Mt Vodno to Matka canyon

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Today we went on a long walk... We left the hotel fairly early to set off for the bottom of the gondola at Mt Vodno, just outside Skopje. Having seen taxis everywhere yesterday, we thought it'd be easy to find one this morning, but it was a little harder than we thought. We found one in the end, but arrived to find that the gondola didn't open until 10am, and it was only just after 9. Not to be defeated, we decided to walk up to the summit instead. It turned out that this wasn't the greatest idea ever, as it was already quite warm and the path was relentlessly uphill... But we made it!



At the top is a massive gold cross, with a swanky looking restaurant complex below it. Unfortunately, aside from a little shop selling ice cream (honestly, there's nothing wrong with ice cream at 10:30...) there was nothing else open. You'd have thought that after spending all that money on the gondola and the cross thing they'd have built some decent toilets rather than a hole in the ground in a little shed behind the old restaurant... Anyway, after cooling down a bit and taking in the view over Skopje, we set off for Matka canyon.



We'd read differing accounts of how easy the path was to follow - the markings have clearly been improved since some of them wee written, and there were red-and-white markings all the way to Matka. The path started out as a track, and was relatively shady. We walked past some old tank hideouts that are now home to some cows, and onto a narrower path. Some of the later sections of the path didn't have much shade, and it was rather warm... Eventually, about 10km later, we got to Sv Nicholas church and ate our lunch. The descent from there into the canyon was spectacular, but the path pretty hard going. However, at the bottom we had the fun of having to bang a gong to get a boat to come and fetch us! Once over the other side, we stopped for water and had a lovely view of the canyon from a little cafe.



We spent a bit of time at the canyon, taking in the view and sitting by the river. We'd hoped to catch a bus back to Skopje, but - along with lots of local people - we werent very impressed when it didn't show up. 20 mins after it was due to arrive, we gave up and got another taxi back!



We were very happy to see our air conditioned room, and ate dinner in a restaurant right opposite the hotel - a lovely meal, and surprisingly our cheapest dinner yet!

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