Oh the Places You’ll Go

A blog about our travels across Europe, the Balkans, Morocco, and Canary Islands

Albania-2

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The Balkans in Autumn are something to behold. The colors are more vibrant and varied than what we see in Steamboat where it is mostly golden Aspens glimmering in the wind. It’s also different than our home in terms of the jagged peaks of white Dolomite that pops through above. We felt we had a bit of un finished business so we swung back east for a few more days…

We are headed to Theth Albania. The main starting point for Peak of the Balkans. We thought they would have snow by now so we did a Kosovo leg a few days ago, but we are running about 3 weeks ahead of plan. That also meant we had time to take the Fierzë-Koman Lake ferry before season end. The ferry runs down the Drin River to Koman Lake in northern Albania. The lake itself is a long, narrow reservoir created by damming the river in the 1980s, so the boat basically follows the old river course for about 2.5 hours through a deep gorge.
The gorge is the real show: steep limestone walls rise hundreds of meters straight out of the turquoise water, and in the tightest sections the passage narrows to only around 50 meters across. Forested slopes climb above the cliffs, with the occasional waterfall or isolated house that can only be reached by boat. It’s often compared to the Norwegian fjords and is one of the most dramatic ferry rides in Europe.
Epic!
Getting a bit cooler now. Still tracking with our goal of about 60F for the highs. Further we haven’t had a real rain day since Sept 7 the day we picked up Spud (🥔 = 🚐 ).
Amazing
Notice on all these lakes you see essentially no houses or watercraft.
So fun! But now up the drive to Theth…
So you understand these drives. This was 40 miles up from an elevation of 30ft to over 5500ft in about 40 miles.
The roads are often 4 meters wide. Spud is 2.2 meters. So every time you pass a car it is very nerve racking. So you slow to 5 mph or stop and hope the other car can squeeze by. When another van comes you both have a wheel off the pavement and clear by about 4 inches! Above pic this truck broke down. They were trying to get me to squeeze past it!! Nope. Just turned it off and waited till he got it running. In the mean time car after car squeezed thru ahead of me!!
Up at the top we always find amazing places out of the blue.
$13 breakfast with coffee for two.
So this is Theth. A very daunting site in all directions.
Ok. Here we go. We will essentially go to the top and turn around and come back down. So 6 miles round trip. 2300 feet up. We’ve suffered on some hikes rated moderate. This is rated “hard”.
Trails are pretty well marked.
Up, up, up…
A tame stretch!
Finally close to the top!
I’ll end with this. Turn on audio. 1.5 miles from the bottom. Rest break in typical Albania style. Beer cooling via a mountain stream flowing thru a bathtub! Oh and one of those guys was from Kalamazoo my home town! Ok recoup and on to Montenegro.

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Comments

3 responses to “Albania-2”

  1. onwijsopwereldreis Avatar
    onwijsopwereldreis

    You guys did great hikes! What a nice pictures! We are looking forward to see you in Marokko!

    Liked by 1 person

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  2. Avatar
    Anonymous

    The landscapes are truly fabulous, and what a hike!

    What a joy, too, to meet so many different people.

    And is Spud still in good shape all over?

    Like

    Reply
    1. Jeff Webster Avatar
      Jeff Webster

      Yes all is amazing. So far no scrapes or issues with Spud. All systems working as designed. We go off the grid a lot. Duel alternators charge our big power bank so never need to plug in.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

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