Obedska Bara Wetlands: Between the Rains

After an aborted attempt some weekends earlier, we finally set off for the three-day weekend in Obedska Bara (http://www.wild-serbia.com/obedska_bara-eng.html), a magnificent wetland that encompasses a huge ancient bend in the River Sava. Instead of following the meandering bends of the river, along the flood banks, we instead took a more direct line. Following two weeks of heavy rain we inevitably encountered mud during one section.  

Upon entering Kupinovo two Stork nests overlook the road.

From Kupinovo the road runs round to the North following the ancient bend. Partway along is the first of three viewing platforms.

In Obrez, where we stayed overnight, the houses were adorned by some interesting figures.

Sunday morning, pre breakfast, we ventured out into the channel to observe the birds - herons, storks, egrets, etc.

Obedska Bara Hotel. A somewhat rundown Yugoslav legacy but with welcoming and generous staff who looked after us well. As a base to discover Obedska Bara it is perfect, with a great terrace on which to eat breakfast or dinner while you listen to the dawn and evening choruses, a mix of birds and frogs. 

In Kupinovo a derelict church now provides a home for three Stork families.

A little further down the road at the entrance to the reserve is the Ethno House and Restaurant. It has another viewing platform, and a mix of traditional houses.

From Kupinovo on Sunday we rode back to Obrez through the reserve on easy gravel roads. Feral pigs roam everywhere, and signs of deer are visible. There is both natural Oak forest and Poplar plantations. 

As ever, Ella Tili took the conditions in her stride!

And then went fishing... Lent a rod by three men. 

Success!

We celebrated with a slightly larger fish for dinner

After a second breakfast in Kupinovo we waved farewell to the storks and headed home.

Approaching Belgrade we returned hors piste to the Fenek Monastery to buy beeswax candles. It coincided with the arrival of a heavy thunderstorm so we were offered refuge, hot coffee and fresh bread.   

Extensively researched before succeeded: on Foot from Vodno to Matka (Skopje, Macedonia)

In a part of the world where maps in any useful scale are still restriced to military personel only, any glance on something looking like a map is like a fata morgana! Andrew when staying in Macedonia in 2011 had researched this route from Vodna, the house mountain of Skopje to the Matka gorge already but never had had a chance to actually hike it, we since had asked around, checked beginning and ends, and of course looked at google earth once again - the latter in this case however little useful, as the ridge along which the trail supposedly went, was in the shade the day the took the satelite photo!

So with all this information in mind, I set off for the third time within weeks to give it a try - the first time a gang of shepard dogs (no smaller than Caucasian sheep dogs) made me return, the second time it snowed at the level of Sredno Vodna already, but for the third time all seemed set well!

So for whoever wants to give it a try as well, as the three hour walk is really great: take the double decker M indicated Millenium Krest to Sredno Vodna half way up the hill. From there take the cable car to the top, but be aware that they operate every first hour of the full hour only. From the final station climb to the (huge) cross, and follow the well developed dirt road branching off the tarmaced road where it bends 180degrees, into a Westerly direction. You can then follow the ridge line on smaller pathes which all return on this major dirt road, or simply follow this dirt road, until after about an hour you reach an abandoned military bunker that looks like two huge garages. There, turn sharp right along a very well red and yellow signposted track a little down the sloped towards Skopje, before the trail levels off again West all the way along the ridge (or bypassing it to the South, there are two options). If you however fail to look right at the garages, you end up in deep brush, or in "some Albanian villages", as my Macedonian speaking fellow hikers a little suspiciously about these places they never visited, mentioned to me!

Finally the trail reaches a fantastic view point into Matka gorge, with a monastery to the right, a famous and busy climbing wall opposite and the Matka gorge and its famous fish restaurant (including rooms, what a great place to spend a night) at your feet!

I safely and joyfully arrived there not only thanks to good marked pathes (if you keep your eyes open into all directions!!!), but also very much thanks to Goran, a very knowledgable local hiker, who spends all his week ends exploring tracks on Vodna back and forward. He even abandoned his fellow hiker to make sure I safely reached Matka (when however later I learned that his fellow hikers wife was a good nine months pregnant, I thought to maybe have rendered him and her a favour!).

Before however descending to the Monastry and then the gorge, we were invited to Rakja, great white goat cheese and olives (NOT greek ones I was told explicitly) by some fellow hikers, and who could have said no?!

