26th September
Woke up at about seven and watched an incredible sunrise over the mountains and the lake. Definitely one of our best wild camps yet. We planned to stop for coffee and toilet in Kastoria but nowhere was open yet - it was too early. We set off down the motorway and turned off onto a mainroad that went over the mountains to Albania. We stopped instead in a cute mountain village which had a busy little market. We stocked up on Greek olives, peaches and red delicious apples - probably picked where we drove past yesterday. We got a coffee and watched the old ladies in black and the yelling fruit sellers for a while before carrying on. On the map it didn't look as though we had to far to go today but we slowly realised it was very deceiving as it didn't show how wiggly the roads were or how often the went up and down very steeply. Having said that the drive was incredible. Every now and then we passed through a tiny village dangling off the edge of a cliff and the mountains just kept getting bigger and more barren. We definitely felt as though we were driving through Afghanistan or somewhere. We saw almost no other cars and at some points the edge of the road was crumbling off down the mountain. As spectacular as it was it was long and very tiring for Pete driving and we were thankful to come to a town with a shop and the turn off to Albania. The road from here was good and fast and we came to the border crossing in no time. I always get nervous at border crossing and this time was even worse as we had to buy insurance for the van and I'd read lots of horror stories online about getting ripped off or having the van completely taken apart and not put back together. Thankfully the guy on the Greece side was lovely and said 'peace' to us and didn't want to look in the van even though we offered! He also told us that we had to get the Albania insurance on the otherside and that it should be about thirty euros for two weeks. This was good to know so we wouldn't get done over. The Albania guard was friendly enough although he didn't speak any English and he passed through about three Albanians who got out there cars and jumped in front of us in the queue. After about five to ten minutes of waiting patiently we finally got our documents back and they didn't even want to search us. We asked where to get our insurance and they pointed around the corner so we went round and parked and tried to work out where they meant. After walking around looking confused for a bit a guy came and asked us what we wanted and pointed us to the shop. We found the small shop with a bed in the back and the very friendly guy got us our insurance - 27 euros for 15 days. He was really nice and gave us a big smile when the internet wouldn't work and he had to write out the document by hand. So far everyone has been very friendly. The plan was to first visit Gjirokastra, an old Ottoman mountain town. To our surprise the roads were in good condition and there were alot of police on the roads, we assume to control the driving (I'd read on the government website for Albania that they are very aggressive drivers and not to react as they will probably be armed. Reassuring!) The police slowed us down as we approached but said hello and waved us on when they saw we were tourists. Through a huge valley with grey mountains either side we arrived finally in Gjirokastra and followed the winding road up. When we saw two coaches and a German camper parked we thought we'd park there too and walk the rest. I was making some lunch in the back on the van when a lady with a baby came and stood begging for ages. We guiltily ate our sandwiches whilst avoiding eye contact with her. The town is really pretty with a castle at the top and gorgeous old slate buildings. There was also a surprising amount of tourists. We went into a tourist shop to get a road map and the friendly lady welcomed us and taught us how to say hello and thankyou. Had a little wander - the town is quite small - and a coke in a cafe and then went back to the van. There definitely wasn't anywhere suitable for wild camping here so we decided to head straight for the coast. This again involved going over a mountain. The road was very narrow and alot of the barrier at the edge had been knocked off which was worrying but we eventually made it safely to the Ionian sea. We drove through Sarande towards the south and followed the coast down. We had heard that campsites were almost non-exsistant in Albania so we were keeping our eyes peeled for a wild camp. But the coast down here was surprisingly built up and any sandy bay between the rocks seemed to have a hotel built on. Eventually, just outside of Ksamil, we saw a German camper in a small hotel car park overlooking a lovely little bay. We pulled up next to them and asked if they were staying here. They said yes, it was five euros and pointed us to the reception. The lady there seemed quite amused that people were wanting to pay to park in the car park but we were happy and there was a toilet and a hose we could use. Bargain. After a very long day we ran straight into the sea to cool down. Afterwards we got a beer from the bar and sat in the sunshine outside our van. For dinner we were feeling lazy so we rustled up something simple with a few leftovers and watched the sutset over Corfu. (The clocks are behind an hour again so it gets dark really early - 7.30 ish.) We were chilling outside just about to get in the van when our German neighbours invited us over for a glass of wine. Their names were Alfred and Gertrude, they were sixty and on a short trip around the Adriatic. They didn't speak much English but we bonded over German wine, German congac and German drinking songs! It was a fantastic welcome to Albania. What a ridiculously long day.
