Welcome back!
Continuing on with my recent funghi theme, I was sorting through my photos and found this random one. I'm not sure where I took it so I'll just pop it in here. This incredibly delicate little funghi was tiny!
We left Permet and drove alongside the long mountain ridge that had been with us for days. There was one clear canyon through it formed by a river. It's not often that you see your route from miles away!
An ominous sky loomed overhead.
From Permet we didn't have to travel far to the stunning ancient city of Gjirokastra (also spelled Gjirokaster) where a castle perches on top of a steep hill, overlooking the old town. The castle was first built in the 8th to 7th centuries BC and has been altered and extended many times since then. Gjirokastra was captured by the Ottomans in the 15th century. The town flourished under Ottoman rule and became a major trading centre. Over the next few hundred years, the town grew and many fancy homes were built in the Ottoman style. These homes now give Gjirokastra a unique look and the old town is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We stayed in a very cool Ottoman house in the middle of the old town. Just getting there was an adventure! The apartment owner met us in a relatively easy place to get to then we followed him through narrow lanes and cobblestoned streets to a place where we could park near the apartment. The roads were tiny. We were so glad he led us in!
The apartment was actually only a section of an old Ottoman house but it was fun to stay there. Our apartment included the group of three windows on the right of this pic.
We had great views over the old city but it rained most of the time we were there sadly.
The castle towered over everything.
The roads were incredibly steep. Someone, clearly an English speaker, had written this at the top of a street. This street wasn't actually so bad. It was the old paved roads that became slippery in the rain that were lethal.
We headed out on our first evening to check the town out in the rain. The beautiful mosque was a little too close at 5am!
The old bazaar area was full of gorgeous old buildings but there were so many tourists there! Some very happy stray dogs just lolled about on the main intersection getting tummy scratches during the day and food at night - all from the tourists!
Under our eaves we could see the construction of the roof of our historic house. Wooden slats held the weight of the roof which was made entirely from slate.
Our slate roof.
Nice office John!
Driving through these narrow roads was a nightmare. The roads were often just wide enough for one car and they were two-way roads...... We watched in amazement as a 20-seater school bus worked its way through one day. I don't want that bus driver's job!
Just to complicate things, they were working on the lower floors of our house and they dumped a load of gravel at the top of out road. If anyone wanted to get past, they couldn't. The problem is that you can't just turn around. More on this later....
There were a couple of grand traditional homes that had been turned into museums. The views from the first one were amazing. It's said that these houses used to look over the farmland they owned. This one now looks over the new city below and the mountains in the distance.
The houses were very much like the one we were staying in only a bit bigger. John checked out the view from the balcony.
Each house had one special room that was used for special occasions, including weddings. Leadlight windows brought lots of colourful light in.
Frescoes decorated the walls and the fireplace was a beautiful feature.
Ornate timber ceiling.
In true Communist style, at least one of the houses had been taken from the family that lived in it. They now had it back but they were originally a wealthy family and now have nothing compare to those times.
The old bazaar in the daylight.
For a complete change of scenery, we then visited the Cold War Tunnels! These tunnels ran from the Town Hall. During the communist years, every town hall had tunnels that the committee members and staff could shelter, live and work in in the event of an attack. There was enough room for 200 people and enough food and water to last them three months. All these workers were men. I'm not sure if anyone thought through what would happen if they saved 200 men in every town and no women!
No less than five thick doors ensured the tunnels were nuclear missile-proof.
Bizarrely, there were only three toilets - and one of those was for the head honcho and his secretary only! So these two toilets were supposed to service 198 people!
The dark tunnels were never used of course. When communism fell, the townspeople raided the shelter, taking everything that wasn't bolted down. After all, there had been no plan to protect the everyday person if there was an attack. Only the special 200 would have been saved. I'd be cheesed off too!
The bazaar area was all grey tiles rooves and whitewashed walls.
Finally the bad weather started to clear and we could see the mountains properly!
One of the castle's uses in the past was as a prison. This was only shut down in 1968 when they started hosting the National Folk Festival in the castle and it was felt it might not be appropriate to have prisoners there as well!