The Svetli Nokolai monastery is not in habitated by monks any longer, but has a fantastic little church, and a care takers house. Ibrahim of our office in Skopje later told me that his uncle - himself a Muslim Macedonian citizen - had taken care many years of this monastery with great pride and attention. We both regretted that this is in nowadays Macedonia is hard to imagine any longer. May he rest in peace and others take an example in his open mind and generous thinking.

Down at Matka's we crossed the final bridge accross the stream equally favoured by fishermen and kayak sportspeople, took due note of the many signposts of some other hiking trails (will they be marked, or another Goran will be needed to come along the way?!) before heading back into Skopje, however not without happily accepting Goran's invitation to drop in at his house next time H3 would be in common in Skopje. He let no doubt about the fact that his wife prepares the very best Macedonian national dishes!

So for this time I had "only" Pelister food wating for me, but great never the less. Not that this blue cheese salad was all of it!

A place to return to: Zornica's (Etno) Kuca, Bacevac

We started our tour by train, jumping on in Topcider station just 5 min down the road from our flat, and jumping off 45min later in Veliki Potok, an ancient military camp site, as Miller, a very friendly Serbian man who now lives adjacent to the abandoned railway building explaiened to us. Years ago he has been working in Austria, he is an assistant geometer, was fluent in German...and nowadays lives in poverty, in ripped apart shoes, living in a shack, repairing cars - another face of Serbia one easily tends to oversee. We will return with cold beer and some good food next time we either get on or off the train in Veliki Potok.

The landscape South of Belgrade is a softly hilly one, lush green over and over, with many week end houses, some abandoned, too, and farms. And every village shop, open any day of the week, has its own bench, table and umbrella where customers can enjoy the bought drink - integrated village shop cum bars. We started to like this institution!

So while we refreshed with juice and beer, a traktor stopped as well, reminding us of Great Grandfathers Bucher model, but made in Jugoslavia!

Thanks to Andrew's extensive research on Google earth we followed traffic free wonderful biking path...great, if you can cope with the occasional dead dog lying by the side, or a snake crossing!

Our destination was Zornica Kuca, recommended by Seka, our great, great cleaning lady living not far from this wonderful place. Run by two brothers, who renovated an old farm with a lot of stile and taste, the place offers excellent food (including lots of very traditional ones, like this very slow and long cooked meat in earthern pots on the fire), nice rooms with hand made linen, and a little zoo with quite a selection of domesticated animals, a fox and even two wolves (kept in way too small cages, but with great care).

ET was working hard on her art's book...

...while Mama and Papa enjoyed Turkish coffee with rose bud delights!

Setting off the next day under her own steam!

Along fantastic old little farmhouses, where Andrew and myself repeatedly get temped to buy and renovate one (but try to stick firm to our decision not to do that!)...

...before returning home from Veliki Potok again.

So, much encouraged by the first attempt to go biking South of Belgrade, leaving town by train, we gave it a second try just two weeks later! And: 

Trails were blooooody dirty, sticking tons of muds to our bikes and making every meter of move extremely hard work!

After a good two hours of awfully muddy tracks, they became better again, and we reached a little holiday house settlement, where we did not refuse the invitation to juice, beer and homemade cakes, as this had really been hard work to get there! But the bravest of all was our little lady: inbetween Mama and Papa pushing their bikes (and swearing) she worked her way all alone through the mud, and faced a snake! She reacted well, and we all learned a lot that day!

After another great overnight stay in Zornika Kuca we made our way to the three old oaks, a cultural heritage site on the way to Leskovac Kolubarski, our (we thought) final destination of the day. Three fantastic old tree, with branches as long as 15m!

And here we were waiting for the train back home at Leskovac Kolubarski, well in time, with the bikes packed into their bags, enjoying a little lunch! Well, the train never came, neither did the bus we were promised by two helpful villagers, so we finally had to reassemble our bikes, head across to Bacevac, Seka's home village, have another stop in a village cum bar shop, and finally waiting for yet another bus, a pitiful soul found us a  very, very old van with a great driver to return us safely, and ultimately very comfortable home to Lacarevascka 1! Great trips both of them, but we truly hope that this was the only time the Serbian railways have led us down so completely!