Day 9: Discovering the scent of Albania

Ksamil – Qeparo 51.40km cycling 🚴‍♀️ 3.42.08 ⏱ 13.9km/hr ⬆️ 900m ⬇️ 885m

Needless to say we had a rough night after Holland 🇳🇱 lost to Portugal 🇵🇹 . The only good thing was we didn’t have to go back to that waiter from the restaurant so he could congratulate us with the victory. All jokes aside, we had a good 😴 , and were so fast packing everything we had to wait for breakfast. It wasn’t the greatest but Suuz got her beloved eggs 🍳 so all happy.

It was already very hot ☀️ when we kicked off but the first 10 kilometres went by very quickly. A short climb was followed by a nice downhill into Sarandë, a busy city on the coast. The climb out of the city was an absolute maniac, with a long incline of at least 10% with traffic all around us. We were soaked 😓 when we got all the way up and wished we had just one extra gear.

Yesterday when we entered Albania the landscape looked very dry and empty. Today, we found out Albania actually has plenty lush greens, trees 🌲 and bushes 🌳. It did provide us with some shade but not that much sweatily enough. We discovered that where Greece 🇬🇷 smells like flowers (or garbage sometimes), Albania 🇦🇱 smells distinctly like herbs 🌿, oregano and rosemary mainly. Pretty nice! Also, where Greece roads we’re trafficked by mountain goats 🐐 , sheep 🐑 and cows 🐄 , Albanian roads have horses 🐎 and donkeys 🐴!

We followed the SH08 the whole day and expected it to be a little busy since it’s one of the main roads running through Albania, but it was really pretty good. For sure some traffic 🚗 🚙, but just enough to keep it nice. Just after Sarandë this even more insane climb started on a road winding through a forested hill. It seemed to last forever and we had to stop a few times to hide under a tree for shade.

Eventually we made it to the top to some little village where we spotted a coffee ☕️ bar. We had a cold drink and said bonjour to some motor cyclists who gave us thumbs up when they passed us on their way up. 

On the next climb ⛰ we met a Dutch guy 👱🏼‍♂️ hiking up the same road. We had a nice chat with him during the climb (a welcome distraction) since he walked as fast as we cycled. A little pathetic but yeah, he was only carrying a tiny water pack 💧. We carry a whole house including a stove and all. As soon as we went downhill we lost the dude.

In Livoke we had another drink 🍹 to recover and enjoy the lovely view. Back on the bikes Suuz’s chain chipped off her bike again after too much shifting of gears but she fixed it quickly. As she was getting back on her bike the Dutch dude 👱🏼‍♂️ran past on his way down to Livoke where he was staying, fast guy!

Again a small climb followed by a scary downhill with lots of hair pin turns and some holes 🕳 in the road. Going down we could already see the road going up afterwards. Somehow this climb was better then the first big one but very steep for some parts. A little unwelcome uphill surprise at the end qualified this ride even more as the toughest one until now 😞. It wasn’t too long distance wise but the heat ☀️and the climbing ⛰was rough. 

When we arrived at the apartment we were not really able to do anything anymore,  but we forced our butts all the way down to the beach 🏖 for food 🥗 , a dip in the ocean 🌊 and a little sleep 💤 on a sun bed in the shade. Originally, we planned to cycle to Vlöre in two days but with these temperatures and the intense climbing we decided to take an extra day. After today’s rough ride, we can say that we made a great decision. 👍🏻

After our nap we walked down to the grocery store in full sun for fifteen minutes, and also back up again to find out there was a mini market right across the street from our apartment. Great success. At least we had water and breakfast for the next morning. Yoghurt with cruesli, Suuz’s favorite (NOT)👎🏻.

Dinner was more about the view than food itself. We had the same shrimp 🦐 dish, Mas with linguini and Suuz with rice. It wasn’t bad and almost everything tastes good after or during cycling but we’ve had better meals. The white wine 🍷 we had with dinner tasted surprisingly well though!

Suuz taught herself (and Mas) a card game called ‘gin rummy’ which we have been playing for the last few nights. Kind of sick of worms 🐛, Yahtzee had its best time, so Gin rummy it is 🃏. The restaurant was out of dessert, so we went straight up to our apartment, turned on the AC and went to sleep.