Into Albania | Waterfalls and Mountains, Wild Camping and Thunderstorms

After the most spectacular few weeks riding across Montenegro, we entered Albania at the Vrmoš border crossing, taking us directly into the remote Albanian Alps National Park. We meander along an immense river valley, through little mountain settlements, find places to wild camp and pass scenes we never could have planned to see, eventually arriving in Škoda, the cycling capital of Albania. Across the border to Albania. It's just like, oh, New Zealanders. It's a lot of mouths to feed. You already eat too much. Hannah's still biking and I'm pushing because my knee hurts. I think it just needs striping. This was the last section of mountains before descending to sea level for the first time in months, the beginning of the end for our time in the Daeneric Alps. Despite being well into autumn, the temperatures in these parts were still high. This day of climbing was no exception and rather excruciating. The top couldn't come soon enough and then there was only 15 kilometers of smooth winding roads to cool down from a day of hard climbs. It's pretty steep downhill. Hello, what are you doing? If you can fit in a backpack, you can come. I know they're little, they're even littler than you. Yeah, they're so small. Where have you come from? Hi, hello, look at you. Little purrs, little purrs. Hey, hey, you're okay. As we dropped further and further, walls of rock grew taller and steeper, bathed in gold, as the sun also descended in its own line across the sky. She might need to poo. Yeah, she peed. I was like, do I, is my kid actually stupid? I feel like I see that on the internet all the time. We're dropping from 1400 meters all the way down to 420. And then we have to climb again. Oh, golly god, I forgot my brakes. Barely worked. They work, but just not very well. Oh my god, I'm pulling my brakes full. No, bail. We had not seen any photos of this area. It was just the most direct route for us to take eastward. And as a result, we weren't expecting the dramatic and beautiful landscape before us. We had some very scenic days in Montenegro too. You probably can't get much better views. Switchback. I'm glad we're not climbing this. Chasing the light. Where are you going? No barking, Tana. I mean, this place would be so different in the rain even. Eventually, we came down into a little village near the bottom of the descent, where a restaurant allowed travelers to pitch their tents for five euros with access to showers. I don't know if I fussed enough with my love, Megan. It's what I do with you, right? Was she feral? It's all you. The next morning was a scorcher. Instead of getting on the bikes, we set off on foot up a valley in search of a waterfall, and hopefully a place for a cold dip on the way back down. I thought they were nailed down, but obviously... Tara at this point was only three months old, and although she did very well on her own paws, it was easy to tell when she needed a break. Hannah's hiking pack worked out to be the perfect size, with a jacket stuffed down the bottom for padding. Although the little wriggle monster wouldn't last long in it, thinking that she was missing out on all the fun. Alrighty, out the backpack. Baby's going in the naughty baby chamber. This is not a punishment, to clarify. No. It's a rest for her, and more work for Ollie's knees. She's funny when she falls. Because she's kind of moving. Yeah, she kind of bounces. Yeah. It's like liquid weight. Liquid weight. Tara is liquid weight. How freaking huge this drop is. Apparently this is the way over to that track, but it looks like cliff face. But we'll find out. We'll find out. It's on the maps. It's on the signs. Well, it's looking promising. Yeah, and it's more heavily walked than I expected. Tara thinks that every rock I pick is a game, and she wants to be in front. She's a flea, for our safety, and her safety. It just looks worse from our side. It's deceiving. But that's good. We're not going to die today. We're across. We were over there. Thank you. It is slippery out, so we're going to need both hands. We're good today. Because you haven't got goggles. Yeah. I didn't know there was going to be a swimming hole quite like this. There's a little lift the stars need to align for you to go swimming. It's just so pretty. We didn't need to bring water. Back on the bikes, our descent from yesterday continued, and we began looking for somewhere to wild camp for the night. Wild camping in Albania is completely illegal. This is unlike the rest of the countries we had cycled through, where it was either only tolerated or fully illegal. Searching for a flat spot for the night, and knowing without a doubt we weren't doing anything wrong, was a big weight off our shoulders. And a different level of freedom. It was pretty fantastic. It's got a green door. On the map it looked like we could maybe cross on a bridge, and then wild camp, but no way. There's stairs, and there's stairs up the other side. But it's beautiful. Imagine living there. Hey, we've still got sunlight. I'm all right right now. How are you? I'm okay. There's something down there. Is this our wild camping spot? Yeah? I think so, I think so. Oh, look at you with the rope. That is a spring. Just comes out from the rock, probably when it rains. So you have to cross