Skopje to Gostivar, Macedonia.

After a rest day for Peter to recover from his illness, he was determined to get back on the bike and get the tour back on track. I have to give him 'A' for determination, I'd probably would have called another sickie considering he was on a drip less than 24 hours ago. Just in case anyone's interested, I had a terrible night's sleep.

We got dressed and headed down for breakfast of cereal, toast and juice.  We only had just over 60kms to ride to Gostivar but I knew it was going to be steady as she goes considering our health. 

We headed out of town and took some back roads to check out the local housing estates and not because I took Peter in the wrong direction again.  Eventually we got back on track and were riding along the M4 to Tetovo.  Now I know you shouldn't ride on motorways, and yes, we've been stopped by the police in Slovenia and kicked off the road, but knowing the lack of Police in this part of the world, we thought, what heck, give it a go. 

We had a great shoulder to ride on and it was really safe. We did get a couple of toots, but I think they were just saying hello to us.  We stopped for morning tea after 2 hours of riding and had to check on how each other was feeling.  Peter said he was feeling better but I wasn't convinced yet. We had 30kms to go and thought it was best to keep drinking heaps of water and eating dried biscuits until we reached Gostivar.  We wanted more time in the hotel to sleep and recover for tomorrow's big climb to Kicevo.

We made the finish line at 1pm and were glad to find a 'Hilton Hotel' to stay in for the night.  It's not actually linked to the world famous Hilton chain of hotels, but a branch called 'Green Hilton.  It's a nice place for 35 Euro a twin with breakfast.  Also has the sat TV, wifi, fridge and dancing girls.

After settling in and having a shower I laid on the bed and fell asleep for an hour.  I was beat. An afternoon walk to check out the town, a nice pasta dish for dinner and now time to hit the sack.  Peter is feeling better, my back is just about healed, so bring on the mountain.

 I took the above photo of 2 elderly wood cutters in action during our walk of Gostivar today. They cut all this wood in 1 day.

Whilst walking around the town this afternoon we came across a bakery.  Since Peter is a baker back home he wanted to check out the operation. The boys let us inside the bakery to check out the equipment and see how they make the bread. These guys can do it with their eyes closed and very quick at it. The photo above was taken inside the bakery.

Tomorrow will determine how well we both feel after our sickness.  We have a 1200 metre to climb as soon as we head out of town.  Now that's going to be tough.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.