Greece. ^
Gjirokastra. ^
Gypsy slums. ^
Camping with Alfred and Gertrude. ^
27th September
We liked this spot and after such a long day yesterday we thought we'd stay another night. In the morning we went for a walk around the other side of the bay. There was a promenade built with fancy looking lamposts and on the hill above it were lots of un-finished buildings (some of which had actually fallen sideways - we couldn't believe it!) They must have had high hopes for the area and then given up or run out of money. Anyway it looked like a bit of a shithole. There was rubbish everywhere and the earth had huge holes dug into it and then nothing built on it. The sea looked lovely and blue and the view to Corfu was lovely but sadly the rest was a bit disapointing. Anyway we went back to our own cove, which was much nicer, and we had a big pasta for lunch and then a beer on the sun loungers. Just a few kilometres further south was Butrint National Park - apparently a beautiful place with baths and theatres from the Ancient Greeks. We thought we'd go and have a look. Obviously we had to pack up all our stuff and off we drove. The national park didn't look too impressive so we decided not to go in. We did meet though two gypsy lads who were quite friendly and offered us some weed! We turned around and headed back, stopping at a shop on the way. As far as we've seen they don't have supermarkets in Albania. When we got back to our hotel we found, to our horror, that a humongous French camper had parked in our spot. We knew that our friends Alfred and Gertrude were leaving soon so we parked up at the back and went to have a beer on the beach. As we were waiting another French camper pulled in. Can't believe how many other campers are around - we thought we 'off the beaten track'! Luckily the Germans had seen us and made sure we got their space when they left. So we pulled in and had another evening watching a lovely sunset and playing cards. At one point we were looking out at the promenade watching a group of kids playing and one of them was holding what was, for all intents and purposes, a huge AK47. He was aiming it at his friends and they were running away. Thankfully they ran off and their voices faded out so we knew they weren't coming towards us. We got in the van for bed and double locked it!
Walk around the Promenade. WEX from afar on the bottom photo. ^
National park. ^
28th September
We left first thing for our drive further north. We had read in the guide books that Albania had the only untouched Mediterranean coast left and it was meant to be stunning, so we had high hopes. When we finally found our way out of Sarande (they don't do road signs) we found our self on winding mountain roads following the coast. They seem to have the towns actually high up in the mountains, away from the sea, so the road stayed quite inland with little roads curling down to the ocean. We stopped at a few which we both thought were disapointingly uninteresting. The water was blue but the pebbles were grey and it all looked a bit grubby. We did pass a few small bays - Croatia style - but there was no where to stop or get down to them. We stopped on one beach to get a coffee from a bar with ridiculously loud music and no customers. We chatted to the owner before we left and he told us that all this area is 90% Greek - hence all the Catholic churches - and he also told us that in summer the beach is full with about 1000 visitors. This was so difficult to imagine because at the moment it looked bleak and derelict. The whole road had the same feeling - the only other vechiles passing were a couple of other campers and trucks. We passed a few small villages which looked quite interesting but apart from that it had an eerie, empty feeling. We eventually came to Drymades Beach - Lonely plant states it's one of Albanias best. We found a promenade with a few closed up bars and a long scruffy looking beach. Lookign at the map this was our last chance before we had to climb a mountain pass so we said we'd stay. There was another camper set up at the end of the road so we thought we'd be alright. First things first we went for a swim. We walked right down to the water to find the stones were white and smooth and the turquoize water was the clearest we've seen on our trip. And once you were in the sea the view back to the mountains was from another world! We were instantly converted. We had a great afternoon relaxing on the beach and reading our books. Later on we had a stroll along the length of the beach, combing through all the rubbish and left over stuff from the closed bars and hotels - didn't find anything good. We can imagine though that it would be so different in summer; alot of the bars look like they'd be well trendy. In the evening we used the beach shower to get clean and then went to the one open bar to get a beer. They are obviously half way to closing for winter too and they only had one lemon beer left. We shared it and played cards for a bit and then decided to drive to the shop up the road to get more beers. We spent the evening sitting on the beach looking at the incredible stars - we could even see the milky way. The bar was surprisingly busy with a rich Kosovan family and a few couples and there were cars coming and going all evening. At one point there were three or four weird looking guys who we thought were looking for scrap metal in the middle of the night. It turned out though that they were looking for wood for a barbeque and they started it up right outside our van! Really annoying. When we'd finished our beers we drove the van to the other end of the beach and went to sleep.
