Before moving on, we wanted to visit the village of Psaradhes and do some walking. Psaradhes is a pretty fishing village also popular with coach trips due to the nearby hermitages and rock-painted icons. Local fishermen take visitors in their boats to see these sights but we wanted to walk to the promontory on the opposite side of the bay where one of the hermitages is located. The walk took us through attractive scenery with lots of wild flowers under the low trees. The trees provided welcome shade along the walk until we burst out onto the tip of the promontory know as Roti. This was a spectacularly beautiful position, set high above the lake with 270° views over the whole of Megali Prespa. The mountains and villages of FYROM were to our right, those of Albania to our left, lines of pelicans and formations of pygmy cormorants flew below us, solitary pelicans and storks flew just over our heads and hooded crows and wagtails hopped and walked around us. It was so peaceful – no cars, planes or any other sounds of the modern world. We sat in the shade of a wooden shelter with seats and admired the scene – we could have stayed there all day.
Retracing our steps a little way, we took another track to the Hermitage of the Metamorphosis. It was rather a scramble down the cliff to get to the beach, so Jane decided that discretion was the better part of valour and backtracked to wait for me at the top. Meanwhile I continued to the beach and walked the few metres to the hermitage. This is the oldest one in the area, dating from 13th century and its small church is thought to have acted as the monastery church for all of the hermitages in the area. Part of the church it intact and it is possible to see the ground plan of at least one cell but little else remains. In what appears to have been a cooking area, judging by the evidence of fires, a quern stone is still in place. Set into the cliff, the hermitage has a wonderful view across the lake to the mountains beyond. One can imagine the peace and solitude that allowed the hermits to dedicate their lives to God. On the way back to Henrietta, we encountered our third tortoise in twenty four hours, retreating into his shell as I approached. It took him a few minutes after we had stepped over him to pluck up the courage to move, and then it was backwards – he had obviously decided that the track was too busy even though we didn't see another sole during the whole of the walk.
Reluctantly, we left Prespa, but I had fallen in love with the serenity of the area. On the way up from the lake I stopped to take a picture of a field full of wild flowers, dominated by the vivid red of poppies, yet another example of the beauty of the area.
We drove over the Pisoderi pass at 1420m and down to Florina, arriving on a plain with a number of power stations in the distance. I suspect that there is brown coal in this area as we saw evidence of what looked like a large opencast mine, although we didn't actually see any coal. The Rough Guide told us about a small basic campsite at Aghios Pandeleimonas on Lake Vegoritida. Don't think about going there – it is closed! It took us three trips through the village to find it (no signs) and we then asked at a café close to it. It is possible that it might be open in the hight of Summer, but I doubt it. Instead, we moved further north along the shore of the lake and found a large open area overlooking the lake where we wild camped. The lake was not a pretty as the Prespa lakes but did have Great Crested Grebes and herons. The views however were not good and the weather closed in as the evening wore on. There was rain at both ends of the lake, with a thunderstorm in the north but the rain missed us.
Photos: A pelican fly past; A line of pelicans flies below us, just above the surface of the lake; The view from Roti – Greece in the foreground, Albania to the left, the island (Golem Grad) and the land on the right is FYROM; Metamorphosis Hermitage; Field of wild flowers south east of Mikra Prespa.
Retracing our steps a little way, we took another track to the Hermitage of the Metamorphosis. It was rather a scramble down the cliff to get to the beach, so Jane decided that discretion was the better part of valour and backtracked to wait for me at the top. Meanwhile I continued to the beach and walked the few metres to the hermitage. This is the oldest one in the area, dating from 13th century and its small church is thought to have acted as the monastery church for all of the hermitages in the area. Part of the church it intact and it is possible to see the ground plan of at least one cell but little else remains. In what appears to have been a cooking area, judging by the evidence of fires, a quern stone is still in place. Set into the cliff, the hermitage has a wonderful view across the lake to the mountains beyond. One can imagine the peace and solitude that allowed the hermits to dedicate their lives to God. On the way back to Henrietta, we encountered our third tortoise in twenty four hours, retreating into his shell as I approached. It took him a few minutes after we had stepped over him to pluck up the courage to move, and then it was backwards – he had obviously decided that the track was too busy even though we didn't see another sole during the whole of the walk.
Reluctantly, we left Prespa, but I had fallen in love with the serenity of the area. On the way up from the lake I stopped to take a picture of a field full of wild flowers, dominated by the vivid red of poppies, yet another example of the beauty of the area.
We drove over the Pisoderi pass at 1420m and down to Florina, arriving on a plain with a number of power stations in the distance. I suspect that there is brown coal in this area as we saw evidence of what looked like a large opencast mine, although we didn't actually see any coal. The Rough Guide told us about a small basic campsite at Aghios Pandeleimonas on Lake Vegoritida. Don't think about going there – it is closed! It took us three trips through the village to find it (no signs) and we then asked at a café close to it. It is possible that it might be open in the hight of Summer, but I doubt it. Instead, we moved further north along the shore of the lake and found a large open area overlooking the lake where we wild camped. The lake was not a pretty as the Prespa lakes but did have Great Crested Grebes and herons. The views however were not good and the weather closed in as the evening wore on. There was rain at both ends of the lake, with a thunderstorm in the north but the rain missed us.
Photos: A pelican fly past; A line of pelicans flies below us, just above the surface of the lake; The view from Roti – Greece in the foreground, Albania to the left, the island (Golem Grad) and the land on the right is FYROM; Metamorphosis Hermitage; Field of wild flowers south east of Mikra Prespa.
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