The Balkans

After a brutal early morning, I managed to drag myself out of bed and get on the first shuttle to the starting location for the hike. This was a 2 euro shuttle, but it avoided 2 hours of walking. Given that we were doing a hike, we were originally keen to cop it and extend the hike, but then we learnt you literally just walk along the road with very little in terms of views or serenity. So we took the shuttle. Although I was on the first shuttle, the rest of the crew had to wait for the second shuttle, so we waited at the beginning.

At the beginning of the hike, we walked through a riverbed that must flow heavily during spring as the ice melted off the top of the mountain. It was really cool, white rocks lining the bottom of the path, with a forest around it and huge mountains in the background. This went on for about 30 minutes as we anxiously looked up to the mountain we would eventually have to climb to reach the other side. It was quite cold at this point so the walk was rather enjoyable. Also importantly it was very flat. Just as the sun started to get a bit of bite to it, the landscaped changed drastically, and we entered a well shaded forest area. This part of the mountain must escape the effects of the river as it had small farming properties and little animals scattered throughout.

This was the very enjoyable part of the hike, but eventually, the steep ascent began. Although the sun was far from its full force, it still packed a punch. The ascent was relatively short but quite intense. Although we did not know it at the time, Erin had the early stages of pneumonia, and so she especially struggled on the hike. We would take regular breaks, however, to ensure that we did not leave anyone behind. After a gruelling couple of hours of walking up a very steep and rocky mountain face, we eventually reached the section in which you can pass through the mountain and begin the descent down to Theth. However, there was a peak not far from this point, and given the distance we had travelled, to not experience the full view of the valley from a peak seemed silly. As such, we picked ourselves back up and began trekking further up the hill to one of the Peaks. It was very worth it as getting 360-degree views of the valley we had just trekked all the way up, and the valley we would eventually track all the way down was really interesting. We could even see the path we had taken, which made us feel very accomplished. We had done all this by about 9 a.m., too.

The final section included the descent to Theth. I'm normally a much bigger fan of the descent compared to the ascent, but this was a very rough descent because of how long it was. We had perhaps been fooled into a false sense of accomplishment, having peaked so early in the day. We thought we were just about at the end, but we were not even halfway, and the loose rocks and stones made the descent quite difficult. That being said, the landscape was different again, although still a forest, it lacked the shrubbery that existed on the other side of the mountain range, so we entered a quite eary, wooded forest. Just endless trees rising out of the ground. This continued for what felt like forever, and my knees started to give out on me. Although I've never had knee problems, what started as a small sharp pain, the constant force through my knees with each step took its toll. By the end, I could barely bend my leg. Luckily, we eventually stopped for a beer, which gave my knee a chance to rest a little bit. This helped in the short term. Although we had a bit of a hike still to go, we considered the beer to be a celebration of completing the hike. We were once again roped into a false sense of achievement. This was also the time we realised it was barely 11am and we were drinking. The early start had thrown us around, but we drank nonetheless. The hike continued for another good couple of hours with some harsh downhill sections that were crippling me with each step. Eventually we did make it to the small town of Theth, and by pure coincidence the 3 of us that had organised to rent a car the next day had been given our own guesthouse as the other one was full. This worked out really well as Erin got her own room to try to recover from the hike and pneumonia, and Lewis and I got our own room together. The place was beautiful too. It was a tiny, remote little house within the valley that was so wholesome that it was hard to describe. The lady that ran it was so cute and helpful for us that we couldn't have been more well treated. This is exactly what we needed after the hike. Not to mention, she cooked the GREATEST meal that I have eaten on my journey so far. I was so hungry and worried we wouldn't get solid portions as happened at the last place. But she cooked a feast of chicken, rice, pastries, chips, salad, veggies, and anything else you could possibly want after a big hike. I can't describe how good it was. There is a photo as evidence, but I can't decide a picture of the hike to remove, so this will have to wait until I'm home so I can share it.

We grabbed a couple of beers and went to meet up with the other guys from the hike for some drinks. We played card games and drank throughout the night. It was great. Eventually, though, we had to head back to get a decent sleep and prepare to head back to Shkoder the next day.Read more