హాట్ - అల్బేనియా

Continuing to flee from the heat of the coast, we headed back to the mountains. A noteworthy highlight along the way: a zipline for babies 😅 Ziplines are abundant here, but ones for babies are rather rare 😄 However, Heidi wasn't interested 😉

So this time, we're heading to northern Albania, to the Theth Valley.

The only road that leads in and out was paved just a few years ago. It's winding, single-lane, and still not easily accessible, taking about 2 hours to reach the nearest larger town.

Halfway there, we realized that we hadn't withdrawn any local currency and we barely had any euros left.. 🙈

Of course, Heidi woke up at that exact moment of realization and complained about the abrupt interruption of her nap. It's difficult to think clearly with a crying baby on a single-lane mountain road...

We added up all the potential expenses for the next few days, hoping that if necessary, we could convince other travelers to exchange money, and then we drove on with a mixture of panic and hope. It'll work out somehow.

The village of Theth in the eponymous valley is a scattered collection of guesthouses and ones under construction. Any empty meadow is an associated camping area, and the main road is unpaved and a construction site. Everything is being prepared for increasing visitor numbers.

Which are sure to come! The valley is incredibly beautiful, rivaling the local Alps: Many high peaks and impressive cliffs surround the green valley.

A South Tyrolean camper neighbor said a few days earlier, 'Magnificent! Like the Dolomites!' Well, he also called the infrastructure of a campsite 'magnificent,' which we didn't verify, but he was right about the mountains here 🤩

Every day, we went on smaller hikes in the morning to accommodate Heidi's naps, and spent the rest of the day deeply content in our camper.

One hike took us to the Blue Eye, a super beautiful waterfall with ice cold water for swimming and a stunning natural setting.

Another one took us steeply up with a great view over the valley, then past dreamy wildflower meadows, abandoned cabins, and picturesque old trees. At the start of the descent, we were awakened by a small herd of cows being driven uphill by a family of three. Heidi suddenly said she wanted to get out of the carrier, so the descent went by quickly 😄

The afternoons seem to be good for Heidi, she's making a huge leap forward and can now sit up on her own, pull herself up to standing, and diligently practice crawling with stretched-out feet. We're fascinated by how much she can do from one day to the next 💪💪

After our relaxed afternoons, we feel compelled to take long walks in the evenings because Heidi didn't want to fall asleep easily.

Thankfully, she falls asleep in the carrier (only with Mom) and we had the rare pleasure of enjoying the beautiful evening light outside and being on the go 😁, for example, to see a 'magnificent' waterfall without any other tourists.

It was only the predicted bad weather that made us leave after 3 nights. I won't soon forget the enticing calls of the beautiful mountains and I can imagine returning when hikes can be longer again 😁