Saturday, July 28, Valbona Valley, NE Albania

A very crowded ferry on Lake Koman.

Add caption

Saturday, July 28, Valbona Valley, Albania

            The Valbona Valley is in Northeast Albania. I’ve never been to Yosemite (!) but I have been to Mt. Zion in Utah, and this place reminds me of there. To get here we boated up a reservoir for about three hours. Albania’s Hetch Hetchy. As you ferry up the lake you can sense the lost valley below the water.

Mts above our guesthouse, first night.

            Once we finished the boat ride we boarded an eight-passenger van for a torturous two-hour ride over unpaved mountain roads. We are seven (eight counting the guide): two Italian men, a middle-aged Albanian couple, and two young Australians (who hadn’t met before this morning). The bad part about all that is that everyone has a partner except me, but that’s the usual lay of the land when I do these tours so I’m accustomed to it.

            Albania resembles California a bit. It has a broad central valley with Tirana, the capital at its northern extremity. To the west is the sea; to the east are mountains. Here in the northeast the mountains are large, 3,000+ meters, and the land is remote from the urbanity of the rest of the country.

            We are staying in a guesthouse that someone has appended to their farm. The farm sits in a small valley surrounded, of course, by the mountains. They have their portion of corn and other row crops plus some cows, a horse, and other farm animals. You need to watch your step around here owing to the cow poop that is everywhere. They have apples trees and prunes plus the inevitable grape vines.

            It’s cool up here, a pleasant change from the heat we left behind this morning. Any lesser smells are overmatched by the cow dung aroma that dominates your nostrils wherever you go.  

Stream near our guesthouse, first night.

            We’re just about at the level where the broadleaf trees, mostly beeches and birches, give way to pines and firs. About 1,000 m. above us is the tree line, finally surmounted by about 500 m. of treeless mountain tops.