Albania to Montenegro
Staying a bit longer in Albania!
23rd April - 27th April | 2022
When we got up in the morning, Pavel was already gone. Pity as we wanted to thank him for his awesome company the last days; he had snuck off early morning ;-) We all started to pack up and then it was time, once more to say goodbye to Tobi and Flo (see previous blogs, day2 and day3).
We headed towards Peshkopi. On the road to Elbasan Steffi noticed in low gears a clonking noise on her Schimmelchen. As we had to stop for putting on our rain gear, James had to test ride it. He reckoned it was the sprocket carrier bearing as it turned out that the rear sprocket had a bit of a play. Great, now in the middle of Albania to get that resolved! We stopped at a car garage and showed them the problem. They directed us 10km down the road to a motorbike (well, rather Scooter) shop. He directed us right into Elbasan to another bike shop.
What madness in Elbasan on the main crossing! We found out later, that this is the main connection between Turkey/Greece to Europe - total madness! We stopped just there as the motorbike shop was supposed to be around there. James asked a food shop owner and he was super helpful walking with James to the bike shop. Steffi got entertained by the traffic on the crossing as they fought from all sides for each centimetre of distance, somehow it works!
We took the bikes to the shop, just 200m down the road to Moto Teri, to father Lefter Gjordeni and his son Mikel Gjordeni. Awesome team! They took the rear wheel off and all was fine! After a bit of scratching our heads, we came to the following conclusion: the chain was since the tyre exchange in Italy very tight and the hardcore offroad with some occasional bike drops, must have moved the rear wheel a wee bit out of line, and all in combination with a very dry chain provoked the noise. The wheel is back on, straight, right tightness and lots of oil and the bike sounds like new!
Wow, fantastic! No rip-off, just purely professional and full of knowledge! We can highly recommend the place in Elbasan, close by the main crossroad (we dropped a pin in IOverlander). The success had been washed down with a cafe and Raki :-). Then it was already time for lunch, they organised us even some hamburgers.
Finally, at about 15h00 we said good-bye and various times "Falamenderit" to hit the road to Peshkopi. Another good chunk of offroad over the mountains.
Just at the outskirts of Peshkopi, we had booked our first stay in a hotel here in Albania! Finally shower! We were so lucky with our accommodation Nëna Dashury Agriturizëm (IG: Nëna Dashury Agriturizëm). It was so cosy and well decorated. The room was nice, warm and the shower was really hot! The dinner was fantastic, but Steffi was so tired; offroad and short nights are catching up! Also, the pain in the neck is persisting ... So another early night.
The next morning we had the best breakfast of our whole Europe tour so far! Then and there Steffi decided to stay another night to recover and catch up on the last blog. Such a fantastic idea as we felt so welcomed and comfortable at the Agriturizëm / hotel.
As it was such good food, accommodation, location, service (= the whole package) we could have stayed another night, but we have to crack on as James already in a good month has to hit the road going back home to the Algarve. We took it easy with the packing and after the picture with the family of Nëna Dashury Agriturizëm, we drove off in the direction of Kukëz. The road was lovely offroad, ok some zick zack around potholes, but took us mainly along the river Drin.
From Kukëz to Fierze it was a lovely twisty mountain road. At the ferry port, we got permission to pitch up our tent for the night. A bunch of Germans with their BMW GS were also here for tomorrow's ferry. We had a drink with them and listened to their adventure as they were already 5 weeks on the road, until Izmir in Turkey.
The next morning Steffi felt a bit off; most probably the oil yesterday at lunch! After packing all away we went into Fierze for breakfast (well more for James today) and some petrol, in case we can pay by Euros. The petrol station was out of service, but we could change the EURO into LEK in a newly built hotel. There we had also Coke and a cafe.
Back to the ferry port, it didn’t take long for the ferry to arrive and after it was unloaded, we already could start getting on the ferry. It looked a bit dodgy for Steffi, but after observing the others, it was easy to get on it.
The ferry tour through the Gorge of Drin (www.komanilakeferry.com) we can highly recommend. It is a tour of 2.5 hours surrounded by the rocks along the river Drin. Unfortunately today, the wind in the Gorge was blowing pretty cold, especially for Steffi already being unwell.
In Komani she decided she needs a hotel room tonight, as she couldn’t see herself in that state in a tent. We found in Vau I Dejës a nice hotel. Just driving off from the ferry port, Schimmelchen showed that it needs petrol, but it was until Vau I Dejës (hotel and next petrol station) 30km!! So we drove for about 20kms, but we didn’t want to risk driving it dry, so James took out a bit from his bike for Schimmelchen.
Finally, in town, we stopped at the first petrol station - that feels much better! In the hotel, Steffi just crashed in bed and was now feeling really weird, more like flu coming up! It took her about 3 hours under various layers of blankets to get warm. She was in the end nearly considering using the self kit Covid test, but this could be still an option for tomorrow ;-)
Ah, and we kindly could use the washing machine and tumble dryer of the hotel to get our laundry done. That was super kind and helpful of Hotel Hasmegaj in Vau I Dejës. At least that problem was easily resolved - try that in our part of Europe!
After a good night's sleep, Steffi felt much better and the breakfast with fried eggs went down very well ;-) As we still had LEK we used them for buying petrol and then we crossed the border after Skodhar into Montenegro; within 10mins we were in. We drove then along the Panoramic road towards Virpazar where we had booked a little hotel (apartment) for the night as we wanted to do a sunset lake boat tour.
The hosts were super helpful with arranging the skipper of the boat tours, but it only would be possible tomorrow am. Ah well, in this case, we have a bit of a rest day ;-) James found out that he lost his Leatherman yesterday when he drained the petrol from his bike. That is a real bummer! If the road (only 120km) wouldn’t be in such a state and twisty in parts and a border crossing, he would go back searching for it! Well, we hope it will be found by a poor family that can feed them for a while, or buy them a cow!
Late in the afternoon, the skipper of the boat tours came and we settled it all for tomorrow 9am. We hope he will be here around that time and not super delayed as this afternoon. So tomorrow will be an early start!
Let’s discover Montenegro and share our impressions with you of our country no. 6 in our next blog.
Places | Cities:
ALBANIA:
Gostime, Elbasan, Librazhd, Peshkopi, Kukës, Fierze, Komani, Vau I Dejës, Shkodär
MONTENEGRO:
Vladimir, Virpaza
Driven km | Trip:
Total: 9350 km
Maintenance | Breakdown:
Schimmelchen clonking noise in low gear; we suspected the rear sprocket carrier being nacked, but finally it was an easy solution (see text above) - well discovered by Moto Teri in Elbasan.
Health issues:
Steffi is still not 100% - having a 24hrs bug.
Special thanks to:
Father Lefter Gjorni and his son Mikel of Moto Teri in Elbasan for sorting out Schimmelchen and enjoying Raki with us
Nëna Dashury Agriturizëm (IG same name) for looking after us so well and the best breakfast so far!
Albania for being so AWESOME - now we understand why Pavel is in love with the country!