Had a reasonable breakfast at our hotel served by a smiling waiter who looked as though he was ex-Macedonian Secret Service.
The plan for today is to reach Bitola, Macedonia from Negotino also Macedonia. This is a distance of around 60 miles and should leave us less than 10 miles from the Greek/Macedonian border.
Set off well before 09:00 in a freezing blizzard plus howling gale.....
Errrr....not.
Sorry UK-ites, more blue skies and the promise of mid 30's Celsius later in the day.
Did someone say it's been raining a bit in the UK?.......
Managed to navigate through Negotino by the old technique of 'more luck than judgement' primarily due to the paucity of road signage.
Got ourselves on the scenic route through the Tikves wine region, Macedonian's equivalent of France's Bordeaux.
We had a very pretty scenic ride through to Kavadarci where we were once again lucky with our choices of direction.
Picked up a couple of stonking hills and a good descent, eventually finding our way back onto the main route 106 to Prilep.
Shortly after joining 106, the road started to rise and so it carried on. We slowly gained nearly 1000m of height over the next 17 miles.
At each bend in the road, we hoped the summit would be revealed but alas not.
We had the 'pleasure' of grinding out 95% of the climb before a roadside café came to the rescue and pop gorging began.
Between us we consumed more E's than in a Yorkshire Scrabble set and enough sugar to send an infant into orbit for many hours!
Replenished, we knocked off a 1:7 section then the last couple of miles to the summit at Pletvar.
As we stopped for the inevitable piccies and slurp, we were constantly pipped and waved at by the passing motorists. At least they appreciated the effort that had gone into the climb.
We set off to descend the 'far side' and were a little disappointed as the road was being resurfaced and we had to keep our speed well in check.
Shortly, we arrived at the outskirts of Prilep, Macedonia and elected to use the by-pass rather than fight through the centre.
This joined the M5, which cut through a wide flat valley.
Few ups, fewer downs and a bit of a head/cross wind accompanied us as we banjaxed the final 25 miles into Bitola.
We made a final ice lolly and pop stop outside Bitola then made our way into the interior....
All day, the local people have been very friendly and considerate on the roads. As we rode into Bitola, a Macedonian Bono lookalike hung out of his car shouting felicitations at us.
This has been a very common occurrence during our time here and makes a nice change from some of the other countries we've visited.
As we worked our way through the outskirts of Bitola, we were given more unsolicited help in finding our hotel for the evening and we were rapidly ensconced in our room.
Very nice hotel, very nice restaurant.
Today a hard and mainly uphill 65 miles and a silly 1170m of ascent. Total trip 3368 miles.
More Southerly ramblings to follow.
Back soon. Miles & Tracey.
