We had been told that there might still be snow up there, and some of the roads can be in bad condition so we didn't know exactly how far we would make it. But it turned out we could have gone further... we ran out of time though. Too many beautiful views to stop and admire.
And there is still some snow at higher elevations, but nothing that would affect your ability to drive. And the roads were actually in really good condition.
We ended up doing 172 kms (107 miles)! And as I said, we could have kept going. We will definitely return to that area with our motorhome.
Big statue as we exited the city of Shkodra.
Scenery along the way.
Big event center.
Our road ends up passing right below the base of the cross on the hill.
Looking back at where we came from.
Wow.
We are headed down to that river!
Down in that valley is the border crossing to Montenegro.
Look at the color of the water.
And how do we get down there?
This road!
Looking down on our road.
We are headed into those mountains.
Made it to the bottom.
Watch for cows, horses, donkeys, sheep, and goats on the road!
Part of the river comes right out of the ground.
Mooo!
Scenery along the way.
The Cem River.
We saw a sign pointing to a church, so we parked and took the path down to the river.
Um. I think we'll pass.
We could see the path on the other side, but no indication of a church.
How do they even get to those houses?
Our car parked at the side of the road.
Just before the village of Tamara is a great boondocking spot!
GPS 42.45386, 19.55730
Looks like there used to be a bridge going across here?
Looking towards the village of Tamara.
The Cem River.
We are headed this way.
We stopped at the trail leading to the Selca Waterfall. But, it is a tough hour and a half hike. We would normally not hesitate, but Ruth forgot her hiking boots, it was already 12:30pm, we didn't have an abundant supply of either food or water, and it was quite warm. To put it simply, we just weren't prepared. And it turned out that we ran out of time anyhow. As I said, we will just have to return with our motorhome.
We did make it up to this smaller waterfall though.
Looking down on the village of Selca.
Not sure of the significance of this structure.
Yet aother waterfall.
Very old graveyard.
Scenery along the way.
Ruth, filling up our water bottle.
The spout is made of wood.
Catholic Church.
Wow.
What a place to live!
This water was coming right out of the rocks.
Near the village of Lepusha.
Beautiful.
This is as far as we went. We could easily have continued and done more exploring. Just a gorgeous area.
We turned around and started heading back down, but we didn't get very far when a young guy flagged us down. He was trying to get back to Shkodra, so we said we would give him a ride if he didn't mind us stopping to take pictures every now and then!
He was quite happy with that. Emanuel is a local Albanian, but his English was quite good so he was explaining about some of the area as we were going.
Yet another waterfall.
The same waterfall, but higher up.
Emanuel and Ruth stopped at another spring.
Watch for livestock!
What a great drive we had.
Today, we are heading to a different part of the Albanian Alps to have a one week stay at the Boga Alpine Resort. Really looking forward to it!
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Decent price drop on this 15' 50 Amp RV Extension Cord.
And in Canada...
Stunning pictures. Reminded me of Switzerland (as it would, both part of the Alps). I'd like to visit here.
ReplyDeleteThank you Nickie and Jim!
DeleteWe have never been to Switzerland but we think this scenery would be similar for sure and if that is the case we will love Switzerland, which I know that we would. i think the biggest differences between the two will be that Albania won't have the tourist crowd that Switzerland has and that Albania will be much easier on the pocketbook. :-)
Probably so!
DeleteWhat a gorgeous country.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is! We are going to love our week up here hiking around. :-)
DeleteWow what a gorgeous drive into tundra zone. Wonder if the water was cold. I love to stick my feet in.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fantastic drive, one of our prettiest drives every and we have done some beautiful drives in the past.
DeleteThe water was ice cold!
Some of your most interesting photos. Thanks. I think you need to check out the occasional pool of water for us - Cold or not??
ReplyDeleteThank you! We are glad that you enjoyed the photos, they still don't do the scenery justice but it's a close second.
DeleteWe almost always check out the water temperature with our hand, in this case the water was ice cold!
Constantly amazed at the color of the water - reminds me of the Caribbean waters.
ReplyDeleteThe colour of the water amazes us as well, it is such a beautiful shade of blue/green. It may remind you of the Caribbean waters but as soon as you touch the water that feeling will quickly go away! The temperatures are a total contrast to each other, lol!
DeleteWow, wow and wow, fantastic area
ReplyDeleteWe totally agree with you! We can't wait to get out and explore this area. There are going to be some gorgeous hikes ahead of us. :-)
DeleteNow this is the area we would love to explore, beautiful pictures, so serene!💕
ReplyDeleteWe think that you and Barry would enjoy the scenery here, not sure about the hunting opportunities for Barry though! The scenery really is stunning as I am sitting in the doorway of our Airbnb sipping my tea and enjoying the views. :-)
DeleteAnimals on the road, just like home :)
ReplyDeleteYep, just like Mexico! I think we actually see it even more here in Albania than in Mexico. Albania actually reminds us a lot of Mexico in many different ways, maybe that is one of the reasons that we love it here so much!
DeleteYou 2 live a charmed life! I, can't believe how many good people you meet! I would like to meet you sometime. Along with Joann and Peanut Joy! Take care, Rawn
ReplyDeleteThank you Rawn! We live a charmed life because we make the choice too, we aren't afraid to get out and do things outside the box. :-)
DeleteWe have met many friendly people but maybe part of that is that we ourselves are friendly and open-minded and are willing to make the connections. You never know, maybe one day we will have the chance to met. :-)
Beautiful area and the water is even more so! Is the delay in taking occupancy of your motor home cutting into your planned stay of a couple years, or will you be extending your time across the pond?
ReplyDeleteIt is a gorgeous area, this is definitely the scenery that we love.
DeleteNope it isn't cutting into our plans of touring around Europe at all. We said a couple of years but even then we wouldn't be in Europe the whole time. We would go back to Canada for visits and we also might do some travel outside of Europe in the winter. We have as much time as we want to travel there, really we have no set timeline we just mentioned two years as a baseline. :-)
Oh, that was truly beautiful?? Disappointed u did not try the footbridge tho! U guys r so adventurous 🤪... Have been loving doing close ups of pics and examining the villages.. they almost always have some vines.. but what do those people back there do? For work? For a living? The little plots are surely not enough? Safe travels...
ReplyDeleteIt sure was! The area around here is stunning and we are going to enjoy our time up here in the mountains.
DeleteThe footbridge was actually gated, although it was easy enough to get past that but we really didn't want to take our chances on that bridge. lol!
The vines are grape vines and just about everyone has them. First they provide shade in the hot summer months and secondly they provide the grapes for their raki in the fall. Everyone knows how to make raki, even people in the cities grow grapes if they have a bit of space to do so.
For some this is their summer place, and perhaps they are involved in the tourism trade. Some are retired and many are subsistence farmers. There are also others that are involved in some type of agriculture either to sell locally or working for farms that are bigger industries and sell produce or products nation wide and globally.
So beautiful. Your adventure just keeps getting better. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteIt sure is beautiful here and we knew it was going to be! We saved the best to last. :-)
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