Bozovce-Leshnica waterfall

See https://mymacedoniablog.wordpress.com/ for more info about sightseeing and hiking in Macedonia

This nice walk of 16.5 km and 625 m climbing takes you from the village Bozovce in the Sharr Planina mountains to the Leshnica valley and Leshnica waterfall.

NOTE: This trail does not include the Krivoshijski waterfall, which is located about 2 km further and 325 m more uphill, as I just found out while writing this, to my dismay!

The hike starts in the village Bozovce, which was just under a 1 h drive from our base in Popova Sapka. There is limited parking space in this small mountain village, but at the start of this hike there is place for a few cars.

The first part of the hike to the Leshniica valley has picturesque views. The trail follows a dirt-road.

At a certain point there seemed to be a possibility to leave the dirt-road and follow a smaller trail through the green valley, because there was red/white marking. Since the trail was not on my digital map, we decided to keep following the dirt road and the GPS track that I had downloaded. When we were closer to Leshnica, we noticed the possible end of this trail, marked on trees with the word “Eagle”, likely referring to mountain association Eagle.

The Leshnica valley is often referred to as one of the most beautiful spots in the Sharr mountains. I wonder for how long this will be the case because there were building activities for a hydro-electrical plant, despite the fact that the region was recently declared as National Park.

When you’re following the dirt road through the Leshica valley, make sure you leave the dirt-road to the small forest trail on the left. It’s indicated with a red/white sign.

Soon you’ll reach the first small waterfall, in a cave. We actually did not know what to expect more, but we decided to see if there was something a bit higher up.

And we were very glad that we did so, because otherwise we would have missed the main Leshnica waterfall, beautifully located in a cave. A make-shift little bridge provides you safe access.

Since this waterfall definitely seemed to be the highlight of this hike, we had lunch here. It was actually quite chilly in this valley, even on a warm summer day in July 2021.

So only now I found out that we should have continued walking to see the Krivoshijski waterfall as well. I suggest you check out this trail to reach the Krivoshijski waterfall (disclaimer: I cannot guarantee that this is a safe trail because I did not walk it myself): https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/dolna-leshnica-krivoshijski-vodopadi-55823016

The trail back to Bozovce was on a broad and rather boring dirt-road through forest, without good views.

Near the end there was what looked like a man-made cave in the shape of a T, probably used to mine something.

In Bozovce we met a very friendly guide from the mountain association “Eagle” (https://www.facebook.com/SHARMOUNT/), who took us for a delicious espresso at the little square where there is also world’s smallest supermarket.

This hike gets 3.5 stars, the waterfall was great but the second half was a bit disappointing.