We didn’t see any pyramids yesterday, so today we had planned to drive to the base of one of the hills that looks like a pyramid, and then hike up the hill to the top where there are some ruins of an old village.
There are two ways to get to the base of this hill. One road was a very narrow gravel road, which we decided not to brave. The access other road, as we discovered, was via a narrow road through the centre of town and there were cars and people everywhere. We decided not to endanger Rosie (and the myriad pedestrians), so decided to pass on the walk up the pyramid hill.
We had found a posting by some other intrepid explorers who gave a lat/long coordinate to an unnamed location (just a blank area on Google Maps) and said it was a nice place to stay. What could go wrong?
We plugged the lat/long coords into our Garmin and headed off. It started getting sketchy when we went through a ski village undergoing major construction and had to squeeze around construction equipment and head up a narrow road. Said road soon turned into a rutted gravel road. We encountered one oncoming vehicle (a van full of people) and have no idea how it made it down the road, or where they came from in the first place. We had to stop at one point and get the chainsaw out to cut down a branch that was blocking our route. Eventually got to the spot. The last 1/2 km was steep with lots of loose rocks, ruts and some snow. Was it worth it? Yep.
We stopped in a spot that was a saddle between two nearby peaks. There is snow on one peak. We are only a couple of hundred feet away from Bjelasnica Mountain and are in the Dinaric Alps (yes, countries other than Switzerland have alps). On the opposite side of the mountain from where we are staying is a ski complex which hosted the men’s alpine ski events during the 1984 Winter Olympics. There was no snow on the ski hills that we could see as we drove by, but there was a lot of construction going on. I guess they are not worried about the European wide trend of reduced snow during the winter.
When we arrived the sky was overcast, but nothing too threatening. As the day progressed the wind picked up. We discovered that while sitting in a saddle between two peaks is picturesque in the extreme, it is also a location that the wind funnels through!
By evening the wind was howling. It was hard to open the door of our house because of the wind pressure. When we did get the door open it was almost ripped out of our hands. The dogs weren’t keen on going out, but we weren’t about to let them pee in the house just because it was a bit breezy outside! They took care of business in record time and then scooted back in.
Rosie was rockin’ all night long. The wind was shaking Rosie back and forth without let-up. We guessed that the wind was at least 60-70 kph! (note to self: buy a mobile weather station).