Driving around. ^
Beautiful Drymades beach and the funny toilet sign. ^
29th September
Woke up and drove our van back to the bar end of the beach. Sat in the beach bar all morning using the free wifi, writing up the blog and drinking frappes. Definitely didn't expect to be sitting in a trendy beach bar with lots of glamourous women when I thought we were coming to Albania. All the men were already on the raki at about 9 in the morning - including the bar man! When the computer ran out of battery we went back to the van to make some lunch. We got the cooker out and cooked noodles on the pavement using a closed beach bar as our table. We got some funny looks but it was a great lunch eaten sitting on the lovely beach. After this we went down to the beach to do some reading, the clouds were starting to come over the mountains so swimming wasn't so tempting. After a while we were joined by the bar man from earlier who came over and offered us some weed. We didn't accept but he sat with us anyway and chatted for a while. He was a pretty cool guy who was into wind surfing and had worked in Ibiza for three years and travelled Europe with no passport until he got sent home. We all ended up doing some sun saluting yoga together on the beach! He said that we could all make a big fire on the beach later and then went back off to the bar to work. Me and Pete went back to the van and decided we really didn't want a fire on the beach talking to a slightly mad Albanian and tried to work out how to ditch him! We ended up just staying in the van chilling and then at sunset we went for another walk along the beach, but further this time, past where the road ends and turns into a track. There was pretty much nothing up here and the bay ended with a rocky headland and a huge rock arch. We walked right up to it to have a look through and discovered a lovely little cove on the other side. As we were walking a police jeep had followed us and three police men got out and followed us up the path to the rock - quite worrying. One started talking to us - asking where we're from and if we're married etc. We ended up having a nice chat; they asked if we liked Albania and told us that they'd been told by other tourists that Albanian people were very friendly! How modest! We agreed and when we walked off they got in their jeep and drove away too. Had they driven up here just to talk to us? Anyway we walked back to the van and it was getting dark now and the bar was blasting out ridiculously loud music. We decided just to drive to the other end of the beach again and hope our friend didn't come looking for us. We sat on the beach and had a gin and tonic before going to bed quite early and watching 'Kungfu Panda' on the laptop.
The Llogaraja Pass which we are driving tomorrow. ^
Cooking in street. ^
30th September
We woke up at about six thirty and drove off straight away. We had a mountain to climb today and it looked like it was going to cloud over so we wanted to get over before it did. The mountain was the Llogaraja Pass and was a very windy and very beautiful drive. We stopped for a coffee from and little van parked in a layby and chatted to the guy running it. He lived in the van - the back was the shop so he lived only on the driver and passenger seat - and as open twenty four hours a day. Poor guy. He did have two very cute dogs living with him on the layby though. The views down to the coast were amazing - definitely pristine compared to everywhere else we've been. As we came over the mountain, which was scrubby and bare, wefound the other side was like a whole new mountain - covered in pines with lodges like alpine chalets. The drive down was through rural villages and was absolutely stunning. As we came to the coast on the other side the clouds were really starting to roll in. It was one of those days that felt like the sun never rose. The beaches were no where near as nice as what we'd seen and we'd heard this was true for all the beaches further north. We followed the coastal road along, looking for some where to stop but found nothing that looked any good and before we knew it we were on the motorway heading north. We passed through two big towns and we felt like we'd gone through a portal into Asia. Insanely bad drivign skills, people walking in the road everywhere and the stench of open sewers and burning rubbish all included. All the big buildings were crumbling away and the stalls at the side of the road were made of corrugated iron. It was crazy! Even the low hazy smog reminded me of an Indian city. After the motorway suddenly ending and having to negotiate our own way through the towns we thought we'd gone wrong as we drove down a mud track with slums either side, until we turned a corner and found that the motorway miraculously appeared again right there. No build up to it or anything. Madness. By now the rain had reallt started to fall and after a couple of attempts at finding a free camp somewhere off the motorway we were about to give up hope. Then a camping sign appeared! We couldn't believe our luck and we followed the signs the seven kilometres or so down tiny dirt tracks through little villages in the pissing rain to find this campsite. Thank god it was open, and although it was really over priced we stayed any way and both had a steaming hot shower as soon as we'd parked the van. Feeling lovely and clean we hung out in the van until the rain cleared. So the campsite was set on a hill by a scruffy sandy beach and the place for campers to park was on the sand with the waves pretty much lapping at the tyres. This would be fantastic if it was a calm sunny day but was really quite scary when the rain was hammering down and a huge storm was brewing. We were thankful there were several other campers there. Early evening the rain stopped for a while anyway and later we even got quite a nice sunset through a hole in the black clouds. From the beach we were camped on was a wooden walk way out to a small man made island thing, which in season would have had a bar and sun loungers on. It was quite a nice walk out but a bit too cold and we went back to the van to cook a big hot dinner. In the evening we went up to the restaurant and used the internet to check about campsites in Montenegro and then sat up and drank beer whilst sitting in our warm cosy van. In the night the storm really came down with an amazing lightning show on all sides and thunder which actually shook the ground. I didn't sleep for ages thinking about tidal waves coming and washing us out to sea. Luckily the rain calmed down a bit and we managed to get some sleep.
