Berat Castle hike, and Ruth's dentist update

We posted our November expenses last night. Our cheapest month of the year so far!

The rain finally stopped after lunch and we were pretty quick to get out and get some exercise before it got dark. We decided to walk down to the city and see how much the river had risen due to the last three days of fairly hard rain.

And from there up to Berat Castle. We had been up to the castle when we were here in March, but wanted to go back just for the hike up.

What does it cost to motorhome in Albania for a month?

More accurately, we did spend the first week of the month of November making our way through Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Montenegro. We didn't actually arrive in Albania until November 7th. 

November was our cheapest month so far this year, as we expected it would be. We spent a total of $1,390 CAD ($1,085 USD, €960) for the month. 

Here's how it all broke down...

Best rainbow ever?

We belong to quite a few travel groups on Facebook. One of our favorites is called Senior Nomads. When we first started out, we wouldn't have felt that we met the criteria to join a group like that, but I guess we're getting to the point where we fit the bill!

Anyhow, an interesting comment came up yesterday regarding how far in advance people are planning trips. Given the Covid situation, I was surprised at how some people already have so much booked.

Just about time to head further south!

It's a bit of an anomaly, but there are actual snow flurries in the forecast for Berat, Albania on Tuesday night with an expected low around the freezing mark. Still, average temperatures for this time of year are highs of 14C (58F) and lows of 8C (47F) and it is supposed to quickly return to that on Wednesday.

But, it is just about time to be heading further south which is exactly what we will be doing as soon as our package arrives and we finish with the dentist. Hopefully by the end of this week.

Ruth's birthday turned out better than expected... and what a finish!

Pouring buckets when we woke up yesterday morning, but by 9:00am or so it had stopped. The forecast was for more rain though. Ruth had an 11:00am dentist appointment so we weren't sure whether we should drive into town but by 10:30 it still wasn't raining so we decided to hop on the bikes.

That turned out to be the best choice. Didn't really want to move Max the motorhome if we didn't have to.

Future plans

Yesterday was a rain day! I only got outside twice... once during a 15 minute dry spell so that I could empty our toilet tank, and once so that I could take a few rainbow photos.

Otherwise, it was a computer day and we got quite a lot accomplished. And we heard back from the dentist again and Ruth has an appointment at 11:00am this morning to have the molds and scans taken for the invisible braces for her lower teeth.

Ruth's dentist update, and does anybody know what these are...?

There's a lot of rain in the forecast for the next four days, so we figured we had better get out and enjoy the day. It's a great area for hiking and biking, and we had not yet taken the bikes heading south along the road outside the campground.

Also, we heard back from the dentist regarding straightening Ruth's lower teeth. She has nice teeth and they are all her own, but we have noticed over the last five years or so that the front lower ones have become a little crooked. We would not be able to justify spending the money that it would cost in Canada or the U.S., but we figured our dentist here in Albania might come up with something more cost effective.

Just another day of Motorhome life in Albania.

The plan was to do a bike ride into town in the morning to pick up some groceries, then another one in the afternoon in the opposite direction just for pleasure. 

So we set off to do groceries around 10:30am. It was a nice blue sky day. We got to the butcher that we have used in the past. He speaks zero English. But we got across to him that we wanted some fresh ground beef. He held up a slab of beef and made gestures like he was going to cut it. But we pointed at his meat grinding machine and he shook his head. It took us a few seconds to figure it out, but it turns out the power was out!

This campground will do just fine for the next few days

The weather has been better than we expected it to be. However there is some rain supposed to be arriving by tomorrow afternoon, and showers throughout the upcoming weekend. And I've got some computer work to get done during that time so it made sense for us to look for a campground where we can have electricity and WiFi. Also, we are waiting for the dentist to get back to us about straightening Ruth's lower teeth.

We didn't plan on staying in Berat this long, but then we really don't have any kind of schedule, so it doesn't matter! And, as I've said before, we really like the area.

We love going to the dentist!

Said no one. Ever.

However, when you can go to the dentist and are confident that you are getting good value for your money, it makes the whole experience a little more enjoyable.

I had been to see a dentist in Albania back in the springtime. I had a bridge that had come loose, and it turned out that one of the anchor teeth needed to be rebuilt. I had four different appointments and the final bill was so inexpensive that I thought he forgot to add a zero or two!

We could easily live in this area.

We woke up Sunday morning and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. And it stayed that way all day! Just perfect. We didn't want to waste a day like that, so we set off on a hike up the road past the village of Drobonik. 

This is an interesting road because if you look on Google maps it is marked as a major route south. And between Berat and Drobonik the road is freshly paved and in beautiful condition. But after Drobonik it deteriorates quickly into a dirt road and apparently there are areas where it would be wise to have a high clearance vehicle, if not 4WD.

What a great day we had!

Yesterday we did our guided hike and picnic lunch into Albania's Tomorri National Park. We had tried to go up to this area when we had a car rental back in early April but we just had a small 2WD car, and we learned pretty quickly that you need a high clearance 4WD in order to go to where we were trying to go.

We met our guide Arti from Albania Rafting Group at 9:00am, and hopped into a 4WD Land Rover. Arti a young guy, 24 years old and Berat is his home town so he knows the area well. Nice guy, and we enjoyed his company.

It's a bit of a treat for us...

First thing we did yesterday morning was to put on a load of laundry. Mostly bedding, so we wanted to get it in early so that it would dry by the time we left. There was no stated checkout time, so we asked the lady if we could stay a little longer, and she didn't have a problem with that. We had already unplugged, and it's not like there was a lineup of people waiting for a spot.

We kind of got sidetracked... and ended up at the dentist office!

We got a decently early start for our drive to Berat. They were calling for showers in the afternoon, so we wanted to get to the River Side Campground early enough to get a load or two of laundry done. Our plan was to have a one night stay at this campground in order to do laundry, have showers, fill and empty our tanks, and fully charge our batteries. 

This way, we will easily be able to spend a few free nights at the hotel parking lot where we know it is shaded and don't know if we will be able to plug in.

Out for a bike ride, and problems solved!

Change of plans! We decided to stay put for one more night. It turns out that the castle we were hoping to visit now charges a €10 fee to overnight there, and it's not that important to us. So the only other option in that area was beach camping at a restaurant. We decided that if we are going to beach camp, we've got it pretty good right where we are!

And with some rain in the forecast, we didn't want to be stuck (literally!) in soft sand or on a muddy road.