House sitting booked, and a preview of next month's adventure!

I mentioned the other day that we had applied for a house sit up in Preston, England and we found out that we were accepted. So we'll be looking after Stripey the cat for 8 days from May 21st to the 29th.

We're also renting a car, but we don't pick it up until we get to Birmingham on the 20th. It looks like we may be getting a ride up there from one of the other wedding guests. With a car rental, we'll be able to do lots of day trips from Preston, including some time in Lake District National Park which is about an hour north of Preston.

We're going to keep the car right up until June 10th when we'll return it to Birmingham and take the bus to Luton Airport for our flight to Albania on the 11th.

And what's going on in Albania?

We've booked a ten day self guided hike in the Albanian Alps. Actually, we've extended it to eleven days because we've added a rest day at one of the stops along the way.

The scenery we expect to be enjoying during our hike.

The hike actually takes you through three countries... Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro. The company that we booked it with arranges for the border crossing permits, because there are no actual border stations along the route.

The approximate route of our hike.

Our information package includes descriptions of each hiking day. There are going to be some tough days! The route is about 160 kms (100 miles) in total, and the daily hikes range from 9 kms (5.5 miles) to 23 kms (14.5 miles). Keeping in mind that the lower distance days might actually be tougher due to steep inclines or declines.

Here's one of the descriptions...

Day 05: Hike Cerem - Doberdol

Distance: 16.8 km (10.43 mi)

Uphill cumulative: 1100m (3608ft)

Downhill cumulative: 520m (1706ft)

Minimal elevation: 1180m (3871ft)

Maximal elevation: 1920m (6299ft)

You will walk between two shepherd’s villages which are inhabited only during the summer so that shepherds can use the abundant pastures. Doberdol is connected to the world only by small tracks, and is not reachable by regular cars. The village is situated below the triple-border point between Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro. On the way you will pass through the village of Balqin where you can stop for a glass of milk served by the local shepherds. These mountains are part of the Gashi valley from where the Gashi tribe comes from, and are under strict protection, as they are also home to glacial lakes of Sulbica platou. Gashi valley was included in UNESCO Natural World Heritage list in 2017.

Your day will end in a cozy accommodation place in Doberdol.

We don't need to carry anything in the way of overnight supplies because we'll be staying in (what we expect to be fairly rustic) guest houses along the way. They supply us with dinner, breakfast, and a packed lunch for the next hiking day. 

We booked it through BN Adventure, a local company based in Peja, Kosovo. They've been great to deal with so far. Total cost is €695 ($752 USD, $1,025 CAD) per person.

After the hike, we plan to stay in Albania for a while and then we're thinking Serbia and/or Montenegro in July. No firm plans yet, but we have never been to Serbia, and we skipped through Montenegro fairly quickly due to bad weather when we passed through with the motorhome, so didn't really see enough of it.

So... lots of exciting stuff coming up!

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Nice price drop on this Lifetime Folding Table and Bench Set.

And in Canada...

Check out the deals at Amazon.ca.