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Published: July 23rd 2018
Sunday 1st July
We awoke with some groggy heads and had to have a dip in the icy cold morning sea to make ourselves human again. Once this was kind of achieved we made our way to the border with Albania. The drive was great, the roads were smaller and took us all the way up into the mountains and passed through serene villages that seemed to be stuck in time with a new view of more valleys and mountains around every turn. We got to the border and passed with no issue and the drive was just as equally as amazing! It was easy to tell straight away that is was the poorer of the countries we had driven through by the roads and the upkeep of the buildings. We soon got into Shkodra and it was Chaos! Generally driving through the Balkans is pretty interesting with some crazy drivers but Albania was next level! Roundabouts, traffic lights, road lanes, paths etc may as well no have existed, it was pretty much a free for all - if there was space you go for it. We negotiated the city with no casualties and headed for Lake Skadar, just north east of the city. The road to get to the bank was dicey but we managed to get there with Dobby intact. It was a great spot. We found a passing farmer and said “nothing” which loosely means “no problem” “we reckon” with staying there for the night. We spent most of that day sitting in the sun, reading, playing the Uke until hitting the sack for the night with the frogs symphony just starting up.
Monday 2nd
In the morning we went for a quick dip in the lake and sat outside Dobby having coffee and enjoying the fantastic views. We made a plan to go hiking in the accursed mountains but to do this we would have to leave the car. We decided to go to a campsite in Shkodra and ask there if we could leave the van. The campsite was really friendly and we were not the first people to ask this question. It was no problem at all and they even helped us arranging transport to get to the trekking area. The campsite was obviously owned by a quirky character who had a fantastic artistic flare. Round every corner there were mosaics, sculptures, beautiful plants and flowers etc. There was a lovely pool in the centre of the park and a fantastic restaurant hidden out the back through an ivy covered archway. After we had cooled off in the pool e headed into shkodra to have a look about. We were told that it was a very traditional town and it seemed that it hadn’t been visited by many tourists. Everyone was really friendly, coming up to us and asking where we were from and if we liked Albania. We decided to fork out for another SIM card so that we could have data and minutes to speak to people back home and once that was purchased we sat back in one of the bars for some super cheap beers. Shkodra was predominantly blocks of old and pretty delapatated blocks of flats. It had a more grand central area “the old town” with painted buildings and pretty <span>coving. However, happily, time had stool more still here and it definitely had a traditional feel with lots of independents shops and markets. On our way back to the campsite the big kids in us took over and bought two inflatable rings for the pool! Later on Jack routed through the roof box and hauled out or faithful Nepal hiking bags so we could pack them for the hike, back to adventure time! That evening we chatted to a couple staying on the site from the Netherlands who travel every 6 months and work for 6 months on repeat. They also decided to buy a camper van and were doing a similar route to us. We wanted the football: Belgium vs Japan in the restaurant with the Dutch couple before retiring to bed to prepare for our 5am start in the morning.
Tues 3rd
We woke pretty bleary eyed as 5am was not in our current routine but we soon came round and before we knew it the mini bus had picked us up and we were on our way to the ferry. The journey from Skodra to the ferry port in Fierze followed, for most of the way, along the edge of lake Koman. There were so many beautiful spots to camp along the way, gorgeous lake side tracks with no one for miles. The lake was shining beautiful jade greens and turquoise as we snakes along the mountain roads until we reached the harbour. Our mini bus driver had sped us along and so we had 30minutes to spare which we spent munching down huge foot long baguettes filled with lamb koftas, uuuummmm. The ferry came which caused a big stir in the extremely small harbour, everyone was clamouring to get off whilst others were trying to sneak on. Motorbikes were being manhandled by 5 or 6 lads trying to balance and carry the bikes in and out of very tight spaces. Wardrobes were being passed forward, ironing boards and bags and bags of food supplies headed for the extremely isolated hamlets along the river. Once everyone and everything was piled onto the tiny ferry we set off on a 3hr meander up the river of Lake Koman. The steep mountains either side of the valley were packed with forest and looked totally uninhabitable. However, time and time again during the journey we picked up or dropped off locals in what looked like the middle of nowhere and they would trundle off and disappear into the forests. At one of the bases of the forest there was a monk waiting to be picked up. He seemed to have been living in one of the monasteries way up hidden in the mountains, no idea how long he had been there but it must have been a very isolated experience. Some places along the river were more obviously inhabited, you could see goats grazing and smoke rising from a few roof tops or some washing hanging out. These really were the only signs of life along the river and it was a really special trip just almost silently floating by glimpsing a life in Albania that had probably been like this for 100s of years, exactly the same. At the other end of the ferry boat we had another short mini bus ride into Valbona. Valbona is a gorgeous village set in a wide plain with a river running though and surrounded by mountain peaks. It was so so beautiful and we instantly knew we had come to the right place. We found a guesthouse run by a small family on the edge of the village who were very kind and welcoming and we went out walking and exploring the local area. That evening we were once again brought more food than we could finish by our hosts and sat back with them to watch England vs Columbia, a long game resulting in a win on penalties for England, few!
