With the Serbs in Macedonia

132 WITH THE SERBS IN MACEDONIA
was so steep, and the vehicles going up didn't
want to stop, because if they did their engines
would never get away again. There were
" ''
some scenes on that Pass in these days,
and very few drivers paid much attention to
the glorious views of lake and mountain scenery
that stretched all around them. Coming down
into the plain again, the road then made a
fairly straight and level run to Monastir, but
here in wet weather the mud was the stickiest
and deepest of all, and in dry the dust was most
distressing.
To-day, of course, it is a splendid highway with
reasonable gradients and wide, comfortable
bends. But ^in the days of Kaymachalan,
when this was the main road, and the side roads
were merely tracks and bridle-paths among the
hills, communication was an exceedingly difficult
and arduous matter.
Another difficulty was that during his retreat
the enemy had blown up an important railway
bridge across a gorge near Eksisu, thus cutting
our only railway. There was no material
available for rebuilding, and after much delay a
deviation was constructed. But in the meantime
French and British motor-lorries had to do
a spell of double tides on a particularly nasty
stretch of road in the wet season. Skidding and
ditching was the order of the day ; nights out