A 200-year-old clock tower sat prettily, and somewhat out of place, at one end.
There were lovely stone arches everywhere.
We got talking to a German couple who told us where a spectacular lookout point was at the other end of the castle. It turned out that you had to walk out on the castle walls, past the sign saying "Don't walk on the castle walls" to get there! It wasn't really unsafe as the walls were about two metres thick and had been resurfaced. Plus there was extra room beside them. It was fun!
The 360 degree views were amazing!
Back at our house, we had great views of the castle.
It was even lovelier at dusk.
Remember how I told you about the truck load of gravel at the end of our road? Well they cleaned that up but, when it came time for us to leave, the truck that brought it there blocked our exit. This meant we had to a) turn around and b) find a new route out. The turning around bit took a bit of juggling but we got there. The not-so-healthy Merc put out a bit of smoke while backing up the hill to a point where we could turn around.
Back in the passenger seat I started telling John which way to go until Google tried to direct us up a flight of steps. We had no choice but to back a long way back down the narrow road we had driven up. The local guy who we were holding up was very patient with us! We then tried another way and again, Google took us to a flight of steps. An old local guy saw us so we asked for directions. He spoke no English but we understood that we should go around the back of the castle. We drove up more cobblestoned streets and seemed to head the wrong directions sometimes but it worked! I was very relieved to get out of there.
The Merc had been going well but it also had its issues. The problem with being slightly newer and a lot fancier than the Pajero is that it had the ability to tell us when something was wrong. Every time we turned the car on it flashed the same warnings to us - left tail light, right tail light, left numberplate light, right numberplate light, left parker light, right parker light, SBS brakes and low tyre pressure. It went through this process every time we turned the car on. Plus it once it told us that it was 36,000 kms over its service! We asked the owner what the tyre pressure should be but he said it's probably the sensor that's faulty! I had noticed when I was directing John out of the tight spot earlier that one of the tyres was down so we got it checked. It turns out that the sensor wasn't faulty at all - the tyre pressure was really low in that tyre!
We had a lot of distance to cover that day so we skipped another lovely-sounding village and headed to another "Blue Eye". This is a vivid blue spring in a beautiful setting. It wasn't far off the road so we had time to fit it in. Much to our disappointment, things had changed since our guide book was written. We now couldn't drive into the spring. We had to park (and pay for the parking) then walk more than a kilometre each way to see it. We didn't have time so we kept driving.
Strangely, the towns felt more and more Greek. There were olive groves and even the signs were in Greek!
We had limited time for distractions though because we had a big destination for the day. Butrint is a huge archaeological site on the coast. It sits very close to Corfu, a Greek island that we've wanted to visit for a while. I can't spend any more time in (Schengen) European countries on this trip though so we could only look longingly from a distance. We were a bit surprised by how busy the area seemed to be as we are well past peak season now. As we approached the site, tour buses squeezed past us on the narrow roads. We got to the car park and it was full. We managed to find a park elsewhere, walked to the ticket office and found the queue to enter stretched out well beyond the entry gates. There were at least two bus loads of people ahead of us waiting to get in. It was a mutual decision to turn around and leave. It'll have to wait for another time.
We completely bypassed the nearby town of Saranda. This is a hugely popular beach town in summer and exactly the sort of place we don't like to go to. Instead, we travelled further north to a town called Himare. We had done our research and hoped this would be a good place to stop for a few days as we had been moving fairly quickly. Fortunately, we were right.
The main beach right in front of the town was a bit pebbly but it was wonderful.
Behind the beach ran a series of low-key restaurants.
One of these was a Greek restaurant which we visited a few times. The owner was really lovely and they had gyros, something we were very excited about! They were superb!
We hadn't been able to find any accommodation we liked in the town that was quiet (a few new night clubs had ruined things) but we found a lovely small hotel in the hills behind the town. The room was quite simple but the views were spectacular! The family that ran it were lovely and we feasted on an enormous breakfast each day. Like many people in the area, the owners were Albanian but of Greek descent. Greek was their first language. Suddenly we found ourselves speaking Greek again! (Well the little that we know, anyway!)
A steep climb above the hotel was the old town. We hiked up there a couple of times.
