Albania 11/07 - 19/07

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Thurs 11th

The next morning we wanted to explore more of the Albanian coastline so set off along the coastal path in search for another spot we could spend a few days. We found ourselves in an awesome spot! It was 15km or so down the ever inspiring coastal road and had a small beach town vibe of restaurants, beach bars and of course the beautiful turquoise waters. We really lucked in as we could see other campers and some tents in a small woodland patch about 100m or so from the beach and well within walking distance to the town and shops. It was a beautiful shady spot and made camp with our shower curtain awning and went to head for an explore of the beach and town. The small town was full of restaurants, market shops and PLENTY of sun beds with people sunning themselves on. The beach was a rocky paradise further up the coast where there was a small trail that we followed and found ourselves on another cliff side. Further still there was a tiny hidden beach where there were only a few people and so we spent an hour or so relaxing and chilling out feeling pretty great. On our return to Dobby we could tell things weren’t right. Dobby wasn’t locked, Jacks phone and iPad had suddenly disappeared, along with Chars phone, the GoPro AND our speaker - we’d been robbed! We couldn’t believe it. We had left a small opening in the window to stop it from getting hot, we had spoken to the other Albanian campers before hand and were so friendly and welcoming, in being away for an hour and a half everything had gone. Thankfully Chars iPad was still where we left it and our passports were also still in the van. This was the first time anything like this had happened on the whole trip and though frustrating it wasn’t the end of the world. Losing pictures and videos of Nepal on the go pro was by far the worst. We both asked everyone we could find around if they’d seen anything or heard anything, of course “no” was the answer and as far as we knew it could have been any of them who actually had our stuff. We thought of calling the police but 1 - we didn’t have a phone 2 - even if we did, there was nothing for the police to go on and had a feeling that it would just be futile to expect them to investigate it, find our stuff and then return it to us before the thieving bastards were halfway down Albania with them. It wasn’t all bad though, it was just stuff and we had been harping on about how little things we had and how well we were coping with it. Maybe losing our tech was the next step into realising that that stuff was also not needed and was just the next step on our minimalist journey! We headed to the nearest bar with WiFi to try and contact home about locking our data and finding a way to save what pictures we did have with the iCloud. Unfortunately we couldn’t get hold of anyone. We spent the rest of the day sullen and trying to get our heads around if we could manage without any phones for the rest of the trip until we returned home. Challenge accepted!



Fri 12th

By the morning we had began our lives without electronic devices and had started to feel less hard done by. We video called Joey who gave us advice on how to lock our devices that had been stolen and that was pretty much the end of our tech. We lounged by the beach in the morning, swimming in the gorgeous sea and enjoying cappuccinos on the beach. We then decided that despite being ransacked the day before we were not ready to move on. It was such a lovely spot and we can now easily take everything valuable with us! We spent the day at a beautiful bay about 1km walk from the main beach. For most of the day we had the entire cove to ourselves and the sea was turquoise and transparent in the shallows. We attempted some snorkelling but the few fish we did see were nothing on the scale of the Asian beaches and coral. We sunned ourselves in and out of the water for most the day before returning to the main town to make use of their beach showers. The down side of living in a van and being at the seaside is definitely needing a shower after the sea! Once we had freshened up we treated ourselves to iced cappuccinos and bought a pizza to take back to our camp spot for the night.



13th to 18th

The next morning we returned to the cappuccino bar on the beach and showered, washed hair etc before setting out to find another spot with less thieves (hopefully). It didn’t take us long at all before we had found our Albanian beach paradise. There was a beautiful place about 15km down the coast called Borch. It was a huge bay and had lots of hotels, bars and restaurants along the front. However, if you drive right along to the end there was nothing but trees and beach. There were already 10 or so campervans parked up there and so we felt much safer. We found the most perfect spot on the beach right by a river, paradise at last. Dobby set himself up and we arranged our sunshade and chairs and almost immediately set about making a camp fire. Well, everyone else was, so why not! We spent the day floating down the river on our swim rings, making coffees on the fire and chilling. This was the spot we had been holding out for and there was nothing that was going to rush us away from this place!

