Is Theth Accursed?

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Many years ago, decades in fact, when we were travelling by car in France, the traffic rules there were quite different from today. In particular, cars, even when trundling along at speed on a major road, were expected to give way to vehicles joining from side roads on the right.

As a result, when driving there Paul, who essentially does all the driving when we are overseas (except when he breaks his wrist bungee jumping - see blog from 2015), developed the "French twitch" - an instinctive slight turn of the steering wheel to the left when passing junctions with traffic on them.

Fast forward to now and we have the "Albanian twitch". This in part is because the quality of driving is such that several times whilst in urban areas cars have muscled their way in from side junctions. But also because, on research, we find that on roundabouts cars going around the roundabout are expected to give way to traffic entering - totally the opposite to UK rules. But also that this roundabout rule is only loosely observed.

Fortunately we are not doing too much driving on this break. Just 3 journeys in fact - airport to first stopover at Shkodër (see previous blog), Shkodër to here in the mountains at Theth, and then the return journey to Tirana on Saturday coming.

The Shkodër to Theth drive on Wednesday was one of those drives that Paul likes to describe as "interesting" and Pip likes to think of as "do we really need to be doing this!!??"

Although from the main highway to Theth was only 57km, it took around 2 1/2 hours to complete with just a couple of short stops.

Tarmaced all the way, this was not the case as recently as around 12 months ago. Until then the latter 1/3, down from the road's highest point, was just a rough, potholed track, suitable only for 4x4s. Even so it is not the widest of routes, and with oncoming traffic, rough edges, drop-offs and around 40 hairpin bends it is definitely "interesting" / "do we really need to be doing this!!??".

What Paul hadn't appreciated from the maps is that it is a "pass" road. That is, it climbs to a high point pass, at 5750 feet, and then Theth is back down the other side in a valley, at around 2300 feet, surrounded by the Albanian Alps, which are locally known as the Accursed Mountains.

Although the road to Theth is now fully tarmaced the roads within and beyond Theth are not, and gives us a reminder of just why we would not have made this drive over just a year or so ago.

Theth itself is a somewhat strung out settlement stretching a long couple of kilometres along the valley floor, with the valley river cascading down and along one side of the valley (rather than central to it), and the lodges and dwellings typically on large, grassy plots.

Not much general infrastructure. We think there is only 1 specific restaurant, though most of the guesthouses provide their own catering. A few small coffee places, barely huts with tables mostly. A small general store, that seems to be particularly well stocked with beer. And no petrol station, but we knew that and had stocked up accordingly.

It seems that every noticeable "house" here is a guesthouse of one type or another. Lots of new extensions, or recently added floors, or works in progress.

Our lodgings required a 1.5 km drive along some of the aforementioned potholed roads, and our room is in a separate, 2 storey side building. There are 4 rooms on our landing, and at dinner evening there are nearly 30 of us sat at the communal tables. But only 2 other cars parked outside. Clearly some people are more sensible enough to let others do the driving 😊.

On Wednesday the group of 4 sat next to us were from Sweden. They had arrived by train (though needed a flight for the final leg into Albania) and were working their way back to Sweden overland via Croatia, Italy, Switzerland...., though "winging it" week by week. They had walked into Theth via a 9 hour over-the-mountains trek by the area's most famous hiking trail, the Theth to Valbone Trail.

Incidentally, that trail is around 13 km. However, if you are inclined to want to drive from Theth to Valbone MapsMe tells us it is a drive of 350 kms!!

Just from looks & outfits alone there are clearly some very serious hikers making their way here. The Swedes asked if we were hiking, and we were polite enough to say that we would be "walking" more than "hiking".

There is provision of an evening meal at the guest house. Not sure if this is "compulsory" or not. Guess we will find out when we get the bill. Soup and loads of bread, followed by salad vegetables, a local feta-style cheese, a warm rice dish. Just when we thought that was sufficient, and had eaten accordingly, a plate of hot food appeared - lamb ribs, potatoes,.... We were somewhat stuffed by the time we had finished.

And then breakfast piled it on even more. There even appeared to be a lunch table at breakfast at which the hikers could make themselves sandwiches from bread, prosciutto and the feta cheese.

