Day 54 - Vlorë to Himarë

Still not fully recovered but having had at least one proper meal the day before (two slices of pizza), I planned on cycling to Himarë today. When I researched potential routes, I decided to take the longer route with less elevation rather than the mountain pass. To make sure the route is suitable for biking (I don't fully trust komoot anymore), I asked the hostel owner about it. He looked at me feeling very sorry and told me, that the route I plan on doing is under construction and not even locals know whether I could get through or not. He recommended me to take the mountain road, saying it'll be really hard but worth the views. 😅 My mind was not set on this mountain road at all, honestly. I still felt like I'm not at my best but I had no other choice but the mountain road. Luckily, Lucas and Chris were taking my bags with them on the bus, I wouldn't have been able to cycle this road with my luggage on the bike. We're talking 72km, 1600m elevation with slopes up to 14%. 😅 It's the hardest ride I've done so far.

I left feeling pretty lightweighted though, good feeling cycling without my bags. But after an hour I was on the foot of the mountain, looking up to it and thinking "that's it for the next 20km". 🙈😂
It was hard. Really hard. Luckily, going up this way I was mostly cycling in the forest, protected from the sun. Still, I got off my bike many times pushing it up the hill and even pushing the bike without bags was so exhausting. I was almost at the top of the hill, less than 2km to go, taking a break on the side of the road, when a van from Austria stopped. The older couple offered me to take me up the mountain and I gladly accepted. I would probably have pushed the last 1.8km anyways, my legs were cramping and I've already made around 1000m elevation.
Around 5min later, they dropped me off on top of the mountain and the view was just stunning. I stopped to take pictures many times on the way down and mostly rolled down the hill without using the breaks inbetween. It was pretty windy from the front, so naturally I couldn't go super fast. Still, felt like flying and I've almost forgotten about the pain cycling up. 😁

Annoyingly, passing the big mountain was only one part of the elevation gain that day. I still had another 30km and 600m elevation ahead of me along the coast on the way to Himarë. It was a beautiful road, but it was a fight. 🙈 A mean one actually: I would find signs all the time stating 10% slope for the next e.g. 200m. And once I've passed that, there would be another sign saying 12% elevation for 300m, and so on. 😅😑 On the plus side, I spent some time with a group of donkeys on the side of the road, they were really cute. ;)

I arrived in Himarë in the late afternoon after around 6 hours of cycling, and being absolutely exhausted. I dropped my bike by the beach and went straight for a swim, even though it wasn't that warm anymore. I soon met Chris and Lucas by the beach and we went to the hostel together. It was on top of a hill (whyyyyyy...) and they had to push my bike for me. 😅
After checking in and having a shower, we went out for dinner. I ordered pasta and we shared some fries and sides together, which was nice. :) I didn't care about my sore stomach anymore, I was so hungry, it just had to deal with it. 😅
After, we went to the bar of the Sun Bakers Hostel, where we would relocate to the next day. It's more like a party hostel with lots of young people. While Lucas was socializing, Chris and me were hanging out at the bar, chatting and watching people. We didn't feel like we fit in actually. 😄🙈

(For some reasons, this app won't let me post more than 10 photos/1 video anymore per footprint, so I'll just make some extra footprints for Himarë. :) )Read more