Beautiful, majestic and awe-inspiring... but enough about me, how was our drive from Durres down to Greece? Thankfully south Albania was unexpectedly and astonishingly beautiful. We're both really pleased we came through this fascinating country and gutted that it all ended so quickly.
First off, everything you may have heard or read about Albania, particularly the Albanian people, is horse-shit (which, co-incendently, you see a lot of on the roads). It's an amazing place to visit and the people are the friendliest and most generous that I have met on this trip and it will probably remain that way. Driving here is an absolute riot but not for the faint hearted or anyone that likes rules as there are none really. Even with the on-set of the new roads that are being built you still get an amazing driving experience. Roads with no signs or markings, new tarmac in some parts quickly turning into gravel tracks. Some had tarmac on one side, gravel the other, so you just drift from one side of the motorway to the other with either traffic heading towards you or the recently escaped inhabitants of Old McDonald's farm blocking your route. Roads can also be very uneven so you have to almost tip-top your vehicle along the right path plotting your route military stylee.
At first it's all a bit daunting but with the added assurance of newly purchased insurance we soon got into it and it becomes really quite liberating, driving how you want, and oddly enough it all becomes quite normal after a while and you forget where you are. 'Democracy!' as Leonardo called it. 'You are free to drive where you want and how you want!'
Anyway - if you want try this particular driving experience then you should do so sooner rather than later. Some new roads are already built and more will follow. We were told that these are being built for Albania by us good'ole EU types. Seemingly not to help the country but just so that we can ensure our gas reaches us from Georgia in the future. The building of these roads is also leading to an explosion in development which will be good for Albania but could also spoil the 'uniqueness' that it has about it. Helen and I had only been in the country a couple of days but it being a bit 'wild-west' in parts and a great place for new ventures we should soon be able to offer all-inclusive trips including accommodation, food and 4x4 hire (plus a chance to meet the legendary Leonardo)!! Anyone reading this who has not been should try and go. I can't say enough about Albania, bloody loved it.
So the drive south. We begrudgingly left Camp Pa emer, or 'No name' and spent the next half an hour or so traveling the 3km to the highway. This was along a road pitted with pot-holes and deep undulations that rolled you this way and that way. It was through a local neighbourhood and all along our route were children smiling and waving at us. We reached the recently built over-pass (see pic 1 below) but unfortunately we didn't have to cross it, would have been a laugh getting the bus over it.
To get out on to the motorway you just pull straight out onto the recently laid wide strip of tarmac and hope that all of the brightly coloured Merc vans hurtingly towards you bother to swerve. Once you're out, game on! This motorway was lined by fantastic looking fruit stalls so we stopped to pick up some stuff. And this is what gets me about this place. We bought loads of fruit off of this lovely lady for next to nothing, a pittance really. Once we had paid for our chosen fruit she then gave us a load of free plums and apricots handed over with huge smiles and thanks and that's not just a one off either. How can it be that people with seemingly so little appear to be the happiest and most generous?
Anyway - back out onto the main road and a good couple of hours fun; Helen weaving here and there having to look for the best part of the surface with the most grip (like a F1 driver) and also avoiding locals heading towards us on push bikes, often waving hello. At one point the motorway was blocked across its entire width, without any warning, by fruit stalls and you had to break hard and switch to the other side of the carriageway. It was lucky the fruit seller had big juicy melons otherwise we might not have seen her.
We decided to stop at Apollonia, a huge ancient city set up on a hill. A brilliant place to take in some local history, even more so as we were the only people there and you could climb over the whole site!! I sat up high in a auditorium where people would have sat c3000 years ago whilst Helen took a bow on the ancient stage and then 'look, some empty plinths let's go pretend to be ancient statues!' - awesome fun. There was so much to see but it was so hot it wasn't possible. I'm sure we'll be back for more though. The security guys at the place were so chilled out that If we'd had wanted to stay the night at this ancient, historical site with the van it would have been no problem.
