One month in a box!

We have now spent a month on the road…hard to believe, as every day has been so packed with new sights and sounds and tastes that it feels much longer. In a normal month at home I might get a lot done, but so much is done on autopilot that it passes by without us really noticing. Another month without having got round to fix that thing, arrange that job, call that person…so many demands on our time, that it just whizzes by, like all those other months. Not this month.

We now find ourselves in the Accursed Mountains in northern Albania. In our last post, we were in Montenegro, where spent another while, mostly riding bikes, hiking and trying to get the kids to do some schoolwork. They are not always that willing to get stuck into their regular schoolbooks, which might seem dull in the normal context of school, but seem even less appealing when surrounded by brand new opportunities to do stuff! But, as is our obligation, we bully and bribe them and they eventually get their heads down!

The gruff but friendly Montenegrins, with their Count Dracula accents seemed somehow familiar as we had spent many summers in Slovenia, also part of the former Yugoslavia. They are very neat and tidy, use words very sparingly and drive very fast, but in a predictable and confident way. The Albanians, on the other hand, drive like they don’t care if they live or die. This is particularly unnerving if you are towing a long caravan on roads about the width of a caravan, up hairpin bends where you really don’t want to end up pressing the clutch in and stopping, as it’s hard to get going again. They drive either ancient beaten up Mercedes cars and vans (farmers) or gleaming, black Mercedes saloons (young tough-looking guys dressed in black with mirror glasses). The rest of the cars are white Skodas driven by terrified tourists. Elina had her heart set on going to Theth, the heart of the Accursed mountains. I looked at the roads and said it didn’t look caravan-friendly: a lumpy off-road drive over mountain passes. BUT, they have just finished a new tarmac surface so onwards and upwards we go!

First, we gladly leave our mosquito swamp where we had spent an awful night of torrential rain on the shores of lake Shkoder. Then we must navigate through the centre of the small town of Koplik, where we discover the mad double-parking habits of the Albanians. They simply stop whenever they like and walk off to do some errand, and everyone else just starts weaving around on every lane; tricky whilst towing a caravan. Then, we pass the huge jail with gleaming Mercedes parked at rakish angles all over the road and finally hit the open (one lane) road…the road seems okay, really, apart from near head-on collisions every couple of minutes. Then, after dragging the caravan up some steeps (and being forced to reverse by a tourist-hating taxi driver – we guess that this road used to be dominated by taxis until the new asphalt was finished and the tourists in the Skodas started eating into their livelihood and driving slowly everywhere) until we came upon a graveyard where a funeral was taking place. All the Mercedes models from all eras and in all conditions were parked carelessly half on the road, half in the ditch. I picked my way through them with no margin at all and continued up into the hills. We had agreed that Theth was a foolhardy destination, and stopped before the really crazy hairpins at Boge at a lovely campsite and have been doing daytrips from here…which has been amazing!

More news soon! I know these posts are far apart in time, but we collapse into bed every night at 9. ;-D