Non EU country today

Day 12

Mount Olympus, Greece to Lake Ohrid, Macedonia

Today's journey didn't take long and I was keen to stay where we were and have a morning swim but the see was choppy and I thought better of it. The boys were not keen to come either. Richard had been for his swim ( I have since found out he was a triathlete)  and swims daily at Weymouth. 

Today's destination was very much an unknown destination so Nik didn't want to delay our departure by too much and some teams were trying to meet at the border. The border was soon upon us and we managed to arrive with Team Trauma and Team Nightmare. The Lexus boys were also there. As this was a non Eu country our insurance didn't cover us so we had to buy it at the border €50, steep for a 1 night stop over. 

Not dissimilar in many ways to Romania and Bulgaria in the feel and look of the country. Alongside falling down properties on their last legs were newer properties which looked abandoned mid way  through their build. There were of course completed new builds all of. A similar boxy looking style, lacking character I felt. 

We were headed for a camp site on the edge of lake Ohrid. As we arrived towards the local area Trauma and Nightmare pulled off in preferences for a hotel stay as apposed to camping. On a budget camping was going to be our accommodation for this evening. What would Macedonian camping be like???????  

Our Satnav struggled to find our camp site, hotel Drim & camping was lake side. However Hotel and campsite were an hours walk apart so once with Deno and Ralf in their Kia we wound round the streets trying to keep lake side to find it. Eventually we did. The welcome sign said "No smoking" followed by a sight with a gun and a cross,we assumed me and no guns! The site looks like it has a wire fence. Not sure if that's to keep people in or us out. We were told to leave our passports and come back in 1 hour, time to forge new ones maybe! €9 though so we thought we would give it a go. Safety in numbers because some others were already there. We had hot water at designated times and were surrounded by very old style 70's caravans with mettle grills on the windows. It says a lot when caravans past their sell buy date are so heavily secured.The lake looked calm and I did dip my toes, wee more than I planned as my flip flop floated out across the lake. Luckily I caught it just before I was thigh deep. Richard was already doing his lengths and said it was cold but bearable once you got going. I thought about it but favoured playing with my camera instead. 

Lake Ohrid is 34km long and 300 metres deep, it's Macedonia's most popular destination and was full in the busy end of the town with children swimming and families soaking up the sun. Like Weymouth in Macedonia! We ventured into town in search of supplies and a replacement mug for Martin ( Dolly the Morris Minor co pilot). Martin had used his for a fuel vessel for Dolly so advisable not having his cuppa from it. 

The Son of Habatchi made an appearance for a BBQ and Richard and Mark joined us with their BBQ food. Time for a chilled evening swapping stories around the Mosie coils!!!! We were joined by Martin and Harvey from Dorris, Robin and his wife from Trigger along with their daughter and relative newbie Tash, Steve and Chris from The Mowlam Mob and Jonas from team Swede. We were reassured that we were in a safe campsite when the night security gaurd came and advised us through gesticulation that we should make sure all our possessions were packed away. The many campsite dogs  kept him alert of unwanted visitors by barking. We managed to finish off the Jack Daniels and Archers with a little help from friends and will now have to find some dodgy foreign fire water, not a problem where we're going......

Tomorrow we're off to...................