Having talked on the basis of "looks" about the hikers seen at dinner the first night, our first breakfast here just confirmed this even more. Lots of lightweight hiking gear, walking poles, stretching and limbering up, lithe bodies (well, most of them).

If we were 30 years younger....

There are dozens of trails around here, though regrettably no obvious printed map available. The routes do show on MapsMe and the the major ones are very well marked with regular red/white painted marks and arrows on trees and boulders

On our way in to Theth there was a modern Tourist Information office. In there it had some very good display boards of flora, fauna, geology and the like, all with English narrative, and a wall sized map of the area.

The manned desk, however, had very little take-away information and when you asked for a Trail Map they just directed you to the map on the wall.

What more can we say of Theth and our time here? Not a lot really. We walked on both days. On Thursday we went South, on Friday, North.

A highlight of the region is a waterfall /pool called the Blue Eye. However that is a 4 to 5 hour hike in one direction. Apparently you can drive 4/5 of the way and hike the final hour, but we had promised ourselves no more driving up here on the rough roads.

On Thursday therefore we went as far as the Grunas Waterfall, doubled back a little and then in to the Canyon. Pleasant day weather wise. Nippy start but warmed up.

The Tourist Info place talked of Brown Grizzly Bear, Chamois Goats, wild boar, Golden Eagles....

We saw.... a brief glimpse of a Jay-like bird, a handful of pretty butterflies, 2 small lizards and some dragonflies.

There are a lot of wild herbs around. On the, rare, flat patches of grassland, if you walk on them you get a waft of thyme and marjoram scent filling the air.

On Friday we walked north, up the valley. Whereas southwards, the day before, was mostly through forested areas with occasional meadows, Friday was much more open as we approached the wall of cliffs encircling the valley end.

A lot of walking on what appeared to be vast tracts of dry, rock strewn river beds. They are probably raging torrents in the Spring, full of meltwater.

 Interestingly we just about found the origin of the fast flowing river that runs through the valley. There was a point where there was no river, and then maybe just a couple of hundred metres further down, but in vegetation and undergrowth so we couldn't get to it, the full river was flowing. We reckon that a lot of this was water from various small streams coming together somewhere under the "river bed" and then popping out in one spot. Fairly typical of karst limestone landscapes.

We went just a bit further than the valley's last Cafe Bar. Talk about out of the way. Looked a recent build. A gnarly old man standing next to his 4x4. We looked inside, hoping maybe for some refrigerator cabinets for a cold drink but could see none. Just a very small bar at one end.

Stepping back outside, as the man approached we pointed to the advertising poster in the window for the local beer. He walked across the yard towards a concrete sink into which water was running constantly. We thought he was inviting us to wash our hands. Rather, though, it was where the drink bottles and cans were kept to be cold. Wonderful.

We chose our two bottles and sat for a restful half hour soaking in the stunning scenery. And when we paid there was no rip-off charge for this, just the same price as we had paid elsewhere.

Lots of meadow flowers along the way, even at this time of year. Scabious, vetch, wild spurge (euphorbia, just like we have in our garden), colchiums... we also saw orchid foliage but the flowers were long gone, just brown husks hanging on their stalks.

Also lots of juniper bushes, dripping with ripening berries. Now if only we had had some plain spirits with us - and a portable still - we could have been making our own gin.

Along the way on Friday we also came across our first Albanian concrete pill-box / bunkers. We'll say more about these in later blogs but for now we'll just mention that the communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, was somewhat paranoid.

There are reckoned to be something around 173,000 concrete bunkers in Albania.

Yep, all those digits are in the right place......

One hundred and seventy three thousand!

This morning, Saturday, we have made our way back to Tirana. The drive over the pass road was fine, not too much traffic. But the main road south was horrendous. Does everyone in Albania bring their cars out at the weekend?

As a result we changed our plans a little and took the car back to the airport, rather than city centre, and took the bus in.

We join the Explore trip Sunday evening so have some time of our own to explore.

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Photos

Coffee stop
On way up

Coincidence
Note the number plate. Just by chance at our lodgings

Meadow, or prehistoric ruin
According to the Information Office this could be 8thC BC settlement site

Ricketty
Bridge or Pip?