2 October 2023, Ohrid, 60.69km
Apartment Lychnidos 925 den [R300]

When your cycling speed drops to your walking speed, you might as well dismount and push... 
Today's 20-odd km climb (500m elevation gain), though in theory easier than yesterday's similar distance climb (700m elevation gain), required more walking, due in part to a cumulative tiredness. When you climb and climb and climb and after 15km see a sign promising 4.5km at 6%, it can be a little daunting. But it was a beautiful day and the hills through which we slogged were lovely, the leaves on a million trees turning from green to copper. We had one more brief climb after the first, but the rest of our ride to Ohrid on the northeast coast of Lake Ohrid* was relatively easy and mainly pleasant. 
A new highway is under construction and sections of it were visible across the valley from the old road for much of the day. About half way through our 63km ride, the new highway merged with the old road. From then on, roadworks moved us first to the left of the newly-widened old road then to the right, depending on which segments were complete. 
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*"Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest lakes in the world, and with a maximum depth of 288 metres and mean depth of 155 metres, it is the deepest lake in the Balkans. It covers an area of 358 square kilometres and contains an estimated 55.49 cubic kilometres of water. The lake is 30.4 km long and 14.8 km wide at its maximum extent, with a shoreline of 87.53 km."
Lake Ohrid lies mainly in North Macedonia, but also in Albania to the west, and is a Unesco site.
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Since entering North Macedonia, we have reduced our daily budget by a whopping R50 and despite having given up camping (we have not camped since leaving Hungary), we have managed to stay marginally under budget. We are hoping that via this small reduction we can make up the over-budget amounts accumulated in Poland and the Czech Republic.