Macedonia - Part II (September 30th - October 4th)

Sunday September 30th and we headed off to Skopje Airport to pick up our hire car. I always feel anxious with hire cars as David loves to floor the accelerator and my map reading skills are not great but it actually was ok with the roads generally pretty good and also pretty empty which David really enjoyed.

We headed off to Stobi winery first in sunny skies but by the time we arrived at the winery gates the clouds had rolled in and it was grey and cool with occasional spits of rain. The winery was closed for a private function which was a shame and so we headed onwards to Stobi ruins for a look around. The site was quite small but we eventually had the place all to ourselves and had an enjoyable wander around.

 Stobi Mosaic - Also on the Stobi Winery label and the 10 Denar Bank note

Stobi Theatre

The vegetation was very dry but there were little clumps of flowers dotted around which were magnets for good numbers of butterflies and despite the cloudy sky I managed to see a swallowtail along with clouded yellows, blues and whites.

 Swallowtail

Swallowtail close up

Birds were very obvious too and I had the best birdwatching of the trip here with tawny pipit, red throated pipit, swift, red rumped swallow, red backed shrike, chiffchaff, tree sparrow, white wagtail, house martin, swallow, wheatear, linnet, goldfinch, woodpigeon, starling, crested lark, spotted flycatcher, sparrowhawk and Syrian woodpecker all being seen.

 Tawny Pipit

 Crested Lark

Syrian Woodpecker

We carried on to Demir Kapija to look at the gorge but got a bit lost and ended up on a new motorway heading towards the Greek border! Eventually we managed to turn around and get back to the gorge before driving to Negotino for an overnight stay.

Monday 1st October and the sun had reappeared and after a quick visit to the nearby Bovin winery we drove over the mountains to the Roman ruins at Bargala, enjoying the amazing scenery along the way. The site was again small and again we eventually had it all to ourselves but the only birds I saw here were ravens, crested larks, tree sparrows and a juvenile red backed shrike. However with the sun shining it became very warm and there were butterflies everywhere - swallowtail, clouded yellow, whites including an Eastern bath white, small heath, blues, wall brown, small copper, grayling and Queen of Spain Fritillary. There were also hummingbird hawkmoths everywhere, I've never seen so many before.

Bargala

 Queen of Spain Fritillary

 Grayling Sp.

 Small Heath

 Eastern Bath White

 Eastern Bath White

Swallowtail

Puppy in the ruins

We drove on to Kratovo, a small town in the crater of an extinct volcano which was very quiet and laid back with old buildings and wonderful scenery. We stayed here for 2 nights and the next morning the day started well with the sun shining as we took a short drive to nearby Kuklica to view the stone dolls, weathered porous volcanic rocks that look like figures, and again we were the only ones there amongst the beautiful scenery.

Kuklica Stone Dolls

A Hermann's tortoise was a nice find wandering around the dusty and dry vegetation and there were plenty of jays around with a yaffling green woodpecker seen flying up into trees as we drove by. A skulking robin was a surprise plus all the usual butterflies were on view including what I think is a very worn male Adonis blue.

 Hermann's Tortoise

 Hermann's Tortoise 

 Grasshopper Sp. 

 Adonis Blue

Adonis Blue

We drove back to Kratovo and after a herbal tea in a cafe on the main square (no black tea on the menu) and a brief view of a flyover juvenile black stork we hiked up into the mountains to the small village of Gorni Kratovo, admiring the stunning scenery along the way. It was hot and sunny and I heard long tailed tits calling in the trees and saw at least 3 cirl buntings skulking in the bushes plus all the usual butterflies were on view including a large white and a female long tailed blue.

 Long Tailed Blue

Cricket Sp.

Things took a turn for the worse though when David, having decided to scramble up a rocky hillside, slipped on the way down and twisted his ankle. He luckily didn't break anything but was in a lot of pain as he hobbled slowly back to Kratovo and the next day had a very swollen foot developing some impressive bruising.

He was still able to drive and so we headed back to Skopje via Kokino, a megalithic observatory site referred to as the Stonehenge of Macedonia. David managed to slowly walk up to the rocky outcrop and around the rocky site where thrones have been hewn into rocks to observe the rising sun appearing between rock markers on certain days of the year. The scenery was stunning and we had the place to ourselves except for the ticket man and an English lady with 2 Macedonian friends who left not long after we arrived. A buzzard, a red throated pipit and a woodlark calling were the avian highlights and the usual butterflies were seen before we drove back to Skopje airport to drop the hire car off.

Kokino

We stayed the night at the Hotel Mirror near the airport and for the only time on the holiday we actually sat in the sun by the pool enjoying a beer while I watched a juvenile red backed shrike, collared doves, a chiffchaff, a hovering kestrel and starlings feeding in the fields nearby.

  Red-backed Shrike

Red-backed Shrike

October 4th and an early start saw us heading back to the airport for our return flight to Istanbul for the final part of our holiday but Macedonia had been a delight, very interesting and virtually devoid of tourists and despite David's accident we had had a really enjoyable time.