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Day 13?  Good grief – where does the time go!  It’s another beautiful day in North Macedonia, and needless to say, this is the most eagerly anticipated day of the trip – we’re exploring the Matka Canyon, deep in the mountains surrounding Skopje.

We’ve opted to go for another organised tour for this one – I just feel it’s the best way of seeing everything, and getting around, and the expert guidance is a bonus!  This tour (again organised through GetYourGuide) only cost around £20 pp, and is scheduled to last 6 hours.  It’s great value for money.  

We’ve been told to meet at Skopje Fortress, which ironically is where yesterday’s tour ended.  I wish I had have listened more intently, so I could add some insightful or witty comment – but as I didn’t, I’ll just say that it features lovely brickwork!

We’re cutting it a little fine for time – the departure time is 9:30am, but have been told to arrive 5 minutes in advance.  We arrive up the hill exactly bang on time, to find a lady standing outside a tour bus, in a car park-cum- lay-by.  Ah that’ll be the one!  Again the thought crosses my mind – how long would these guys be prepared to wait for a missing passenger.  Let’s not find out the hard way – eh?

The lady is called Olivia, and she’s our guide for the day.  She’s a 40-something localler, wears a black baseball cap and black T-shirt, and has a lanyard draped around her neck with a pass containing the Skopje Daily Tours logo.  She speaks with a very effeminate but posh accent.  Just when we need reminding how posh, she’ll throw in a “my dears” or two!  

Thankfully we’re not the last to arrive, but Olivia seems to be a woman on a mission.  We have a strict schedule to keep, and with everyone on the bus, we leave hurriedly at 10:28am.  Or at least, I assume everyone was on the bus?  🤔 

There’s an unwritten rule of going on a tour that the tour guide is always right, and I certainly wouldn’t want to discredit the professionals, but as the guide launches into the background information spiel, I can’t help but question some of her facts.  

One such example – “Lake Ohrid is the deepest lake in Europe’.  Not even close!  Lake Ohrid is about 288 metres deep, but Hornindalsvatnet and Tinnsjå Lakes in Norway, and Como, Garda and Maggiore in Italy (to name a few) are much deeper!  The oldest lake in Europe perhaps, but deeper, absolutely not!  She also claims Ohrid town is the oldest settlement in Europe, but this is a bold claim with no evidence to back up.

I tune out a little after this.

The bus doesn’t have far to travel, to arrive at the Matka Canyon.  We stop beside a large dam – some might say a damn good one!  This was built back when North Macedonia was still part of Yugoslavia. Built in 1938, we’re told that this is the oldest hydroelectric plant in Europe.  A little bit of after the event fact-checking proves this too to be wide of the mark.  (The oldest is the Steigbachwerk in Germany from 1880 for what it’s worth).

We’re told this is a toilet stop, but confusion ensues when it becomes apparent that this isn’t a toilet stop, but rather, us headed for the Matka Canyon itself. Cue mass pandemonium when everyone realises that all of their stuff is still on the bus.  We chase down the driver, who is standing smoking in a field, and he lets us into the bus to retrieve our backpacks.  

Matka means womb in Macedonian… nope, nothing more to add on that one.  

On the way up to the canyon, I chat with a young couple from Wales, and we exhange stories of our experiences travelling in the Balkans.  They’ve been to Albania already, but were caught up in all the heavy rain last week.  I give them a few warnings about Kosovo, as they had been considering it.  

The route takes us on a winding path hugging the canyon cliff.  There are some brilliant views, but we don’t have long to stop – we’ve got a schedule to keep, and Olivia’s not in the mood for hangers on.  “Hurry up, my dears!”

The cliff side path terminates at a wooden jetty with Kayaks on one side, and motorised boats taxiing from the other.  Olivia leads us to a ticket booth, where we are given the option to buy our own tickets for a boat ride out to the Vrelo Cave.  

