Out for a hike on a beautiful day with gorgeous scenery

We heard back from our host here at the villa, and we are allowed to stay an extra three nights, so now we will be leaving here on Saturday May 1st. We had asked for a second full week, but the Orthodox Easter celebrations are next weekend and they have a family gathering here on Sunday.

So we have booked a spot in Permet for four nights and then will move on to Korce for another full week. Things will start to be warming up in the mountains by then, and we really want to get up to the northern part before our time here is up. So we can't be staying too long in any one place!

Monday was another gorgeous day, and we were overdue for a long hike. We got out for three hours and did 11 kms (7 miles) over into the village of Erind and up the mountain road behind.

Looking back at the villa where we are staying.

Old church up on a hill.

View from the old church.

We also stopped in at the main church in the village of Nokove. The door was locked though.

Entrance door. People were very short back then!

The writing says St. George.

Wildflowers and grape vines.

Lots of places to walk here.

Scenery along the way.

Looking back at the village of Nokove.

"The hills are alive..."

Curvy road leading up to the village of Erind.

WWII memorial in the village of Erind.

So we're walking through the village of Erind, and we come across a guy (in his 40's?) painting a gate. He spoke no English, but we understood when he signalled for us to stay put. He yelled down the hill, and a minute later an older fellow and a younger girl came walking up. 

The girl was maybe 14 years old, and said hello in English. It turns out that she is from Greece and the guy painting the gate is her father, and they are visiting her grandfather (the older fellow) who lives in the village. She is learning English in school, but doesn't get a chance to practice very often.

She was quite shy about it at first, only answering our questions with a yes or a no, but when she started translating questions from her father, she actually was quite good and understood enough to have a conversation.

Some kind of small chapel in the village.

We continued on up the hill and onto the main road that leads up the mountain. We would prefer to be on a trail, but when we tried following one of the sheep and goat trails, there were a lot of spiders and spider webs so we got back on the road.

The road is paved and in overall good condition. It's also very quiet and maybe only three vehicles went by the whole time.

This fence is decorated with animal skulls.

Starting to get some nice views.

This is where we took a sheep path through the spider webs!

As I said, the paved road is in generally good shape.

Except for where the bank collapsed in this section!

We are going to be driving up here another day.

We sat and had a snack here.

Great scenery.

A great free camping spot! Close to the road, but as I said the road is very quiet.

GPS 40.172201, 20.16576

We only went a little bit further than that and then headed back down. We want to drive this road anyhow because apparently you can access a hiking trail that runs along the top ridge of the mountains, so we'll do that another day.

Another leftover from the Communist years.

And another. In all there were 6 or 7 like this.

Felt great to get a good hike in! Sunshine, fresh air, and exercise. That's what it's all about.

Not sure what's on the agenda for today, but the sun is shining again and it looks like another beautiful day here in Albania.

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