Ilinden falls on a Sunday this year, 2 August. Monday, 3 August, has been declared an additional non-working day. Four days off against two border crossings - Evzoni and Dojran - through which almost everything heading for the Greek coast has to pass. The result is predictable and the authorities are already announcing it: queues measured in kilometres.

The biggest wave of vehicles towards Greece is expected on Friday and throughout Saturday until midday. On the return leg, the heaviest congestion is forecast for Monday afternoon and evening, when everyone heads back at once. Additional pressure comes from the regular turnover of package holidays - one set of groups leaving while another arrives at the same moment.

The jam doesn't start at the border

You don't have to reach Evzoni to feel it. Already this evening, at the Glumovo toll booth on the Skopje-Tetovo motorway, waits of around twenty minutes were reported at times. Large numbers of people set off towards Ohrid, Struga and Mavrovo. At the Želino toll booth before Tetovo, according to travellers, there was no serious wait at all - which means the bottleneck is not the road itself, but that one specific toll point.

That detail is worth having if you're planning a trip. If one location generates a 20-minute queue on an ordinary Friday while another on the same route generates none, then the problem isn't the number of cars - it's the capacity of the toll station. And that gets solved with organisation, not with drivers' patience.

What you can realistically do

The official advice is simple and there isn't much to add to it: adjust your departure time. Leave early on Saturday, before noon, or later on Sunday - just not together with everyone else. On the way back, avoid Monday afternoon if you can. And bring enough water, because waiting in a queue at 40 degrees is nothing like waiting in April.

Those who go through this ritual every year know it by heart: the longest wait is not at the barrier itself, but in the last two or three kilometres before it, when there is nowhere to move and nobody to complain to. Until then, the only variable you control is the hour you set off.