Views above Shkoder, and evening visitors!

Not much sunshine on Wednesday, but the temperature was a pleasant 18C (66F). In fact, perfect conditions to go for a hike. 

I found a nearby trail that runs up above the hill in behind where we are parked, so we set off just after 10:00am for what turned out to be a really nice hike!

It didn't take long to start to get some nice views of Shkoder...

Looking back at the city of Shkoder.

Lake Shkoder.

Some parts of the road were nicely paved, but narrow. 

Other parts were rough gravel and needed a 4 x 4.

The trail leads up to this antenna installation.

Shkoder, Albania.

Max is parked right in the center of the photo.

Zoomed in on Max.

Views near where we are parked.

I took a video for you. Turn up your volume...

Views above Shkoder.

Another bunker. 

Looking west towards the Adriatic Sea.

Looking south.

We only went as far as the first ridge so that we could see the view west. I doubt we would have been able to access the antenna installation at the top, and it was getting cooler and quite windy as we went higher. So we turned around.

Heading back down.

Fishing by the river.

Almost stepped on this fellow!

When we got back down, we made a detour in to the nearest SPAR grocery store and picked up a few things. Including the detour, we did a total of 10.8 kms (6.7 miles). We were overdue for some exercise, so that felt great.

So we were sitting doing some computer work in the afternoon when we were surprised to see a camper van pull in. A woman got out and headed straight over to Max and knocked on the door. She knew exactly who we were, and said that she had been communicating with me on facebook. Then it clicked with me who it was. I had been chatting with a woman on a Balkan travel group about SIM cards and what we had been using for internet access getting through Bosnia. At one point, I had given her a link to our blog and it turns out they followed our route south through Bosnia and Montenegro. Because I had put our GPS coordinates in, she knew exactly how to find us!

Kevin, Katja, and Yves.

We invited them over for a drink or two.

Katja is originally from Germany, and Yves is from Switzerland, but they both live in Switzerland now. They are on their way to Turkey, the same as us, but they hope to continue east through Iran or Russia towards India and Pakistan. They are experienced world travelers and they are well prepared for this adventure. Obviously we had a lot to talk about, and before we knew it it was after 8:00pm and we still hadn't had our dinner yet!

They stayed overnight as well, so we'll see them again this morning.

We have to go into town to get an Albania SIM card. It turns out the roaming cellular access from Montenegro was capped, and it ran out yesterday. Fortunately, the free WiFi from the resort works okay.

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