The stone town of Kuklica

When Martin Krstic saw us arrive all wet in his house in Kumanovo, he had a desperate look on his face: a power cut, I’ve called up for repairs, but you can’t stay here! Being cold and tired and having called four places unsuccessfully, we just said: "don't worry we will sit here and wait". The power was fixed an hour later, and we were even offered a glass of local red wine by our host, who was celebrating his new business with his parents.

It cleared up in the morning, and we pushed on due east towards Krakovo. The cycle-friendly itinerary was an absolutely straight old Turkish road through the hills... with a surprise in the middle of an un passable broken bridge. In its lovable effort to keep us off busy roads, our optimistic cycling app sends us off into the high grass. A mix of mud and straw is a well-known building material and does no good at all in the mudguards! Our magic tool purchased in Kosovo just-in-case found an unexpected application, but it still took more than one hour to escape.

In the later afternoon sun, our pedals lead us to a magical world of natural sculptures made of volcanic ash.Read more