The Llogaraja Pass. ^
Coming down the otherside. ^
Roadside stalls. ^
Camping on the beach. ^
1st October
We woke up on the first day of November with rain pummeling down on the roof. Now we can stop being so smug about our five month summer! We drank tea and sat out the rain until it let up slightly at about half nine. We took the opportunity to wash up and check out and drive onwards. Not sure really of where to go next but not really wanting to cross to Montenegro today we just kept on following the main road north towards the border. The drive was very wet and stressful - Albanians seem to have built round-a-bouts without actually knowing what the hell one is. They have no give way rules or anything they just go. We followed one camping sign a long way off the motorway to find that it was closed and had lunch sitting in the van at the side of the road. Not much really happened - the countryside up here is completely flat and un-interesting. We did see alot of interesting people though; there are a few horse and carts around it still very very Asian everywhere. Wanting to find a wild camp we followed a small road around the south side of Shkodra lake. We passed a small gypsy community which genuinely could have in India and followed a lovely winding road around the mountainous lake. Not feeling safe in a lay-by we eventually came across a hotel/restaurant which had a campervan on it's sign. We parked in the small car park behind a willow tree and asked the two boys if we could stay. They said yes and we got a beer and sat on the terrace looking out the lake (the rain had finally stopped.) It was not as romantic as it sounds - the hotel and the owners were really creepy. But we felt safe there and spent the afternoon chilling in the van, reading and writing the blog. Now I'm sitting here and about to make us some dinner. Our time in Albanian has been brief, and unfortunetly a bit wet, but we think we got a feel for the small country. It's been the most different and interesting place we've seen by far, with some of the friendliest, smily people. To Montenegro tomorrow!
In the night the two boys who work at the restaurant were playing some really loud music and had some friends over. We worked up our paranoia of them get drunk and coming to harrass us in the middle of nowhere so decided to drive off and park by the lake in the next small village under a street light.
Woke up and got a coffee in a cafe and watched the small fishing boats unloading their fishing nets. The lake and surrounding mountains were really beautiful in the morning. After doing a bit of washing up by the road we set of towards Montenegro. A short drive to the border where we were stopped by the Albanian police who wanted to have a look in the van. All four of them got in and had a look around with big smiles on their faces. When they found our bottle of ouzo they were very excited and all helped themselves to a sip! Albania! Other than that the border crossing was fine, in fact there wasn't even a Montenegrin side. We drove on thinking we were in 'no mans land' until we got to a village and realised that we were actually in the country already. We had to turn back to the border to get insurance for the van - this was easily done in a small booth for 15 euros for 2 weeks. We took a lovely small inland road that eventually wound down to the sea into Bar. We followed the signs to the Stari Grad (Old city) where we parked the van and walked up the hill to the ancient walled city. Spent an hour or so wandering around here; it is crumbling ruins set amoung huge mountains and is very beautiful. It was still very early so when we walked back down the hill to the van the tourist shops and restaurants were only just opening. Montenegro already felt like we were back to 'normality' with lovely paved roads and everything looking new and done up. The plan was to stop at a campsite about half way up the coast so we followed the stunning coastal road north. We passed Sveti Stefan, an island that was once a small fishing village and is now a celebrity hang out with hotels for 1000 pounds per night. Annoyingly we got to the campsite we planned to stay on to find it was closed. We stopped anyway for a quick lunch and then carried on up the coast. The whole drive was truely incredible but our minds were blown when we got to the bay of Kotor - the most southern fjord in Europe. Amazingly high mountains plummeting down into the sea. Our eyes were peeled for campsites but we saw none, except for one that was also closed. After driving around the whole fjord - and getting pretty tired and worried as we were already running out of Montenegro - we finally found a campsite. It was quite nice with the front facing out to the sea and a little promenade. After setting up and chilling out a while we went for a stroll along the promenade. Not much to see as all the restaurants and hotels are closed for the end of season, but nice all the same. We also found a shop where we stocked up on wine and back at camp we had some dinner. In the evening we saw a French guy arrive on his bicycle and invited him over for a drink. His name was Vincent and he had cycled from Bordeaux and we had a lovely evening drinking and swapping travel stories. Pete drank too much and was sick in the loos!