Our routines for the days that followed were much the same, we relaxed, sunbathed, listened to music, cooked on the fire and read our books. We both still had our kindles and currently are reading Sapiens. It’s a fantastic book all about how Homo Sapiens came to be the most important animals on the planet and it takes you all through history examining how our decisions and historical events have shaped the societies we live in today. So Sapiens was taking up the majority of our time along with bronzing ourselves and chilling out. We did make the odd excursion out and about to the market or to by a cocktail in one of the beach bars along the coast but mainly our heat map consisted of a very idyllic 30m squared. Perfection.



Wednesday 18th

Sadly it was time to leave paradise and turn around to be on our way back to Blighty! We had some Kms to cover and we worked out that it was a quicker route through the north of Greece and then back into Albania - ok then! The drive was beautiful again, through the villages and narrow farmyard tracks with some tractors but mostly horse drawn carts with freshly cut grass and crops piled high on their wagons. Shock horror, once we got into Greece it was the easiest crossing yet. Minimal queues and no search! Once we got into Greece we stopped off at a small village along the way to stretch our legs and sample their kebabs. As I’m sure you’d expect, they didn’t disappoint. With our taste buds still tingling we hopped back into Dobby and crossed the border at another point again and this was the most bizarre one yet. We drove up to the “crossing” where instead of massive queues and PC plods everywhere there was an almost derelict looking building with nobody in sight. If it wasn’t for the barrier in the way I’m sure we could of snuck straight through without anyone knowing. Not wanting to become fugitives though we knocked in windows and doors until a lad did his job and waved us through. We drove on in search of a spot to sleep and found a wonderful clearing in some small woods with a lake pretty much all to ourselves apart from the local farmers. Their kids came and said hello and asked if we’d seen a young Bull that they’d lost from their livestock. We were no help and soon enough we saw them and their disgruntled looking dad hiking up into the fields to try and find the runaway. Finger crossed they did as I’m sure he’ll be worth a few penny’s for them!



Thursday 19th

The drive from the beautiful lake spot was really awesome. The tiny road wound round the mountains, through the pine forests and past loads of ramshackle villages. We had beautiful views of the big mountains in the background and had to make several stops along the way to take photos so we could remember how amazing it is. More and more as we are driving through the Balkans we are so surprised it’s not a tourist destination, there are world class views round every corner and everyone is so friendly and welcoming. We continued on our longish drive and decided to make a pit stop in Korca for some food. As we were leaving Albania today we thought we better try one of their local dishes which is a flat bread stuffed with white cheese and parsley. We bought one from the bakery and although the first few bites were delicious, the cheese was so strong and there was so much that by the end it was a bit too much! We sat and chatted to some locals and had coffee in a tiny shop along the main high street. The shop owner was very excited to have tourists and in his broken English set about showing us and talking us through his grandfathers stamp collection. He also explained that the bustling street we were sat on today used to be a river dividing the city. On one side the Muslims lived and on the other the Christians, he also said that when he was a boy there used to be a curfew. By 5pm every night the streets must be empty and everyone must return to their homes or the police will arrest them. It seemed pretty hard to believe in this bustling city but there are constant reminders everyday of their troubled past and this was just another to add to the list of their struggles.



After our coffees and history lessons we continued on through our most lengthy and thorough border crossing. It took us about 2 hours to cross the border because the border police were pulling over everyone from England. We were not sure of the reason for this but waited in a line of 3 brisitsh cars and campers to be searched. We were not threatened with jail on this occasion but they pretty much emptied our entire car and roof box continually asking us if we had any hash or marijuana for them. Obviously the whole operation was super dodgy as were the police conducting the search in a garage out the back with no cameras so we had our eyes glued on them at all times. After they had turned the whole van and roof box inside out we were finally given back our passports and allowed to cross into Montenegro. We were really tired by this point and so motored round the lake which borders Albania and Montenegro to a place called Ohrid. This place had a very different vibe. It was absolutely buzzing with tourists but still managed to keep its charm. Possibly because of all the lovely old buildings in the city. Apparently there are 365 churches in the city, one to visit everyday of the year. We walked along the front munching on ice creams and then wandered through some of the cobbled back streets until we found a square with restaurants. We sat in one of the restaurants and both decided we were too tired to cook so shared a pizza and some beers. We returned to the car as it was starting to get dark and parked Dobby on the lake edge on the other side of the old fortress

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