Day 3, from Rrogozhinë to Peqin

September 3, 2019

Day 3, from Rrogozhinë to Peqin

Started this morning at 6:30 am

Since I left the trail yesterday, I had to find a different way today. I decided to walk along the existing railway tracks. It was a relaxed walk as the train only runs in one direction in the morning at 8 am and in the other direction at 6 pm. Along the way, I saw a lot of birds and donkeys, it was very diverse.

Since the direct route to my destination for the day was just over 10 km, I took a detour through small villages and 2 smaller hills. At the entrance of the first village, a man who was in his garden saw me. He waved at me and signaled me to enter his property. When I was in the garden, he immediately picked blue and white grapes and gave me about a kilo in my hands. I gratefully accepted and immediately started eating these sweet grapes because I started today without breakfast again and only had a handful of figs on the tracks.

After some small talk about my journey, I said goodbye. About half an hour later, I climbed a small hill. At the top, there was a wonderful place for an early lunch break under a very old olive tree. Just as I had dozed off, turkeys came first, then chickens, and finally sheep, to prevent me from sleeping. After picking a few fruits from the fig tree next to me, I wanted to continue. But then I saw a very ripe, already cracked fig, I had to have it too! Quickly picked it and put the whole thing in my mouth - it tasted strange and it also cracked! Spit it out and checked, apparently I had overlooked a large green-blue beetle on the other side of the fig (poor thing).

After about 30 minutes, I wanted to ask a woman who was in her property in front of her house for directions. She then called her daughter, who spoke good English. I asked her about a path over the hill that extended directly behind her house. But the girl kept telling me to take the village road to my destination, which I refused repeatedly.

By now, the mother and grandmother were also present and invited me to eat several times. I thought for a moment - I had already eaten about 750 grams of grapes and a lot of figs, and I also remembered yesterday how a little food can look when you're not hungry anyway. So this time I declined and said goodbye. I walked over the hill to the railway line and along the tracks for about 3 km to the town of Peqin, where I stayed in a small hotel.