Pelister National Park

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Today we went up into the mountains in Pelister National Park. We'd planned to walk up, but unfortunately there were limited number of guides available (it's a holiday for Orthodox Christians), and no easy way up to the trails without one, so we joined a jeep trip to the top instead. Definitely a lower effort way to climb a mountain! The road was built in WW1(when the area was on the front line), and hadn't aged well, but our driver expertedly picked as smooth a path as seemed to exist in a jeep that was still got strong with more than 300,000km on the clock!

The views from the top are spectacular, including a good view of Lake Prespa which stretches across Greece, Albania and Macedonia. Open street map had good details of many of the small hiking trails on the mountain (we did some walking from the top) and the surrounding bits of view...a step above Apple maps which only recognises the existence of the Greek corner of Lake Prespa!

The star attractions at the top of Pelister are a pair of lakes, which are apparently great for swimming. We sampled the temperature of the big lake (apparently 4°C!) and decided it was a bit chilly for more than a paddle.

Unfortunately we didn't see any bears, wolves or lynx, but did catch a glimpse of several birds of prey (eagles?).

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Photos

The big lake
It was cold...