This was the first hike we did in Macedonia (summer 2004), and pretty much our first hike ever. So we were totally unprepared. My girlfriend had read about this hike in the newspaper and though it would be a nice thing to do together when I was in Macedonia. We did not have food, toilet-paper, sun-cream, maps, GPS or walking sticks with us. Yes, pretty stupid. But we realized at that moment how much fun hiking is and we never stopped!
We took the train from Skopje to Bogomila. In fact the train stopped somewhere in the middle of nowhere, were there was no train-station. This was probably the trainstop called Oreshe. We hooked up with two guys that also got out there and that had done the hike to mountain hut Cheples before, so we didn’t have to worry about finding our way.
Unfortunately the mountain hut was fully booked and we had to sleep outside in a big military tent with quite some other people. However, we had beds and all was OK. Please note that you have to bring your own food and e.g. toilet paper to the mountain hut. And make sure the hut is actually open if you go there. The other hikers were so friendly to share some of their food with us naive first timers!
The next day we met some people that were hiking to the Solunska Glava peak as well, so we went together. The hike from Cheples mountain hut to Solunska Glava to took about 8 hours in total, up and down. Needless to say that the views were magnificent.
Solunska Glava means “Head of Solun” and Solun is the Slavic name for the Greek town Thessaloniki. Allegedly it is possible to see Solun from the top, but the top is a military zone and unfortunately not accessible. The soldiers can give you a peak stamp as proof that you made it up there!
The next day, we walked back to a village (I am not sure which one), where we arranged for a cab to bring us to the train station, and went back to Skopje.
Mountain hut Cheples (60 beds, same contact details as Mountain hut Breza: Tel (not verified) 043 228 622) Located at 1445m near the village of Nezilovo on Jakupica Mountain.
The map below shows the approach of Solunska Glava from the south. I prepared this map using OpenStreetMap and some GPS tracks I found online, so they have not been verified by myself. The red trail is the one that we likely took back in 2004 (it’s 2018 at the time of writing). From the train-stop to the village Papradishte it’s 5 km on asphalt road, from Papradisthe to the mountain hut Cheples another 6 km. The black trail is a shortcut from Papradishte (4 km) but probably very steep. There is another trail leading from the village Nezhilovo to the Cheples mountain hut (5 km). From Cheples to Solunska Glava it is about 6 km in one direction.
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