There were some really old olive trees on the way.
Inside an old, but still used, church.
Dodging sheep on the track.
This was clearly a Greek town. The old laneways were even painted with white lines like they do in many parts of Greece!
This scene looks like it's straight from a Greek island!
We walked through the old town then found the old castle in ruins on the top. We bumped into a young Aussie girl here.
A couple of funny things we saw on the way down. This 'Stop" sign at the end of a single car park must have been a joke. There was a large drop on the other side of the sign!
We saw this sign right beside the cemetery. Just throw your sleeping back on the nearest tomb! If you look closely, there's an arrow pointing to the right, but it's not obvious at first!
Each night we sat on our balcony and watched the sunset. They were all amazing but this one was the best.
John had found what's called the Southern Coast Trail, a six-day hike that ran right past our door. We decided to tackle some of those days. We started with Day 1 and caught a taxi to Dhermi, a village further up the coast. We hiked down the Old Mills Track, which was much less romantic than it sounds. The track was criss-crossed with poly pipes. John felt like he was doing a steeplechase.
We hit the coast and turned left. The track wasn't always clear but we muddled our way along. In perfect weather, the coastal views were gorgeous.
Bunkers, the blue Ionian Sea and Greek Ionian Islands in the distance.
We approached Gjipe Beach which was gorgeous.
This lovely beach had a huge canyon behind it and, much to our amazement, a tightrope walker was walking a rope strung across the canyon! He would have been 200 metres above the ground and the walk would have been about the same distance. He went back and forth, clearly enjoying himself. He kept us thoroughly entertained while we had a lovely simple lunch at a cafe on the beach. He had a second line twisted around the main one. We think it had something to do with balance. And yes, he wore a safety line.
On the trail again.
Soon we found the track was overgrown with holly-oaks. These nasty, scratchy shrubs are really awful to walk through. Sometimes people had tried to break small trunks or branches off but this just made things worse as the sharp stumps scratch much worse than the leaves. I tripped over one of these broken off stumps and fell and another stump stabbed my stomach. I have a very impressive bruise!
The track was hard to follow in places and we were getting a bit fed up with the rocky surface and scratchy trees. Ahead and above us we could see a huge section of the hill where a large amount of fill had been used to create a flat building surface. Huge amounts of rock had slid down the hill.
As we got closer we realised the loose large rocks had covered the walking track. All we could do was pick our way across and hope to pick up the track on the other side.
John was ahead and warned me that some rocks were loose. I carefully stepped on a few then I took another step. Suddenly I was falling. It happened so quickly that I had no time to be frightened. Apparently I did a complete somersault down the hill on the rocks before landing in a sitting position. Surprisingly, I was ok - kind of. I had blood coming from my temple and two places on my arm. I had a lump on the back of my head and huge bruises came up on other parts of my arm and legs. But that was it. No broken bones, no serious injuries. I was very lucky.
We approached the next beach only to find ourselves walking along the hard rubbish section of a tip. Not very nice
With only a phone torch we explored some of the tunnels. They went on and on, branching off in all directions. It became clear that all these tunnels - the vertical shaft we saw earlier plus the submarine tunnel - must all link up.
I love the rustiness of the doors. It was all so fascinating.
Back in the car, we drove around the bay and we could clearly see the other tunnel entrance. This is still off-limits.
The shortest way through the town was through a huge resort that had closed for the season. We were too tired to go around it so we ducked under the barrier and walked right through the resort. It was very fancy and eerily empty. To our disappointment, three excavators were digging the hill away above the resort. There is so much development going on here. We later learned that this digging was for an extension of the resort. They're hoping to make it have 1,000 beds! We have grave concerns that this lovely stretch of the Albanian coast will be ruined in a very short time by unchecked development.
We staggered back to where we left the car about five hours after we started which wasn't too bad. We had a swim but the beach was very pebbly. Seriously, getting out of the water was more painful on my feet that the day's fall had been on any other part of my body!
Even though we were staying out of town, a good restaurant was opposite our little hotel. We were very grateful to not have to drive anywhere that night. Another Aussie girl was behind the bar.
