Three slow days around Mavrovo
Beech forests, a half-drowned church, and a lot of very good bread. Notes from an unhurried autumn weekend.
Mavrovo is the kind of place you can treat as a hiking base or simply as somewhere to slow down. We did a bit of both. The forests in early November were at the end of their colour, copper and rust on the lower slopes and already bare higher up.
Day one: around the lake
An easy loop along the reservoir shore, mostly on quiet roads and farm tracks. The water level was low, and the old church that is partly submerged in wetter years stood almost completely on dry ground. It is a strange, quiet place, and worth the detour.
Day two: into the beech woods
We followed a marked path up into the forest above the villages. Underfoot the leaves were ankle-deep, which is beautiful and also hides every root and stone, so go slower than you think you need to. We met two shepherds, one dog who followed us for an hour, and nobody else.
Day three: nothing much
Coffee, a short walk, a long lunch, and the drive home. Some trips need a rest day built in, and this was ours.
Mavrovo will not give you dramatic peaks unless you go looking for them. What it gives you is space and quiet, which in the end is what we came for.
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