Back out on the road and more of the same. We knew we had a steep mountain pass to get over before we settled for the night and were concerned with how the van would handle the heat, the road conditions and the climb. There was no need for concern as the road was in great condition and the drive through this particular region was probably the best of trip so far, absolutely outstanding place South Albania. We couldn't go fast (luckily) so put the van in 2nd gear, sat back and let it pull us first up and around the mountains and then slowly wind its way back down again (albeit with a screeching engine, but don't let that spoil the image). Took a while but it was well worth it. Glorious. We were gonna free camp on a beach near the lovely town of Himare but Hooper insisted that I wanted a shower and so we ended up at a campsite near to where we were gonna free camp. Bad choice as it was a tweenie rave beach bar camp site that played shite Euro pap at full volume until the small hours, and we were parked right next to a huge speaker. Not a popular boy that night I can tell ya. To cap it all off the showers were shit.
A new day brought mixed feelings (and bleary eyes) as it was time to make a break for the Albanian/Greek border. We'd heard the roads weren't up to much but someone had shown us a route that took a minor road to the border. This had been relaid in part - turned to dust in others but still flat - so was a really chilled drive through more stunning scenery to the border at Konispol. After several viewings of Midnight Express I always get a bit twitchy at borders - "what if they need to up their drug smuggling count and see two Brits in a VW as the perfect place to 'find' something?" - so we approached the Albanian border with the Alertometer running at dangerously high levels. As always a stern looking big old git takes our passports then..... Oo hello where you two from then?? Had a nice time in Albania have ya?? Where ya been?? stamp stamp bye then!! Customs next.. I pulled up next to the guy in uniform expecting the full works only for him to wave like a child and say 'bye bye'. We'd just left an odd, but brilliant country.
Easily through next set of border control and there she was, laid out before us in all her glory... Greece. We fancied a few chilled days and stopped at one of the first campsites we saw a sign for, Camp Sofas. What a bloody find this place was. Amazingly beautiful site set into a gorgeous cove. Sofas' is a family run place and it showed. The restaurant run by the mum, Eleni, served up amazing food and her son had a brilliant bar on site too. We sat and watched the Euro final here with a load of Italians, good night that was! The water was as clear-a-blue as you'd ever seen and we had a monumental swim out to an Island and then onto a beach that could only be reached by sea. Proper relaxed this place. I returned from the bar one afternoon after frappe numero 27 to find Helen sat painting an olive tree (painting on paper, not actually painting the tree) with one of the local cats that had clearly fallen in love with her sat in her lap. Sleep was hard to come by due to the heat, the bloody inconsiderate insects (that must have mastered amplification in order to be so god damn loud from the first sight of sun to the end of the day) added to the the mid-night calling of a thousand rabid dogs - but you can't have it all eh? Lovely place that we hope to stay at again on our way back up, only with ear plugs this time.
We were pooped when we left due to lack of sleep - not what we'd hoped for - but decided to start free camping from that day and headed to the North Pelopennese, which happened to be HELEN'S BIRTHDAY!!! Helen had a wonderful birthday which took the form of an extremely hot 7 hour drive (broken up with a fast food, but not horrible, kebab stop) and then a romantic night parked outside a taverna and a bottle of Mythos. Outside the taverna was a good place to stop actually - in a little marina - and after getting over some initial free stop doubts we looked forward to a good nights sleep. MORE BLOODY DOGS!! What is it with Greek dogs?? Not a peep all day then as soon as ya head hits the pillow.. bastards.
