A Stroll Through Canyon Matka, Skopje 🚶 Monastery Ascention

And we back! 🕺🕺🕺

A couple of days back me and a group of friends decided to hike up alongside one of North Macedonia's most famous canyons - Matka. It's a beautiful place where a lot of Skopje's citizens go to decompress. However, we weren't sitting by the many restaurants near the water. No! Such idling is for wallings!

Surrounding the canyon there are many monasteries, all beautiful, all high up. Hence, one must hike to reach them. And ya'll know I love hiking. So off we went!

This was a really special journey for me, I'm so glad I get to share it with my walking/hiking friends. 😇 I will split this journey into two parts, the first will be the ascension, and the second the descent. Makes sense, eh? Yeah, I know.

So, without further ado - Onwards! 🚶

🚩 ARRIVAL 🚩

Before we get to Matka we need to add some fat to dem bones. Ate some delicious pastries along the way.

We arrived but had to wait for the other car before we started our climb. And since we're taking the steeper route, the hike turned out to be quite the challenge. 😅

The monastery in question is called Nikola Shishevski. And it's on a 1.2k m. elevation. It's near the top of the mountain my boy is posing in front of in the next picture. 😁

We waited for about 30 minutes for the other car to arrive, which was a real bad start to this whole thing since there was a forecast of imminent rain. 🌧️ So we wanted to get there before things got too bad.

SPOILER ALERT: We didn't. 😭

But it all went well - pardon my dramatics. Our buddies soon arrived and it was time to get going! 💪

🚩 LAKE MATKA 🚩

Lake Matka is at the bottom of the canyon. The lake is formed artificially by a dam, and alongside said lake there are many cafes and restaurants.

This is the only picture I took of some of them. But trust yo boy, there are many, many more. 😁

We are crossing the main bridge to those peaks you saw in the previous image with my homie. The views you get of the lake here are truly majestic.

The wildlife here is also plentiful. I didn't catch any creatures on camera 👀 but you can trust me there are many of them, despite Matka being a largely inhabited area.

Once we cross the bridge there are two paths up this monastery - the right path, much easier and longer; and the left path, much steeper and quicker.

You should already know we took the harder option. 😆

One last look at the lake and up we go!

I know the lake looks more like a river here, but that's because this is a funnel point where between it and the dam. Wide enough to make a walking bridge so adventurers like us could hike!

🚩 ASCENTION 🚩

The terrain was rocky. The humidity in the air didn't help much either. As we climbed, we were constantly warned of the imminent rain by the thunderclouds. ⛈️

The sun would constantly peak over the clouds, giving glimmers of hope and a perspective of what could be if it wasn't overcast. 🌞

As we climbed there are several other little routes that sprout up from all over. Luckily, there are many handy signs to guide the yerning adventurer!

Good thing too, since only one of us has ascended this hike before, and he didn't quite remember how the path went. 😅

No worries, we didn't get eaten by bears! 🐻 // not that there are bears here anyway, it was just a joke, calm down, sheesh

Eventually, it started to rain, but luckaly it wasn't a downpoar. It did intensify at one point but nothing to major. The ground remained hard (thank the almighty) and we weren't bogged down by mud or anything.

Everything was of a shade of brown. Except! I saw this purple flower in the middle of the path. Resiliant against the storm of the brown! I have no idea why this was the only plant of this kind on this hike, but I had to take a photo of it. 😄

Eventually we saw St. Nikola in the not-so-distant distance!

And soon enough we were before the heavenly gates! // it sure felt like it 😂

Join me next week when we'll explore the monastery in full. And also for the absolutely stunning views on our descent.

I swear, the pictures I got for next week will blow your minds! I can't wait to share them.

Not sure where we'll go next week, but I reckon I'll find something interesting.

Hey! I just said where we'll go next week! Damned auto pastes...

Obligatory shout-out to the 🍕PIZZA🍕 gang, 🤙 gang. 🤙

All pictures taken by me using an iPhone 11.

👊 Follow me on my HIVE blog 👊

Thanks for reading and I hope you guys have a great rest of your week. 🍻