High Scardus Trail Stage 21 Velestovo - Mountain Hut Magaro

The start of this stage is on the beautifully situated hillside settlement of Velestovo, which opens a dreamlike view over Lake Ohrid. There are several accommodations here. If you start from the villa Velestovo, the High Scardus Trail leads directly uphill. At first, the easily visible trail leads through the scattered village of Velestovo and later into a very beautiful Mediterranean mixed deciduous forest. At the beginning of this stage, there are always wonderful views of Lake Ohrid as well as the old town of Ohrid. Later on, you will be completely immersed in the shady mixed deciduous forest, whereby the High Scardus Trail always leads in a southerly direction. In general, the trails here - you are in the Galichica National Park - are very well signposted and marked. Soon you reach a particularly impressive section of this stage, because archaeologists have excavated parts of the Roman Via Egnetia here and also restored so that you walk on a more than 2000 year old Roman path. You will reach a very nice resting place, which is also a prominent crossing point of various trails in the Galichica National Park. Shortly after, you leave the beautiful beech forests and cross a large polje. This is a wide karst area, which has been used as a meadow for a long time. After crossing the polje, you will soon enter the shady mixed deciduous forests again. Now the path leads more steeply uphill and you finally climb the ridge of the Galichica Mountains. On a prominent terrain step you have again a magnificent view of Lake Ohrid. Here a path branches off that leads downhill. You should choose this one if the weather has worsened, because it leads to a nearby mountain village. However, the High Scardus Trail now goes steeply uphill once again and then reaches a ridge top marked with a surveyor's pole at 1800m above sea level. The view from this summit is breathtaking, as it offers not only a panoramic view of Lake Ohrid to the west, but also of the beautiful Prespa Lake to the east. The rest of the route is like a dream hike, because you follow the clearly visible path on the distinctive ridge line, which has no alpine difficulties. Several ridge tops are climbed, always accompanied by a breathtaking view of the two natural wonders Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa and the surrounding mountains. The last peak of today is located at exactly 2000m above sea level (Lako Signoj) and is unfortunately disfigured with some ruins of the Macedonian army. Nevertheless, the view from this peak is impressive. Now the path leads relatively steeply downhill, soon the view opens to the asphalted mountain road between Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa. At the top of the pass “Lipova Livada”, the Margaro hut is already clearly visible. From the info point at the top of the pass, follow the hiking trail uphill again and after about 100 meters you will soon reach the idyllic Margaro Hut, located at the edge of the forest.

On the plateau, a side path branches off clearly visible, which you now follow in a northerly direction. This path leads to a prominent edge of the terrain, from which the alpine huts of Grama and today's stage destination are already clearly visible. The rest of the way is very steep, but on a passable path down to the stream and in a few meters on the opposite bank of the stream to the huts of Grama in the middle of a large sheep pasture. You have reached the stage destination.