This is a short but difficult walk from the village Trpejca to the Naumova cave and the Crna Pesht cave at the shore of Lake Ohrid. It is only 1.3 km with with 50 m ascent in one direction, but the last 300 m are very overgrown with thorny bushes directly at the lakeside.
A few days before we had tried to find the cave without success. Instead we discovered that the same path also leads to the Church and Monastery of St Bogorodica Zahumska (better known as St Zaum). It is very well possible to combine these two walks once you have the right coordinates! We parked the car on the parking above the village Trpejca and took the asphalt road on the left downhill towards the lake. This road passes the small Recreational Vehicle (RV) campsite Grebnos in Trpejca (info@grebnos.com, whatsapp +38971387241) run by Dutch/Macedonian people. Almost immediately after the campsite, there is a trail to your left into the bushes. For the first meters you have to be careful where you place your feet, the path seems to be an outdoor toilet. At the first junction, take the left trail (if you walk straight ahead, you’ll arrive at a quiet beach). Just keep following this path.
After climbing the hill of about 50 m height, you descent again until you are at the level of the lake. From here, you have to walk back 300 m along the lake, where you have to find your way through thorny bushes. At some places it is easier to pass the bushes via the water-side on the left, at other places you’ll have to fight your way through the bushes on the right side if you do not want to get wet feet. It may be even more difficult to reach the cave when the water level of the lake is higher than it was in July 2019. Try to remember how you navigate through these bushes, it makes the way back a lot easier!
The first cave that you reach is the Crna Pesht (Black Pesht). The entrance was littered with rubbish that likely got there when the waterlevel of the lake was higher. There were some rather large bats hanging from the ceiling of this cave, see the opening picture.
A few meters further to the north you’ll find the entrance to the much more impressive Naumova cave.
Naumova cave entrance 
Naumova cave exit
The Naumova cave houses a huge colony of hundreds of bats, and retrospectively it may be better not to enter this cave in order not to disturb them. In addition, bats can transfer deadly diseases such as rabies by biting or through pathogens entering through fresh wounds in the skin (remember the thorny bushes you had to concur in order to reach the cave?). You will have to crawl a bit to enter the very low entrance of the cave, but you can stand up almost immediately again.
It is a rather big cave, but I kept my visit quite short in order not to disturb the bats more than I already had done.
After I had crawled out of the cave I spend some time on the small pebble beach in front of the cave, hoping that one of the many taxi boats that operate between Trpejca and St Zaum would pass by and bring me back to Trpejca. But no boat came by and I walked back through the thorny bushes again, which was easier now I had figured out a good way to navigate through them.
After you have reached the main trail again, I recommend to continue walking south where you will find the church and monastery of St Bogorodica Zahumska (St Zaum) after 600 m, or head back to Trpejca. Another rather unknown cave near Trpejca is the Krstova cave, a bit more land inward.
The GPS track to the cave is available upon request, please use the contact form.
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