Up early to do some touristy stuff but not before we had a dip in the sea to wake us up. Lovely way to start the day it has to be said. Our touristy stuff for the day was a trip on the rack and pinion railway built in 1896 that runs the 22km from Dhiakofto to Kalavryta up the Vouraikos Gorge. We don't normally do the touristy stuff but heard that the train was a must. Not at 19 Euro's each a ticket it's not but we took it anyway. Not too bad but don't go out of your way to do it if you're ever in the area. Anyway, the eventual destination is Kalavryta which experienced its own 'holocaust' on the 13 December 1943 when the retreating Nazi army took all the men and boys over the age of 13 up to a ridge on the edge of town and shot them all, 400 or so. There's a moving museum in town which occupies the old school building from where this tragedy all began. All townsfolk were ordered into the school building, the men and teenage boys then separated from the woman and children and ordered to walk to their certain death up on the hill. The woman and children were locked in the school and this was set on fire but thankfully they escaped, only to then discover what had happened to their men after the Nazi's had gone. Simply awful. As a wise philosopher once posed: "WAR HUH, good gawd!! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!!". I'd have to agree.
It was late when we got back to the van and set off further south. We'd heard that Greek history isn't just about not being able to balance the books but that people lived here thousands of years ago, they were quite brainy by all accounts, and they've left some old stuff lying around that's good to look at. Another free stop on-route, this time by a fairly busy coastal rode. A bit dodgy and we weren't exactly comfortable with it but once the heavy set, no toothed, Algerian fella left us alone we were treated to a stunning orange moon rise. I'd not seen one of these before. The moon was huge and when we first saw it's bright dome peer above the town in the distance we thought the sun was coming up again. We watched open mouthed (not good in a country full of mozzies) as it rose gently above the town like a hot air ballon changing from first bright orange to yellow as it got higher. We then settled down to the comforting sound of local dogs yelping themselves hoarse sounding like they wanted to kill us all the while hoping that no-tooth didn't return and nick the bikes.
So, now we are near the town of Nafpoli and not far from all the old stuff we want to see. We're on a campsite and insisted that there are no insect infested trees near the bus and not a dog in town. Happily there appears to be none.. what we have instead is a jet lagged cockerel in the yard next door who goes off every four hours!
We don't normally title the individual pictures but I wanted to with the ones below:
1- Albanian overpass!
2- Apollonia
3- Mountain pass
4- Motorway services, Albanian stylee!
Adio for now!
First off, everything you may have heard or read about Albania, particularly the Albanian people, is horse-shit (which, co-incendently, you see a lot of on the roads). It's an amazing place to visit and the people are the friendliest and most generous that I have met on this trip and it will probably remain that way. Driving here is an absolute riot but not for the faint hearted or anyone that likes rules as there are none really. Even with the on-set of the new roads that are being built you still get an amazing driving experience. Roads with no signs or markings, new tarmac in some parts quickly turning into gravel tracks. Some had tarmac on one side, gravel the other, so you just drift from one side of the motorway to the other with either traffic heading towards you or the recently escaped inhabitants of Old McDonald's farm blocking your route. Roads can also be very uneven so you have to almost tip-top your vehicle along the right path plotting your route military stylee.
At first it's all a bit daunting but with the added assurance of newly purchased insurance we soon got into it and it becomes really quite liberating, driving how you want, and oddly enough it all becomes quite normal after a while and you forget where you are. 'Democracy!' as Leonardo called it. 'You are free to drive where you want and how you want!'
Anyway - if you want try this particular driving experience then you should do so sooner rather than later. Some new roads are already built and more will follow. We were told that these are being built for Albania by us good'ole EU types. Seemingly not to help the country but just so that we can ensure our gas reaches us from Georgia in the future. The building of these roads is also leading to an explosion in development which will be good for Albania but could also spoil the 'uniqueness' that it has about it. Helen and I had only been in the country a couple of days but it being a bit 'wild-west' in parts and a great place for new ventures we should soon be able to offer all-inclusive trips including accommodation, food and 4x4 hire (plus a chance to meet the legendary Leonardo)!! Anyone reading this who has not been should try and go. I can't say enough about Albania, bloody loved it.
