This is a 19 km round trip from the recreational village Suvi Laki to the Ograzhden Peak and back. The height difference about 680 m, but total climbing is more. Please check out the warning below!
Suvi Laki is located half-way the road from Berovo and Strumica, so we left our accomodation in Berovo in the morning, did the hike, and went to our accommodation in Strumica, the beautiful Monastery of the 15 Martyrs of Tiberiopolis.
Suvi Laki is a village with about 450 weekend homes where people come to rest and enjoy the nice nature.
The hike goes from Suvi Laki to “Point A”, then from Point A to the Ograzhden Peak and back to Point A, and then from Point A back to Suvi Laki.
We parked the car next to the road in Suvi laki. The first 1.5 km are back uphill in the direction of Berovo, there’s a spring next to the road. The next 4 km are steeply uphill over a 4×4 track through the forest, a bit monotonous. After that the view and surrounding gets better.
Just below the peak there were two horses next to a natural spring in the ground. Several people where picking blueberries near the top, which is a good business in this region, since the berries just grow in the wild and are sold for quite a good price!
We had lunch at the Ograzden peak at some 1742 m above sea level and then started to walk back to Point A. Unfortunately the road suddenly was blocked by several sheep dogs, which were barking and running at us if we came too close. We yelled for the shepherd, but nobody came to our rescue…We decided it would be wiser not to provoke the dogs, so we had to do a detour and walk around the dogs in a big circle. That was harder than it sounds, because the vegetation was rather dense, but we managed to get on the right track again. A GPS device can be very helpful in such cases!
WARNING: Because of the detour we had to make thanks to the dogs, you should be cautious on your way back from the peak. After the junction, avoid the vegetation shown in the picture above and find your way around it! The green marker in the picture above represents “Point A”.
The part from Point A back to Suvi Laki is the most rewarding part of the hike: Downhill, great views, beautiful landscape, we met a shepherd with his cows and calves in the mountains, a scene that looked really serene (this shepherd was so friendly to call off his dogs at least!).
In Suvi Laki there’s a small shop next to the road where we had an ice-cream before we walked the last part uphill along the road back to our car.
The church in Suvi Laki is dedicated to St Cyril and Methodius and was built between 2007 and 2009, sponsored by the weekend house owners.
See here for the GPS file of this 4-out-of-5 stars hike: https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/suvi-laki-to-ograzden-peak-7546897
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