Tamarë the inland outpost

The storm seemed to have passed just as suddenly as it arrived. The road dived resolutely downwards, through more gorgeous mountains and mighty gorges carved out by the Lumi i Cemit river. The rock faces were highly textured, with large slabs inclined at all angles.

Just to taunt us, a sole black cloud chased us downhill and poured down a targeted bout of rain on us. We rode on through the patter of the large raindrops on the slippery asphalt. This made the curvy road even more titillating.

Tamarë is the last town before the big climb into the mountains. I was expecting to draw cash, buy food, find a room and civilisation l. Instead Tamarë turned out to be a frontier town in the middle of the backcountry. There was an assortment of rotten vegetables, in various stages of decay in the single shop in the town. When I asked for a cash machine, they looked at me puzzled and said the next one was 25 km in Koplik. It was three days since we had arrived into Albania and we had yet to see a cash machine or a market. The trials of entering the remote part of a country overland.

We stocked up on a few jars of food, some boiled water and headed out towards the mountains. Kiran was feeling like we could brave it. The storm started to take shape again. So we set up camp on the front porch of a tiny church by the river. Maybe the heavens would open up tomorrow.Read more