So the drive south. We begrudgingly left Camp Pa emer, or 'No name' and spent the next half an hour or so traveling the 3km to the highway. This was along a road pitted with pot-holes and deep undulations that rolled you this way and that way. It was through a local neighbourhood and all along our route were children smiling and waving at us. We reached the recently built over-pass (see pic 1 below) but unfortunately we didn't have to cross it, would have been a laugh getting the bus over it.
To get out on to the motorway you just pull straight out onto the recently laid wide strip of tarmac and hope that all of the brightly coloured Merc vans hurtingly towards you bother to swerve. Once you're out, game on! This motorway was lined by fantastic looking fruit stalls so we stopped to pick up some stuff. And this is what gets me about this place. We bought loads of fruit off of this lovely lady for next to nothing, a pittance really. Once we had paid for our chosen fruit she then gave us a load of free plums and apricots handed over with huge smiles and thanks and that's not just a one off either. How can it be that people with seemingly so little appear to be the happiest and most generous?
Anyway - back out onto the main road and a good couple of hours fun; Helen weaving here and there having to look for the best part of the surface with the most grip (like a F1 driver) and also avoiding locals heading towards us on push bikes, often waving hello. At one point the motorway was blocked across its entire width, without any warning, by fruit stalls and you had to break hard and switch to the other side of the carriageway. It was lucky the fruit seller had big juicy melons otherwise we might not have seen her.
We decided to stop at Apollonia, a huge ancient city set up on a hill. A brilliant place to take in some local history, even more so as we were the only people there and you could climb over the whole site!! I sat up high in a auditorium where people would have sat c3000 years ago whilst Helen took a bow on the ancient stage and then 'look, some empty plinths let's go pretend to be ancient statues!' - awesome fun. There was so much to see but it was so hot it wasn't possible. I'm sure we'll be back for more though. The security guys at the place were so chilled out that If we'd had wanted to stay the night at this ancient, historical site with the van it would have been no problem.
Back out on the road and more of the same. We knew we had a steep mountain pass to get over before we settled for the night and were concerned with how the van would handle the heat, the road conditions and the climb. There was no need for concern as the road was in great condition and the drive through this particular region was probably the best of trip so far, absolutely outstanding place South Albania. We couldn't go fast (luckily) so put the van in 2nd gear, sat back and let it pull us first up and around the mountains and then slowly wind its way back down again (albeit with a screeching engine, but don't let that spoil the image). Took a while but it was well worth it. Glorious. We were gonna free camp on a beach near the lovely town of Himare but Hooper insisted that I wanted a shower and so we ended up at a campsite near to where we were gonna free camp. Bad choice as it was a tweenie rave beach bar camp site that played shite Euro pap at full volume until the small hours, and we were parked right next to a huge speaker. Not a popular boy that night I can tell ya. To cap it all off the showers were shit.
A new day brought mixed feelings (and bleary eyes) as it was time to make a break for the Albanian/Greek border. We'd heard the roads weren't up to much but someone had shown us a route that took a minor road to the border. This had been relaid in part - turned to dust in others but still flat - so was a really chilled drive through more stunning scenery to the border at Konispol. After several viewings of Midnight Express I always get a bit twitchy at borders - "what if they need to up their drug smuggling count and see two Brits in a VW as the perfect place to 'find' something?" - so we approached the Albanian border with the Alertometer running at dangerously high levels. As always a stern looking big old git takes our passports then..... Oo hello where you two from then?? Had a nice time in Albania have ya?? Where ya been?? stamp stamp bye then!! Customs next.. I pulled up next to the guy in uniform expecting the full works only for him to wave like a child and say 'bye bye'. We'd just left an odd, but brilliant country.