The journey there is absolutely serene, with the Treska river cutting through the high rocks on both sides.  It’s easy to assume that this was manmade to service the dam, but that’s not the case – the canyon has been entirely naturally formed.  We pass kayakers as we journey towards the cave – when we first heard of this place, we were particularly keen to kayak down the river.  Hopefully an opportunity presents itself later on.

The cave is nice, but it’s got nothing on the Marble Arch Caves in Co. Fermanagh back home – there are only a handful of stalactites and stalagmites, and none of them more than a couple of metres.  Don’t forget the little mnemonic – tights go up and mites go down (or is it the other way around?  I can never remember!)

We don’t hang around the cave for long, instead returning to the boat to await the rest of our group.  The tour guide didn’t join us for the tour to the cave – I can’t help but feel it could have done with a little ‘guiding’, then again given the prevalence of fake news on this outing up to now, any information would have likely been a tad over-embellished.  

The return boat journey is just as amazing as the first, and when we arrive back at the docking station, we’re told we’ve got 20 minutes (“but no more my dears”) before we have to leave.  Perfect, we can squeeze in some kayaking after all!

The booth advertises single and double kayak hire.  For the singles it’s 200 MKD for 30 minutes / 300 MKD for 60 minutes.  For the doubles it’s 300 MKD for 30 minutes or 500 MKD for 60 minutes.  Dad and I go for a double, while mum stays back to stall the guide.

In the 20 minutes we have on the water, I pace ourselves so we turn back roughly halfway through our timeslot.  The intention is to go as fast as we can down the canyon to get as far as we can down the canyon.  I’ll be honest, dad was doing most of the heavy lifting – he’s the more experienced paddler.

We get quite far down (maybe half way to the cave), when a large right hand kink in the river seems like a good place to turn back.  Again, I cannot emphasise enough how amazing this experience is.  The water is calm and perfect for kayaking in, and the only waves come from passing boats.  We try to work out which way the water is flowing, then remember the river is dammed, and it isn’t flowing in any direction!  

As I know from experience technology and water is a lethal combination, so I was more than a little nervous bringing my phone, but thankfully there are no dramas, and bar the odd splash coming off the oars, stay pretty dry.

Again, we time it perfectly and arrive back exactly as Olivia’s deadline hits.  I’m a little annoyed we were beaten back by our Welsh friends, but then again, we managed to get a bit further than they did!  As they say, alls fair in love and ‘oar’! 😂 

No sooner do we arrive back, that Olivia whisks us off back to the bus.  That’s a criticism of this tour versus all the others.  We just don’t seem to have very long to stop and savour each location, it feels like we’re constantly keeping one eye on the clock, rather than on the beautiful surroundings.  

Having forgone our lunch break to have time for kayaking, we’re quite peckish.  A table fashioned into a makeshift market stall with an impressive array of nuts is a very welcome and timely sight.  I stock up for the next leg of the bus journey.  

After another 20 minute drive, the bus pulls up in another car park, in a place called Gorno Nerezi outside the Church of St. Pantelejmon.  Whilst others explore around the church, we sit down and take the opportunity to enjoy our packed lunch.  I say enjoy… as much as one can do with three hungry cats circling our legs feeding on the crumbs.  The baps are hard as a rock, the cats are annoying, and a 5 minute stop just isn’t enough for lunch – not our best dining experience of the holiday.  

After abandoning my Tuna roll, I quickly run into the church for a photograph or 10.  There are impressive colourful frescos on the inner walls, rising up to a giant image of Jesus on the domed roof.  At least, I think it’s Jesus.  He appears to be without face.  

Apparently somewhere amongst the imagery is the Virgin Mary with three arms (the only one in the world).  Not sure why – perhaps the artist miscounted somewhere along the way.  Unfortunately I can’t find her in the few minutes I have.  “Quickly my dears”.  

