Deb sat atop Stiv |
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| Summit ridge to Pelister. Ruins of a WW1 hospital lie in the valley, right |
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| View east across Bitola to Pelagonija |
We dropped down off Stiv onto a long, narrow col and passed by a refuge hut enroute to the short, stiff reascent to Ilinden. The 2542m top of Ilinden was gained by a short out and back scramble before we continued on our way. The ridge here was very reminiscent of Snowdonia's Glyderau - the terrain being an oversized mix of Glyder Fach and Tryfan. As such we had a great time scrambling and clambering over rocks on our way up the final pull to Pelister.
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| Refuge below Ilinden and Pelister peaks |
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| The top of Ilinden reached by a short scramble |
Like Galičica mountain a few miles to the west, Pelister was the scene of much action during both world wars. On the section of ridge leading to Pelister we came across several remains of buildings, built into the rock. Here, painted on a rock were the words 'Ulica Makedonia, 10.IV.1942G.', Macedonia Street, 10th April 1942.
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| Wartime remains on Pelister |
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| Macedonia Street, 10th April 1942 |
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| View along Macedonia Steet to Pelister's summit |
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| View back along the ridge to Ilinden (R) & Stiv (L) |
After 5 hours of constant uphill walking and scrambling we finally arrived at the giant TV transmitter on Pelister's top. We continued a short way beyond the building to another memorial to Dimitar Ilievski-Murato and broke for lunch. Up here, the views were extensive and we could follow the many peaks of the Baba mountain chain down into Greece. Our favourite haunt, Galičica, was clearly visible across Lake Prespa to the west as was Albania. A little closer to home and we could make out Malo Ezero (little lake), sheltered beneath Partizanski Vrv. Along with its partner, Golemo Ezero (big lake) these two glacial lakes, the only two on the mountain, are known as the Pelister Eyes.
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| Yours truly on Pelister's summit |
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| A memorial, a TV transmitter and a wife. Ilinden just in view right |
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| Another peak annexed to Wolverhampton. Yes, we know, it's upside down... |
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| Long range views into Greece |
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| View across the summit to Pelagonija |
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| View across Lake Prespa into Greece (L) and Albania (R) |
From the summit, a rough track headed south and turned west over a shoulder to zig-zag down steep grassy slopes, before swinging north into the forest and back towards our start point. This was to be our route of return but first we continued along the narrow summit ridge, then dropped steeply down to meet the track at the shoulder. A shepherd was tending his flock on the slopes down below, which only meant one thing....big, scary, tourist-attacking sheepdogs. Here we go again...
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| Vi ew back along the summit ridge. Ilinden far right |
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| View south into Greece. Malo Ezero nestled beneath Partizanski Vrv, right |
As we reached the track a dog appeared on the skyline about 100m away, watching us. Another bimbled around on the slopes below. Deciding not to take any chances, we headed straight down the slope to meet the shepherd.
"Dobar den!" says I
"Eh?"
"Zdravo!"
"Eh?"
Now, while my Macedonian is far from good, what little I do know is generally understood. Not so this time it seemed. Our shepherd friend proceeded to babble on unintelligibly. Hmmmm. I pointed at his dog,
"Kuče e dobar? OK?"
"Eh?"
And so it went on for a few minutes until we caught a word we understood;
"Tourist?"
We nodded.
"Grčki" said our new friend, patting himself on the chest. Suddenly everything became clear. Matey-boy was Greek and didn't understand a word of Macedonian! Hardly surprising I suppose, since Greece was only about five miles away across the mountains. After a few rounds of 'kalimera' and 'yamas' we established that the dogs weren't a threat and waved each other on our respective, merry ways.
We headed down into a hot, grassy basin, the head of a long deep valley through which we would now follow the dirt track back to civilisation. The slopes here were quite busy - it was billberry season and the locals were out in force in their 4x4 vehicles collecting the berries for sale to local businesses. A hunting lodge on the edge of the forest appeared to be their base for the weekend and we noticed huge sacks of billberries lined up ready to be taken down by whatever mode of transport was available, a mixture of moped, Lada Niva 4x4 (I want one) and Zastava 750 (an ancient Serbian clone of the original Fiat 600, it's skinny tyres and high ground clearance have rendered it the ubiquitous go-anywhere vehicle in Macedonia since the 1960s!).
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| Heading down grassy slopes into the valley on the right |
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| The track down. Kozji Kamen (Goat Rock) ahead |
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| Summit view from the track through the forest |
The track back, though easily angled, was extremely rough in places and we wondered how the vehicles seen earlier had managed to get up it. 'Barely' was the answer as we were later passed by a couple of Zastava's bouncing back down, drivers pinned up against their doors and passenger seats removed as the cars were stuffed full of as many sacks of billberries that would fit. Plus an extra one for luck...As we stopped for a drink at a spring, a moped creaked its way past, engine off and seemingly out of control, as the pilot gave us a cheery wave. His other half, jolting around on the back, hanging on for dear life and surrounded by billberries didn't look quite so cheerful...
The track continued, seemingly for ages, through the forested slopes of Palisnopje. Every now and then we'd emerge from the trees to be standing in the midst of one of Pelister's huge stone rivers. Eventually we reached the tarmac road below Hotel Molika. Here a large van was parked with electronic scales set up and the billberry pickers were exchanging their spoils for cash payment.
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| View down one of Pelister's stone rivers |
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| Early evening sunshine over the Molika forest |
A short walk back up hill to the hotel carpark saw us back at the car some ten hours after setting out on what was a fantastic walk through incredible scenery and terrain.