Easily through next set of border control and there she was, laid out before us in all her glory... Greece. We fancied a few chilled days and stopped at one of the first campsites we saw a sign for, Camp Sofas. What a bloody find this place was. Amazingly beautiful site set into a gorgeous cove. Sofas' is a family run place and it showed. The restaurant run by the mum, Eleni, served up amazing food and her son had a brilliant bar on site too. We sat and watched the Euro final here with a load of Italians, good night that was! The water was as clear-a-blue as you'd ever seen and we had a monumental swim out to an Island and then onto a beach that could only be reached by sea. Proper relaxed this place. I returned from the bar one afternoon after frappe numero 27 to find Helen sat painting an olive tree (painting on paper, not actually painting the tree) with one of the local cats that had clearly fallen in love with her sat in her lap. Sleep was hard to come by due to the heat, the bloody inconsiderate insects (that must have mastered amplification in order to be so god damn loud from the first sight of sun to the end of the day) added to the the mid-night calling of a thousand rabid dogs - but you can't have it all eh? Lovely place that we hope to stay at again on our way back up, only with ear plugs this time.
We were pooped when we left due to lack of sleep - not what we'd hoped for - but decided to start free camping from that day and headed to the North Pelopennese, which happened to be HELEN'S BIRTHDAY!!! Helen had a wonderful birthday which took the form of an extremely hot 7 hour drive (broken up with a fast food, but not horrible, kebab stop) and then a romantic night parked outside a taverna and a bottle of Mythos. Outside the taverna was a good place to stop actually - in a little marina - and after getting over some initial free stop doubts we looked forward to a good nights sleep. MORE BLOODY DOGS!! What is it with Greek dogs?? Not a peep all day then as soon as ya head hits the pillow.. bastards.
Up early to do some touristy stuff but not before we had a dip in the sea to wake us up. Lovely way to start the day it has to be said. Our touristy stuff for the day was a trip on the rack and pinion railway built in 1896 that runs the 22km from Dhiakofto to Kalavryta up the Vouraikos Gorge. We don't normally do the touristy stuff but heard that the train was a must. Not at 19 Euro's each a ticket it's not but we took it anyway. Not too bad but don't go out of your way to do it if you're ever in the area. Anyway, the eventual destination is Kalavryta which experienced its own 'holocaust' on the 13 December 1943 when the retreating Nazi army took all the men and boys over the age of 13 up to a ridge on the edge of town and shot them all, 400 or so. There's a moving museum in town which occupies the old school building from where this tragedy all began. All townsfolk were ordered into the school building, the men and teenage boys then separated from the woman and children and ordered to walk to their certain death up on the hill. The woman and children were locked in the school and this was set on fire but thankfully they escaped, only to then discover what had happened to their men after the Nazi's had gone. Simply awful. As a wise philosopher once posed: "WAR HUH, good gawd!! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!!". I'd have to agree.
It was late when we got back to the van and set off further south. We'd heard that Greek history isn't just about not being able to balance the books but that people lived here thousands of years ago, they were quite brainy by all accounts, and they've left some old stuff lying around that's good to look at. Another free stop on-route, this time by a fairly busy coastal rode. A bit dodgy and we weren't exactly comfortable with it but once the heavy set, no toothed, Algerian fella left us alone we were treated to a stunning orange moon rise. I'd not seen one of these before. The moon was huge and when we first saw it's bright dome peer above the town in the distance we thought the sun was coming up again. We watched open mouthed (not good in a country full of mozzies) as it rose gently above the town like a hot air ballon changing from first bright orange to yellow as it got higher. We then settled down to the comforting sound of local dogs yelping themselves hoarse sounding like they wanted to kill us all the while hoping that no-tooth didn't return and nick the bikes.
So, now we are near the town of Nafpoli and not far from all the old stuff we want to see. We're on a campsite and insisted that there are no insect infested trees near the bus and not a dog in town. Happily there appears to be none.. what we have instead is a jet lagged cockerel in the yard next door who goes off every four hours!
We don't normally title the individual pictures but I wanted to with the ones below:
1- Albanian overpass!
2- Apollonia
3- Mountain pass
4- Motorway services, Albanian stylee!
Adio for now!
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