Wednesday 4th
We woke up nice and early and had another load of bread, butter, cheese and Jam. Then the family we were staying with gave us some lunch to take for free! Albanians are awesome. We set off on the trail towards the town of Theth. In the shining sun we started with a pretty hot and sweaty walk along the river bed. This soon changed when we carried on up into the pine forest. Time seemed to have stood still in all of the villages we passed along the way. It seemed that everybody was a farmer and the old stone houses, cows walking by with bells around their necks and the rushing river was very reminiscent of Nepal. We made our way up and up and were faced with a pretty steep ascent that we managed to plough through in the now quite humid rainforest. After a pit stop at a shack that was selling snacks and drinks we had the final push towards the mountain pass. The sticky rainforest turned into lush green meadows with boulders scattered everywhere the higher we climbed and could see other trekkers with guides and their bags stacked on the back of donkeys (cheaters). On we pressed and passed a few other trekkers and then we got to the pass. The views by this point were pretty insane. As we walked up a bit higher than the pass we had 360 degree views of the entire landscape just dominated by mountain after mountain and a river that looked like a trickle at the bottom of the valley. We spent some time here taking in the views and having some of the free lunch that we got earlier. After taking in the scenery we made our way down into Theth which was beautiful. It was such a small “town/village” with pretty much one main street that ran parallel to the torrent that was the river. We found ourselves another beaut guesthouse right on the end of the village overlooking the river. By this point we were pretty shattered but had most of the afternoon at our disposal. We immediately made our way to the shop that they had, stacked up on food and goodies and spent the rest of the day changing from one spot to another by the river and mountains relaxing. What a day!
Thursday 5th
Our guesthouse where we were staying arranged for the local bus to pick us up at 1pm so we could spend the morning hanging around in gorgeous Theth. We sat down in the valley by for most of the morning just gazing at the amazing mountains and listening to the river rushing along in front of us. The lovely lady at the guesthouse gave us heaps of free water melon whilst we were sat waiting for the bus and then we began the bumpy ride back to camp Legenda. Nothing much to report that evening, we hopped in the pool, showered and slept.
Friday 6th
Once we had settled our payments at the campsite we set off to explore more of Albania. We drove along a winding road through the mountains which followed a river below. There were so many amazing camp spots along the turquoise river but unfortunately only accessible with a 4x4. We love Dobby, of course, he’s our number one and our travelling home. However, if we had our choice again a 4x4 would have been a much better purchase for exploring The Balcans due to the amount of steep dirt tracks and mountains. Still, Dobby chugged on and we reached a beautiful reservoir called Lake Ulez. We spoke to the owner of a small bar near the lake and he told us we could sleep here for the night. We pitched up and spent time sunbathing and swimming. We watched as the locals loaded hay bales into trucks that had been delivered from across the lake. There also appeared to be a lake ferry which, like clockwork, was going from one place to another picking people up with their goats or sacks of potatoes and delivering them to the next place. As it was on route to our side of the lake we could see it was being towed by a man and a woman. Just as the were reaching us some locals from our village appeared and they swapped into the boat as the man and woman jumped out. So we figured it might not be a ferry but instead more of a communal lake boat which everyone shared. We went for a beer at the bar and on returning to the cR an elderly man was trying to speak to us obviously our Albanian is non existent and like wise his English was the same. So we embarked on a 10 minute conversation made up mostly of gestures which sadly ended up in us thinking that he wanted us to leave. We still don’t know if that’s what the guy meant but if seemed that way so we didn’t want to cause any upset and drove on. It was getting late by this point and so after retracing our steps through the valley we found the first spot we could and snuggled down for the night.
