The path to Valbona Valley

It's time to replenish our money and food supplies, so we stop in our first Albanian city: Shkodra. The city is really beautiful, reminding us of Cuba - somehow a bit majestic buildings but decayed and yet beautifully prepared, also many nice cafes and just small enough not to be long-lasting in the heat. A very nice short stop!

We continue Heidi's next sleep towards Koman Lake and then take the ferry to Valbona Valley.

On recommendation, we stay at Ledis Place as a stopover. The restaurant with free camping is located above the reservoir and invites you to have dinner with a magnificent panoramic view.

Unfortunately, Heidi has canceled her third nap for today and is tired. Luckily, there are two dogs, chickens, and doves at the meal - Heidi is like in the cinema and with all the amazement, we can eat very relaxed.

The night is the first really restless one with a lot of wind and ends early. So we start very early for our ferry. The navigation system already estimates 49 minutes for the 19 km there, probably because of the perfect road conditions. The potholes are really huge, Heidi just dozes off again. As a mom, I am very proud and think she got that from me 😄

A short drive through a very narrow and curvy tunnel and the road abruptly ends: small parking lot, two ferries, and a lot of young lads busy doing something. What we don't know, but we are not allowed on the ship yet. There is only one motorhome on it, which stayed overnight on the deck as later turns out.

When it starts, one of them takes our key and really expertly and with only a very thin distance to all walls and the floor, maneuvers our vehicle to its designated place. The key remains stuck, window open. We laugh, are very impressed, and find a place inside because it's very windy. We can go out and look later... Well, not really: the ferry fills up with backpackers who are doing the popular trek from Valbona to Theth; this ferry ride is also part of the tour.

At the end of the ferry ride, when the crowd has to walk in groups to minibusses, we are both glad to have left behind the style of traveling as a backpacker with hostel acquaintances and happily drive our vehicle off the ferry.

The drive to Valbona Valley is beautiful again and builds anticipation. At the end of the road and after driving through the valley once, I wake up Ari and say that I don't know where we should stay overnight... A wild goose chase begins: completely unable to make a decision, we drive up and down the valley 3 more times (Some of the backpackers from the ferry wave at us every time we pass by and probably think we're crazy). We look at guesthouses or campsites here and there, but nothing appeals to us and in the end, we settle for the opportunity we saw first - classic 😅

The next day, we knowingly deviate from our long-planned hike at the first opportunity and end up at a small restaurant in the side valley after a nice walk. Super nice people, delicious and cheap snack with coffee, and the 7-year-old daughter provides entertainment: she speaks fluent English, no one else in the family speaks a word (she learned from watching TV), and wants to sell us her "really cool shiny stones collection" she picked up from the ground. Today is her first day in business.

The prices range from $5 to $1000... unfortunately, we don't make a deal, even though the stones are wetted again.

Here too, we enjoy the impressive mountains mainly from below, just like in Theth, and are very happy with it 😊

During the cozy evenings with red-lit mountain ridges in the evening light and an impressive almost full moon, the idea of taking a detour to Kosovo slowly grows...