No way, easy hike to Guri i Gjate, a famous huge cylindrical rock that rises out of the forest and just doesn't want to get any closer. Every meter now seems a hundred times longer, every kilometer seems like a day's distance. Sometimes you have to hold on to the remains of withered plants to advance. The sun is now beating down, there are spectacular views of distant nameless peaks and the river valley below. Then it goes steeply uphill, on a mountain flank directly into the sky. ![]() A spring provides cool rock water for the picnic you have brought with you. High meadows soon follow, occasionally surrounded by wooden fences. ![]() Luckily after Kala the path is level again, an unpaved path, but easy to walk despite the occasional steep, gravelly climb full of scree. A man invites us for a coffee and a sip of water, a woman brings some apples. A few residents look curiously over their garden walls, visitors here are probably very, very rare. The evening comes with clouds from the westĪ few houses along the way turn out to be the village of Kala, our intermediate destination. Puffing up we climb higher and higher and as we navigate the rocky trails and small creeks the forest cover breaks open revealing the majestic mountains that surround the valley. Gradually, however, the steep ascent begins to the village of Kala, which is so tiny and forgotten by the world that no search engine knows it. ![]() The hike is comfortable and leisurely, the path is wide and flat and the forest is wonderful to look at. Nobody knows what this once was, but it is a church The sun shone through breaks in the canopy, and the rays of light made interesting patterns on the dirt-covered path. Birds chirp in the sky, goat bells ring in the distance and a few dogs bark in the distance. Six hours on loose gravel, mostly along a river, first rocky mountain slopes to the right and left, before a shady path through the forest provides variety. Wood from the forest is used for heating and cooking, and a few goats and sheep occasionally add meat to the soup. The air is clean, the supply usually comes mainly from your own garden. Old men and old women live a life that seems peaceful here, away from the great conflicts of the time. The village of Peshtan, which is outside of Kelcyre on the border with Tepelene, is one of the places that typifies Albania. Only once along the way do we come across traces of a time so long ago that only the oldest stones still remember it: the beautiful Ura e Limarit (Limar Bridge), built by the Romans in a long forgotten time. It goes across country, not a road in sight, not a piece of civilization. There are no big peaks on the route, but there are endless mountains. Back in the mountains, it's from Peshtan to Limar, a route between two places the world has never heard of. Finally it goes back into the mountains, on the old goat paths, into the realm of the mountain shepherds, the forgotten villages and towns that are half empty and mostly deserted by all the younger people. Follow the traces of stoneĮnough culture, enough history, enough houses, castles, museums and sights. Part 1 of the story is here, part two here, three here and four + five + six + seven + eight. That has changed in the meantime.īut still the country with its population of not even three million is a piece of mysterious terra incognita in the middle of Europe. No one was allowed in, no one was allowed out. ![]() Albania, a small forgotten state on the Adriatic Sea that was sealed off from the whole world like North Korea nowadays in the decades after World War II.
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