Sat 7th
Our hasty decision choosing a camping spot the night before had meant that we were staying on a mountain overlooking a campsite. We headed there for coffee in the morning just as the skies opened and there was a huge storm. We sat chatting to the bar owners who asked us about our plans for the day. We told them we were planning on checking out the capital Tirane. They said that unless we like lots of traffic and busy places we should give it a miss. Few, glad we didn’t bother going there then!! Instead, once the storm had passed, we headed for a town called Elbasan and arrived just in time to watch the next England game. After another glorious victory to England we set off to find a spot for the night. There was a village on the way out of Elbasan which we went to explore for possible spots and found a great little place amongst the village allotments close to the river. As we were parking up we saw a man in the fields and thought it polite to check with him if we could stay for the night. This caused all sorts of problems as once again the English Albania language barrier reared it’s ugly head. The guy was super friendly and beckoned us to follow him in the car and we assumed he wanted to take us to his house from the limited words we could understand. In the end a group of people our age appeared and one of them was his nephew who luckily was staying for a few weeks in Albania from Londonand was a very helpful guide. Then the grandfather appeared round a corner and via our translator we were told that the grandfather and everyone in the village loves tourists and the grandfather told us we could park in his field for the night" everyone escorted us to the spot, including grandpa on his rusty bike and we felt very welcome indeed. Later in the evening another local appeared with a bag of plumbs which he wanted us to have for free. Everyone in Albania is SO friendly.
Sun 8th
We awoke after a sound sleep and headed straight to the river for a wash. What a luxury! We made our way further south to a place called Berat. The place itself was nothing special, just a small Albanian town but plenty of tourists stopping off there before making their way to the beaches (as were we). We had a stroll around the place and was just having a sit down in the centre before the local meth head (looking at his teeth confirmed this) wearing a French football jersey, a gold chain and weighing nothing more than a bag of sugar came over to say hello! Us being us and not wanting to judge we had the usual chit chat about where we were from and what we were doing etc... He then said his mother had a ‘beautiful bar’ by the river and insisted we come with him. We fancied a bevvy we thought, so why not? When we got there we were pretty sure it wasn’t his mothers bar as the look on her face when he came in didn’t seem the most welcoming! Also, and here’s the kicker, he asked us if we could buy him a drink as he had no money...... looks like we were just the days tourists that he wanted to swindle. That being said, we did get him a coke, as his “mother” refused to give him a beer and after an awkward 10 minutes of sitting there with him we made our excuses and scarpered out of there! We then spent another hour or so driving towards the legendary beaches we’ve been hearing all about before finding a spot for the night just up a hill off a country road close to a tree that seemed to be the local fly tipping spot - perfect!
Monday 9th & Tuesday 10th
Today was beach day! We scampered down towards the coast in Dobby and found a great spot on one beach just north of Dhermi. At the end of the beach there were a couple more proper campers that looked like they had been there a while so us a little Dobby sandwiched between them nicely. The view from the back of the van was just beach and sea and all for free! The weather was scorching and we were definitely due to top up our ever fading tans so set up shop for the day. That evening we had a stroll up the beach where there were plenty of restaurants and sat down with the football on, beer and had a lovely grub of chips and roasted veggies.
Another morning and another day at the beach! We spent ALL DAY doing sweet FA apart from tanning and swimming. We did get to know our neighbours a bit more with the proper campers. One lovely lady had a whole melon that she needed eating so we happily obliged and helped here out with a few slices. Their dog Kira was a relaxed, friendly soul who spent her time wallowing in the shade and every now and then saying hello with a nuzzle when she wanted some attention. That evening we decided to cook up a storm with some of the best fresh veg that Albania had to offer.
Wed 11th
The next morning we decided we should explore a bit more. We walked down towards the end of the beach where we could see a walking track that lead up and over the bay we were in. We wondered up and went through thick brambles and bushes for a little while before ending up at the top of a cliff side overlooking the sea. It was a glorious spot just seeing the vast ocean and it’s waves whilst being baked by the ever warming sun. After taking in the sights for a while it was time to cool off - in the sea again it is then! Feeling quite proud of ourselves for getting up and having a stroll we found it appropriate to treat ourselves with yet more relaxing. That night was the England quarter final so made sure we had a bar, a tv and some beer. Amazingly England won and it was a surreal moment when you’re sat in a bar full of Albanians who couldn’t give 2 shits about England when we know full well back home I bet it’s pandemonium. Maybe it is coming home!
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