North from Prevalla ... and Climbing in Kosovo is Stunning

On the way out of Skopje, surrounded by all the statues once again, it hit me. Macedonia is trying to pull a North Korea. I mean I've never seen so many statues since I was in the DPRK for a skiing trip in 2014, as part of my Axis of Evil Ski Tour.

I actually get what the Macedonian leadership is trying to do, and good on them. If you're going to kick start a country, give your citizens something to be proud of and get the tourists talking, then why not forest the city with bronzes. Alexander the Great was one of the most famous conquerers. Get some.

Hell, I'm inspired by him, if you're going to conquer peoples and nations, get it done properly like Alexander. So I'm digging it. I dedicate, in fact, my conquest of northern Macedonia and southern Kosovo today to him. An admittedly offensively small feat to associate with such a man :-)

Looking south toward Prevalla Strangely, I've never felt the urge to dedicate anything to Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il despite their status being larger. The Chinese and Russian money that paid for them was therefore a sorry waste on this particular innocent eyed tourist and I encourage the communists to do better.

Anyway, today was CLIMBING DAY. I knew from the map it would never end and that turned out to be true, only the last 100m gave respite after the Prevalla mountain pass. I am digging my hotel, I think I lucked onto the newest one, has a spectacular view of the valley and snowy peaks.

One more comparison. I went to Bhutan end of 2016. We drive from Paro northwest to get a view of the third highest peak, Jomolhari, and climb to the Tiger's Nest temple. Anyway, one of the nicest things along the way was coming across a humble meltwater stream, partly iced over, at a bend in the road, decked out with prayer flags of course. I came across another meltwater stream at a bend in the road 3.89km from Prevalla today and was reminded of what I saw in Bhutan. Boy was it nice to get icy water all over me after having climbed 2+km today.

I averaged 14km/h. I don't think that's too shabby pulling The Anchor, although I sure wish I was like a cyclist I saw ripping down the mountain the other way on a proper roadie today. The grin he gave me was one of respect, though, at least B-)