Fisherman on Shkodra lake. ^
Mosque. ^
Washing up in the road. ^
Gypsies. ^
Montenegro. ^
Bar. ^
Sveti Stefan. ^
In the bay of Kotor. ^
Us in the campsite. Check out the monstrosity we camped next to! ^
3rd October
Woke up slightly hungover and had a good, long lie in. The sun has been shining since we got to Montenegro but the air is much colder than we've been used to. This was perfect though for having our doors open and lying under the duvet. We only got up when Vincent came over with some cold beers (!) and we all sat around in the glorious sunshine chatting some more and having a long slow brunch. At about three o'clock we decided that we would get the bus into Kotor. We had planned to do this anyway as the town looked lovely when we drove through it yesterday but very busy and not good for parking. The nice campsite man gave us the bus times and we walked out to the main road and found the bus stop. The bus was about half an hour and was a lovely drive back around the fjord. Kotor was a nice city; an old walled town, very similar to some we had seen in Croatia (because they were all made under Venetian rule), but looking up towards the mounatins we saw that the thing you had to do here was climb the old fortress walls. We wound around the narrow streets to find an entrance and started the climb up. It was a long and very steep climb, something like 1700 steps, but it was well worth it for the views at the top. We sat a while admiring the view and eating chocolate biscuits and then started our descent. By the time we got down it was already about six o'clock and we had twenty minutes until our bus to go home. When we'd arrived in the town a lady had given us a map and told us that we could get some kind of free food from a shopping mall around the corner. Vincent was pessimistic that we would get anything for free but me and Pete thought that the mall was opposite our bus stop so we ran in and actually managed to get a weird chocolate roll thing for free! When we came out we saw that there wasn't a bus stop going the direction of home opposite the one we'd been dropped off at so we followed the road along looking for it. When we asked in tourist information where it was she told us to go to the main bus station 500 metres away. With only five minutes to spare we ran as fast as we could but when we got there we'd already missed it. Luckily there was one more bus going in our direction so we waited twenty minutes and eventually we were on a huge coach heading back to camp. It was dark now and this bus moved much slower but after nearly an hour we were dropped off. We all went to the supermarket to buy booze and mince and back at the campsite we had a great barbeque of homemade burgers. We stayed up a while but we were all quite tired after the long hike today and also the temperature has really dropped in the night so we were all bloody freezing and went off to bed. Great day.
This town we passed doesn't know about vowels. ^
The fortress in Kotor. ^
The top. ^
Looking back up. ^
Free food! ^
BBQ. ^
4th October
We wanted to stay another day and Vincent also decided to stay another day as we were all having a great time hanging out together. We had another long, lazy lunch - French style - with beers, several different courses and coffee to finish! Even though the wind was a bit chilly me and Pete went for a swim in the sea because we thought it would probably be our last opportunity on this trip. Late afternoon I spent a few hours putting the blog up and we just chilled out in the sunshine. We'd decided to have another barbeque as it would be our last night with Vincent and we got sausages, potatoes and even chocolate and bananas for pudding! Another cyclist arrived, this time a guy called Ben who had come all the way from Leeds. We invited him over and he was quite impressed by our sophisticated dining (Vincent had insisted that we swap from beer to red wine whilst we ate!) Another great evening with great company.
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