the water to enter the church. This place has got to be really old. We're technically on a road, but it ends right there. And the only reason we're not down there is because it's quite slopey. And we're not expecting any cars to come down here, because it's a car park to a church and a hill. And that's the car park. And there's another car park up top. And it's like this gravel. So I don't think we're going to have any problems. Ollie doesn't think we have any problems. We have water for the ration. The process of turning on and off the gas at the moment, which we're hoping we'll be able to do something about very soon. By getting rid of this cooker. Because we still have my original cooker. But we need the screw top gas. And hopefully we can find the screw top gas in the main. Ollie's making Taro's food. And I'm making our dinner. I thought I'd show you what we have. And what we carry. This is our bag of herbs and spices. Salt, oil, and a Scripps bottle. Because we're not going to carry a litre. And oil bottles. Like we have an onion, gluten-free pasta, tomato paste, and cheese. Which melted. Thoroughly in the sun today. You're nuts. Good morning. There's a free camp in 40-something kilometres. Up the hill. And then down the hill. So we're doing a climb, either way, of like 700 metres. That's the plan for this morning. But then we need to decide what we're doing. Because it's going to rain for like four days. But we don't know how heavy. Because we can't trust the weather report. And then we don't know if we want to stay in Škoda. And we have a list of things that we need to find in Škoda, ideally. It's like the first major city that we've gone through since Ljubljana. Lots of people have recommended Škoda. I think that's what they recommended. I can't remember. But we're not city people. So who knows if it's a good recommendation for us at all anyway. And then with Poppy, cities are kind of out usually. So I don't know. We'll find out. We'll decide. You'll find out. We're at 264 metres. Where we're going is all the way up there. To that viewpoint. This is our road. And then we're going behind there and doing another little swiggle swiggle. Sick. We were starting to question as we climbed in the scorching sun if taking this route to drop down to sea level was really a good idea. We had kept to the higher elevation of the Danaric Alps for months as a method of keeping out of the heat. And it seemed that maybe we were too early into autumn for cooler temperatures at the lower elevations to persist. Especially on this windless and cloudless day. So we've just come up to the serpentine itself which is this. Look at it go. And might I add that it's really hot today. Every time we're in the sun we suffer. Dog doesn't like it. We don't like it. And to add to it, that was an option. And we could have gone down. And followed the river. And we would have all been down. All the way. And we would have been flat into Albania. Just down there is the border crossing to back into Montenegro. So these hills are Montenegro. And we could go down there to the capital of Podgorica. If I'm saying that correctly. And then back around. Go around the hill. And then there's a almost sea level, which is what we're going to today. Crossing on the other side of this hill. That we go past anyway. So we could go around. But instead we're torturing ourselves. The final hairpin. Finished. Done. It's kind of awesome knowing we crossed that. And climbed that. You're pushing your luck sweetie. The heat and humidity were suffocating. And we were grateful for the air movement that the descent gave us. Rain tonight. The cloud cover that came over preceding the storm was a blessing. Eventually we found ourselves at another campsite beside a restaurant. And the eye of Shigan. This time for free. Well she's keen to see the eye. The eye is a beautiful cast spring. Which in other days would be a deep blue color. The depth is also unknown. With expeditions only being able to reach down to 80 meters. The fochtails surrounding the spring also adds to the mystery. Hey Kata. Come on. Good girl. I know. Whoa that's a big one. That was. Surprised with that herring isn't it? Yeah. Whoa that was a big one. That's huge. After spending the night with ankle deep water flying past the tent. The next day was clear as we packed up. Our bikes now heavier with saturated gear. We should get on the car. How about we not do that? Biodiversity in the area makes it highly attractive for visitors. Oh my gosh how cool. Kata, Kata no. As far as you're concerned it's just a rock. Yeah. So we've just done our peak for the day. 70 meter climb from the lake. Now it's all relatively downhill. And there's nothing on the horizon. There's nothing on the horizon. It's straight. Main road. But it makes for good pace. Shkoda was a hectic place to ride. The roads overflowed with cyclists and cars. And the dinner of it all was overwhelming. We booked a cottage for a few nights rest on the outskirts. Hoping to find all of our desperately needed supplies in the sea. Dry out our gear. And take some time to plan out the next steps of our journey east. My shortcut might not act. But the local river is the local dumping spot too. Nothing like the reshuffle. I've got a bag on one side. Puppy food in the front. Two kgs worth. Drink. But it's still there.