There are roads armies built so they could pass through, and then nobody passed along them for a hundred years. The dirt road on Pelister, the one soldiers marched in the First World War, is exactly that kind. Now that road is meant to come back to life - not for columns, but for hikers and cyclists.

The plan is to restore the old French road from the Pelister info centre to Prespa along a route of about 40 kilometres, connecting the Great Lake with Brajčino. Its primary purpose is fire protection, but the road will also be open to walkers and cyclists.

„We will fulfil the dream of many generations to connect Brajčino with the Great Lake. It will be a hiking and cycling trail,” said Ivančo Toševski, director of the Pelister National Park.

The road on the Bitola side towards the Great Lake has been in use for years, but rocky terrain, steep sections and granite formations make it difficult even for off-road vehicles. The national park has already cleared stretches of stone and vegetation up to the Široka site, where a hunting lodge is due to be restored.

A mountain that burns or a mountain that gets visited

The restoration is part of a ten-year fire protection programme for Pelister. And this is the smartest part of the whole story: in a country that counts hectares of burnt forest every summer, a road that gives firefighters access is not a tourism expense - it is survival infrastructure for the park. What a visitor will experience as a view of Lake Prespa on one side and Pelagonia on the other is, for the park service, a line a vehicle can travel when it matters most.

The project also includes plans to conserve Rupa - a lake that existed during the First World War and was later drained for military purposes. A century on, the attempt is to bring the water back where the army took it from.

Further development potential is expected with the planned opening of the Markova Noga border crossing in 2028, which could create a wider regional tourism corridor between Pelister, Prespa and the neighbouring areas. Until then, the real test is not whether the road gets announced - that has already happened. The test is whether in ten years it exists, or is still described as „started”.