Ishull Lezhë – Skhodër 44.95km cycling 🚴♀️ 2.27.13 ⏱ 18.3km/hr ⬆️ 85m ⬇️ 85m
It was kind of sad we had to leave the Komplekski this morning. It was an absolute treat. Despite being woken at 5am by three rebelling roosters 🐔 right below our window. We did see a lot baby chicks so at least the roosters were good for something. All and all we had a very poultry morning. During breakfast 🍳🥒🍅🍞 the campground pigeon 🕊 kept us company and tried to steal Suuz’s wallet.
Two fried eggs 🍳 with feta cheese 🧀 and an espresso ☕️ later, it was close to nine when we kicked off, but we only had a short and flat day ahead of us. From the moment we kicked off the small village roads and the views were nothing but awesome. We stopped a lot to take pictures 📸 or shoot videos 🎥 to explain the importance of teamwork and tactics when on a cycling tour.
The kilometers flew by as we just enjoyed being on our bikes 🚲 with beautiful surroundings, passing small villages with people doing their thing, tending their gardens, bringing their kids to school, riding their donkeys 🐴. It was an absolute joy!
In Barbalush we had our morning coffee ☕️ break while watching some local passing by with his horse.
Albanian women 👩🏻 like to clean. At least, that’s what we are told. By men 🧔🏻. We can attest to the immaculate cleanliness of the apartments we have stayed at. But toilets in coffee bars or restaurants, are something else. Really not worth visiting. Although we really have to a couple of times a day. Especially Mas, who drinks excessive amounts of water 💧.
Anyway, we continued down our new favorite road and even extended it a little, but in the end we had to give in and get back on the highway for the last 8km to Shkoder. Not great with all the traffic 🚗 🚙 but we can’t really complain about the roads today. We arrived at the campground around noon and installed ourselves in the wooden cabin we had booked. It’s just too hot to sleep in a tent ⛺️. And hotels or apartments are so cheap 💵 in Albania that it’s just not worth the extra effort.
We went for a swim in the pool 🏊♀️ and decided to cycle into town since it was still early. Big mistake. It was about 20 minutes to Skhodër by bike but it was sooo hot. The heat just sucks away all your energy in no time. We had lunch inside a restaurant to enjoy the air-conditioning and some local snacks, followed by an ice cream 🍨 after. An icecream for Mas at least, because most icecream places have tons of different flavors, almost always including ones with peanuts 🥜. It wasn’t any good anyway so Suuz was probably better off with her espresso. Can’t wait for proper icecream parlors in Italy where all they serve is lemone 🍋 , cioccolato 🍫 and pistacchio 👌🏻.
Mas had a bit of a meltdown 😡because of the heat, so we decided to skip on restaurant dinner and instead Suuz would cook 👩🏻🍳tonight. We picked up some groceries on the way back from the city and took another jump in the pool when we got back to the campsite. After a good swim, we started dinner and all of a sudden it started to rain 🌧. Big time. Luckily there was a roof above the little campsite kitchen so everything stayed dry. Suuz was a bit sceptic about cooking dinner in a one-pit gas cooker after the couscous fiasco at the ghost campground in France a couple of years ago, but she’s over that now. We had a tasty pasta 🍝 with aubergine 🍆 , tomatoes 🍅, pesto and cheese 🧀 . It was simply great.
Bijzonder dat jullie telkens lekkere espresso vinden 😋☕️