Good bye Ohrid. Todays itinerary led us just past Bitola. It was a beautiful ride through a relatively thinly populated area along a narrow, lush valley followed by a wider, more grassy landscape surrounded by mountains, some of which still had snow on them. There was the occasional shepherd with his herd and small farms. Later the mountains gave way to low hills and large fields. Groups of people were planting tabacco while others were manually watering the newly planted rows with hoses from water barrels mounted on one of these leggy, antique looking tractors so common to this area.
We met Pierre and Esther on the side of the road. They are on a 10 months walking tour from Spain to Jerusalem. GOOD LUCK YOU GUYS!
Shortly before sunset we reached a small town past Bitola. The same family who let James sleep in their unused shop last time, allowed us to sleep in there again. Since it was still too early to get the beds ready, we just moved our bikes in and then sat on our tarp to rest. This tiny town probably rarely sees any foreigners because a neighbour girl, about 10 years old, could not stare at us long enough. While we were still outside waiting for the family to return from the field, she stood at the bottom of the driveway staring at us the entire time. Once we moved into the shop, she squarely placed herself a few meters infront of the door and stared. After quite a while she eventually walked out of direct sight but returned every few minutes for the next 20 min or so checking what we were up to. It was kind of funny but very odd too. I have never experienced such blunt curiosity before.
Before bed time, we were offered a cup of Turkish style coffee by the family. The language barrier kept conversation very slow paced but more smiles were exchanged to compensate for the lack of words, a nice alternative I thought.
THANKS TO YOU ALL FOR THE NICE EVENING AND THE SAFE CAMPING SPOT.
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