Pelister National Park, Macedonia

If you like nature, forests, morning mist and horses, then this is the blog post for you…

Last month I went on a one-week photography tour to Macedonia with a small group of photographers, each one from a different part of the world but all with the same passion for travelling and photography. To say that I had a great time would be a major understatement. If there wouldn’t be certain life realities (hello money!), I’m sure I would do at least a few of those tours each year. If you’re into photography, love travelling and want to share the experience with people who have same interests, than this is just a perfect way to travel and discover some little corners of the world that most probably you wouldn’t if you would travel on your own. Or with people who just don’t have the patience to wait until you take those gazillion images along the way lol! 😀 

If you want to find out more about the photography tours agency I used, have a look at their website: https://www.esenkoworkshops.com. They’re based in Slovenia and their tours are very friendly, relaxed, small groups and basically I couldn’t recommend them more! I made some nice friendships this way and I hope I’ll be able to join again on one of their future tours.

Anyway, let’s go to the images as I can’t wait to share my impressions of that very cold, misty and beautiful morning/day we spent in Pelister National Park and on the way to its highest peak at 2,600 meters above sea level. It took us about 3-hours (very slow) drive on a gravel road and lots of stopping in between for taking photos of course!

Since we spent a week in Macedonia and visited so many beautiful places with our fun and very knowledgeable local guide, I came back home with so much material that I knew there is no way I can fit it all in one blog post. And since the mood from this one day spent in Pelister National Park is so much different than anywhere else we visited, I thought it deserves a separate blog post. For the rest I’m still not sure if I’ll do one big post or two smaller ones as I want to show you as much as possible of this beautiful country that is so worth visiting.

My impressions of Macedonia…

Specially if you want something a bit different than your usual tourists destinations. The nature is gorgeous in Macedonia but there are two things that stayed with me the most. First is the warmth and kindness of people, specially in rural areas, something I’ve never experienced before. Literally every single person, even those living in the most modest conditions (perhaps, SPECIALLY those people!), was kind, wanted to talk to us, was very welcoming, didn’t have any issues with us taking photos of them etc. Of course, as a photographer (and a human being) you always need to be very attentive, polite and respectful when taking photos of people in their natural environment and do it only if they are ok with it. 

Second thing that I think the whole group was very impressed by is the food. Local, natural, fresh, tasty, just how the food should be! I had the sweetest plums ever and the tastiest tomatoes. Everything just tasted so good! Now let’s go back into that misty forest, shall we….

About Pelister…

Pelister National Park is located in the Baba Mountain massif and covers an area of 171.5 square kilometres. It is the oldest and second largest national park in North Macedonia after Mavrovo and it’s is one of the leading tourist areas in the country, since it is a well-known ski resort. Pelister is also known for its two mountain lakes, which are called Pelister’s Eyes. The Big lake is 2,218 metres above the sea level while the Small lake is 2,180 metres high.

I literally have one photo of the lake as it was very foggy (and cold!) when we arrived to the peak and it stayed like that for few hours we were there. The fog cleared out for few minutes only but by the time I prepared my photo gear, I was able to take only one photo before the thick layer of fog hid the lake from our views.

Magical creatures from the mist…

But the fog brought us the most wonderful and special surprise when suddenly like out of nowhere the most beautiful horses I’ve ever seen appeared in front of us. It was such a magical moment that there are now words to describe it, I felt pure happiness and gratitude and I hope I managed to capture their beauty and grace with my camera…

I really hope you liked this little travel story and images. I would love to hear from you, whether here in the comments or on my social media pages. It means a lot to know that perhaps I brought a bit of beauty into your day…

As soon as I edit the rest of the photos I’ll be posting the rest of the story of my visit to beautiful Macedonia. Thank you for being here! 🙂

*Thank you so much for being here, that makes me so happy! You can also follow my Travelling oven on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, as well as sign up to receive new blog posts via email and subscribe to my newsletter.