Albania

A quick trip this morning to the site of Oricum, a 6th century port on the Adriatic coast. As the coastline has changed over the years much of the site is now underwater and in any case it is in an Albanian navy base, requiring clearance and security checks. Perhaps not surprisingly it isn't on the usual tourist routes! It is on a hillside over the sea and very much overgrown so we had it to our selves and it was lovely clambering around and finding bits of stuff. Carolyn, our friend who is the archaeologist for the trip, is just so bubbly and enthusiastic so it's a pleasure to watch, listen and learn from her. There are also people of the trip who are very knowledgeable, in particular a man who was an RAF engineer and amateur archeologist who is very useful to have around. The remains included a semi-circular building that they think was a fountain with some impressive water engineering, rock cut stairs and houses and shops cut into the bedrock. On leaving the site there was a bonus as it's a location for training Albanian special forces and about 2 dozen of them came out of the water in their swimming trunks.Read more