I was feeling a little out of sorts the next day, mostly due to the bumps on the head, so we thought we would just go to a beach. The owner of our hotel told us that his favourite beach was one a few kms away where you drive to a car park, then walk about 50 metres to the beach. On the way there is a section where you use a rope. It sounded great so we went. We soon realised that he got his numbers wrong. It was about 500 metres to the beach, which was fine, but it was down a steep hill. Then we got to the rope section. Oh my goodness! A steep, shaly section of cliff, with few hand- or foot-holds in places ran the last 50 or so metres down to the beach. The scariest part was the section before the rope began. We had to climb down where, if we slipped, we would fall 10 metres or so to the beach. The ropes were only anchored to shrubs and we had to put all our weight on them at times. Anyway, we made it and had a lovely swim. Going back up was so much easier!
The next day I found what looked like a simple walk around a peninsula at the nearby Bay of Palermo. It was fascinating! In the 1950's there was a submarine base here. A water-filled tunnel stretched under the peninsula from one side to the other.
We began our walk near one submarine tunnel entrance but this one couldn't be seen from above. Further along the peninsula we found this ruined building, clearly from the communist era. I love how the colours of the graffiti complement the colours of the sea and sky!
We poked around inside and, much to our amazement, found this vertical shaft, complete with rusty iron rungs. It was like something out of a James Bond movie!
We reached the end of the peninsula and found a cave-like tunnel near the track. We checked it out and found it opened up into a whole network of tunnels. This was all so cool!
Some sort of bunker was inside near the entrance.
Another bunker-like area was deeper inside.
Back on the path, the Ionian Sea was a stunning blue. A fisherman in a yellow t-shirt contrasted beautifully with the water.
Wild sage was everywhere.
Crumbling bunkers. You can just see Corfu on the left of the horizon.
We passed a stunning small beach that one lucky family had to themselves for a short period. We then approached the entrance to the submarine tunnel.
I was captivated by the colourful graffiti.
A tunnel led in to a humungous set of curved iron doors. The water in the tunnel was a stunning turquoise.
We couldn't get past the doors so we headed out again. More cool graffiti.
This whole area was a tightly controlled military zone for a long time. I wasn't sure before we got here how much we would be able to see but we found we could go anywhere. In past times, tourists had been locked up for trying to get inside the submarine tunnel. Now the government is talking about making it a tourist attraction. I think it's a great idea but it would lose the Indiana Jones feel that it currently has, lol.
Some wag added this bit of graffiti:
Back in the car, we drove around the bay and we could clearly see the other tunnel entrance. This is still off-limits.
Within sight of the tunnel sat an island with a castle built on it. The castle was built in the early 19th Century and was used through to WW2. A causeway now connects the island to the mainland.
It was fun to explore.
Nearby, abandoned buildings had more graffiti.
To top the wonderful day off, we were treated to another spectacular sunset from our balcony.
I was up to doing more serious hiking again on our last full day so we tackled Day 2 of the Southern Coastal Trail. The first half was great - we followed dirt roads through farmland and had beautiful views. We found these amazing fruits that we've had elsewhere before. I don't know what they're called but we've heard them referred to as strawberry trees. They're not strawberries at all but they're delicious!
The previous rain had brought out thousands of wildflowers.
The trail then turned up a gorge. It was steep and rocky but not too bad. When we weren't in the forest we had amazing views.
So far in Albania we had seen (and smelled!) plenty of wild thyme, wild mint and wild sage but this was the first time we found wild oregano.
We finally arrived at our destination of Pilur. We were hot and sweaty but pleased with how we'd gone. We had a simple lunch at a cafe on top of the hill where a huge plane tree shaded the large central area. An Austrian couple turned up on their e-bikes and we had a nice chat.
We had booked a taxi to take us back to our hotel. The road down was much more open than our walk had been and the views were sensational!
As we packed to leave the next day, I took one last photo of the view from our balcony. The beach in the distance isn't a major one but we could see cranes building something while we were there. I really think that if we came back here in five years, the view would be very different. There is going to be so much development in this area, I'm sure.
Well that was a massive post! Thanks so much for following along.
Heather and John :)
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