There was a fair amount of road noise overnight but we weren’t
complaining!
We were heading to the Prespa Lakes in the north east corner of Greece. Mikro
Prespa is almost entirely in Greece with just a corner in Albania but the
larger of Prespa lakes is shared between Greece, Albania and Northern Macedonia
(previously known as FYROM – the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia). The route
took us back past Pella and Edessa but then we were in new territory. One thing
that we hadn’t noticed when we travelled the route before was the number of
Macedonian tombs beside the road – we saw at least seven. The reason that we
were more observant was that I had discovered a tomb that was open to the
public. It was at Agios Athanasios, not far from Thessaloniki but the website
said that it was closed on Mondays. We decided to go past it anyway and, much
to our surprise, we found it open. There was one tomb that was padlocked but we
could see the outside and the other was open and obviously recently updated in
terms of visitor access. It was really interesting and well worth the visit –
see photos below.
Edessa is famous for its cherries and north of the city we passed miles and
miles of cherry orchards followed by a large area of vines.
At Florina there was a major closure of the main road so we had to take a
diversion north into the mountains to re-join the main road. This section was
very pretty and the roads were almost deserted – we never had a vehicle behind
us and only a handful of vehicles passed us going the other way.
We arrived at Prespa Lakes on the only road into the area and drove passed
Mikro Prespa, crossing the narrow strip of land between the two lakes. At this
point we had to stop briefly to allow a tortoise to cross the road. It is an
area renowned for its wildlife and this was our first encounter. All the way on
today’s journey, we had passed signs that told us to be aware of the bears but,
unfortunately, we didn’t see any. There are no campsites in Prespa but
park4night showed a number of options. We decided to head for Psarades on the
shores of the larger lake and very close to the Albanian border. The park4night
spot is an earth car park just on the edge of the village but there were piles
of stone and aggregate and a JCB digger parked, so we were a little dubious
about using it in case we got in the way in the morning. Just a few metres on
was the promenade and a road behind. A sign told us that we couldn’t take
vehicles passed the sign at weekends and holidays but this was early season,
not a weekend and other cars were parked. We parked discreetly away from
buildings and set off to investigate. Immediately we saw a group of pelicans,
for which the Prespa lakes are famous. They were in a tight huddle and
obviously feeding and they stayed like that for well over two hours. We read
later that they herd the fish into the shallows and then feed on them –
interesting group behaviour. They can also cooperate with cormorants and we saw
lots of them nearby and flying over the lake. Down at the lakeside and in
amongst the reeds were lots of frogs and their croaks were load and very
musical.
We decided that we wanted to eat in the village and there were lots of restaurants
and cafés along the promenade. Most were closed but we chose one where all of
the tables were laid with tablecloths only to be told that they were closed! We
eventually found one restaurant that was open as it was also a hotel and had to
provide food for the guests. I had a fish from the lake and it was delicious.
We fell asleep to the distant croaks of the frogs.
Photos: The Agios Athanasios tomb; Detail of the painted doorway; The pelicans
feeding on Prespa Lake; A traditional fishing boat used on the lake.
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