A Trip by Land Rover to the south east of Europe in Spring 2012
Not much travelling this year, but a two weeks time gap made it possible to check out the Balkan states!
My Friend Bernhard bought a Land Rover Defender in winter and after spending a few hours of carpenters work it had a kitchen, a bad and a living room inside. So off we go to check out the off road abilities and as well enjoying the comfort and safety of a car. One of the best countries in Europe I know so far, to test an off road car, is Albania. Mountains wherever you look, a nice coastline (specially in the south), no signs telling you to not to do things and just nice and friendly people. By the way we totally felt save in Albania and people were very friendly and helpful. People have a lot of passion teaching you their language and as well a lot of fantasy in helping you once you as a foreigner need something. Albania I am sure will develop strongly and more tourists will come in the next few years, so check it out as soon as you can.
Map: Double click to zoom, click and hold to look around
Starting point was of course Innsbruck and we took the highway down to Ancona Italy for boarding the ferry to Igoumenitsa in the northwest of Greece.
Remembering my tour guide colleague Markus, who is by the way a big “visit Greece in spring fan”, I realized that April/May are good months to visit Greece. The whole country is colorfully covered by flowers and nature is nicely decorating the whole country.
Already leaving Greece the first day we go into Albania and I was very excited to check it out. Knowing a little about history I knew that Albania was pretty isolated during times of communism and already after crossing the border (by the way no problems with European passport) you can spot the concrete pillboxes everywhere. We went further north and tried to find the ancient settlement of Butrint (Buthrotum). To find places is in generally not that easy in Albania. Maps aresometimes not accurate, it could happen that places don’t have the right names on the map and also don’t thrust the colors telling you about the road priority. But anyway we found Butrint and learned a little more about the history of people living in Albania. If maps don’t help you much to find stuff, people will do! Of course the language is an issue, people in the south speak Greek and Albanian. Sometimes English, Italian and also German helps to go along.
We went further north along the shore line and this is a real jewel of Mediterranean coast. If you like free camping on the beach this is the place to do it. A four wheel car helps a lot by the way. To go to the coast line you have to use steep und bumpy gravel roads. A little tip for motorcyclists, the section from Sarandë up north to Vlorë is very scenic, interesting corner riding and more or less good road conditions.
We skipped the central Albanian part and wanted to spend more time in the north crossing mountain ranges and visiting more remote parts of the country. We went to Elbasan and then further east to Lake Orid, which is also known from being the “Silver Lake” which was the set for Karl Mays-Winnetou movies. After a Shortcut through Macedonia we reentered Albania and then took small dirt roads through back country mountains. We tried to enter Lura National Park which is west of Peshkopi, but unfortunately it was a little too early in the year so too much snow blocked our way. This will be a project for another trip to Albania. I would guess mountain passes are open only in summer, in spring you have to take into account that crossing rivers is also not that easy. Maybe the best time in the year is August and September to do that.
We took another try further north and tried to enter the remote Theth national Park. The small community Theth in the very far north of Albanian mountains is according to the locals and to my travel literature really worth to visit. The whole valley for example is so remote that Christianity is still the mayor religion there. Even 500 years of Ottoman ruler ship did not change that. Albanians are pretty liberal once it comes to religion anyways. One guy told us, that Albanians discuss and fight about everything, but not religion, that’s your personal thing. We tried to enter Thet National Park from the west, but still too much snow, so again a project for another Albania visit.
Half time of our trip, and we need to go further. We leave Albania with good memories and cross the border to Montenegro. We will more or less go home from there and did not expect much more then camping on the shore and taking it easy going north. But what a surprise: a few highlights of our trip were still waiting for us!
Not informing ourselves about the country of Montenegro we asked the border police guy what to see. He recommended us the Lovcen National Park and also the bay of Kotor. Both places were on our route anyway, so we went there. And what a nice surprise!
The route from Cetinje to Kotor through the Lovcen National Park is very scenic. Still meters of snow but down in the valley we saw impressive lime stone formation only patchy covered with pine trees, generally infertile, karstic land which generates a unique atmosphere. We almost passed by Kotor but after realizing the city wall climbing up high the mountain, we knew we accidently found one of the most old and interesting towns along the Balkan coast line. We took the whole day for sightseeing, hiking up all the way along the city wall, exploring old town and the harbor, so check out the pictures. We almost felt like being home by the way, I did not know that Kotor was the further southern part of the Austrian Empire a long time ago. I also asked myself a few times already, why the Croatian country is relatively thin going south on the coast line and Bosnia is just a few kilometers inland. This dates back to the fact that the Republic of Venice which was Catholic controlled the whole cities along the coast, while the Muslim Ottoman Empire controlled the inland. This fact shaped today’s borders between Croatia and Bosnia. The Republic of Venice (697 – 1797 B.C.) was represented by a Lion in its coat of arms, you can still find that Lion on the city wall of the main entrance of Kotor old town.
But city sightseeing was not over jet. Dubrovnik on the southern tip of Croatia was still waiting to be explored. While travelling, you always get surprised and this happened again by looking down from the mountains along the shore line, spotting Dubrovnik old town coming in from the south. It was Saturday evening and we had a perfect timing for going out to have Dinner and some partying in town. But also during daytime Dubrovnik is really worth a visit, I recommend taking a walk along the city wall (reminding me back to Jerusalem, where the city wall walk is also an excellent way to explore town).
Sad but true we had to leave, in a few days we will have to reenter the normal world. We took it easy further north and after having barbecue and a glass of wine on one of the bays on Krk island we left the Balkan and had to go back home.