Rather than re-board the bus, we walk to our next location – the Ethnic Village of Makedonsko Selo.  For those from Northern Ireland, think Cultra Folk Park, but without any of the things that make it interesting.  There are a few wooden chalets:  one jewellers, one souvenir shop, one restaurant and one museum (that can be walked around in under a minute).  It’s the sort of place that could be good, but just feels a bit empty.  It seems this place is not long opened, so may be just finding its feet.  

Funny enough, this is the one place today where it feels like we’ve had too much time.  We’re told to meet back at the entrance at 1:45pm, but Olivia doesn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to rush us away this time.  She’s flirting with the guy in the jewellery shop and doing an impromptu modelling session in front of the mirror.  Haha now it’s very clear why the schedule has been so rigorously enforced!  Extra time at the jewellers!

Towering over Skopje atop Mount Vodno is a giant cross – the highest metallic cross in the world, Olivia tells us.  Obviously this is a lot of baloney, but we know by now to take these ‘facts’ with a pinch of salt.  The cross was built around the turn of the last millennium, to celebrate 2000 years of Christianity.  Unlike Albania and Kosovo which are predominantly Muslim, North Macedonia is mostly Orthodox Christian, and proud of it.  The dimensions are symbolic – 33 floors representing Jesus’s age when he died and rose again, 4 pillars representing the 4 gospels, and built on a 12 column platform, representing the 12 disciples.  It’s an impressive bit of engineering, and the Eiffel Tower-like steel work can be seen from most of Skopje.  At night, it’s illuminated by some very bright lights. 

To get up the mountain, a cable car will take us 1.6km across and 498 metres up.  Our group is divided into subgroups of 6/7 people to fill the cars.  

The ride is pretty smooth, and as we climb, the city comes into view from behind the trees on one side, and the cross on the other.  

It’s a perfect day weather wise, and it’s still boiling hot at the top.  Sadly it’s not possible to go inside or up the cross at the moment, I think there’s some renovation work going on, so this might change in the next few months.  That would make a pretty cool viewing platform!

In the absence of the cross being open, there isn’t really a good spot to get photos of the city.  Funny enough, it’s the cable car terminal which gets in the way.  This could be a great spot, but just needs a bit more work.

Beside the cross is a huge telecommunications tower, and this too is under construction.  When it opens (possibly by the end of this year) it will have a revolving restaurant and viewpoint.  

The bar at the base of the cross is serving fruit smoothies, and we go for the ‘Millenium Blend’ containing carrot, coriander, orange and grape juice (it just tastes like orange!)

It’s the perfect antidote to the hot summer sun!

When the time comes to descend again, we feel satisfied with what we’ve seen.  I get a nice timelapse of the journey down.  

On the bus back, Olivia hits us with the best ‘my dears’ moment yet.  She’s talking about the devastating earthquake of 1963… “80% of the city was destroyed, my dears” – could have done with a tad more brevity, I would say. 

We’re dropped back in a completely different area to where we departed from – meaning a slightly longer walk back to the car.  It’s ok, by now we’ve got our bearings in Skopje pretty well, so it’s not hard to find the car park.  

Interestingly, the Millennium Cross which we’ve just come from is the 5th largest cross in the world.  And the 6th one is just round the corner from our apartment, in the Aerodrom district of the city.  The story goes that a Turkish contractor was employed to build the Çevahir towers (the tallest buildings in the city).  Locals (predominantly Christian) were concerned this would open the door to many Turkish & Islamic immigrants, and they erected the 50 metre to try and stave them off.  The locals denied such motives.

As is now tradition, we return to our apartment to freshen up, then return into Skopje for dinner.  Olivia recommended the Senigallia Boat Hotel (botel?) for dinner, and it’s a pretty cool experience, even if the flies are absolutely wild! The waitress Elizabetha is a right hoot!

For desert, we order pancakes – they’re kind of shredded and boiled in cream sauce and topped with caramelised fruits. It’s the nicest thing I’ve tasted on this whole trip.

As we return to base for the evening, it dawns on me that tomorrow is our last day. Sad times 🥲