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!
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