Europe #14: Vlore to Saranda
February 24 – Vlore to Saranda – part 1
It was a lovely sunny day as I headed off from my luxury appartment in Vlore. Google showed three routes to Saranda and I chose the coastal route (see map in photos). The plan was to get to a little place called Dhermi where I would stay the night somewhere, then complete the journey the next day. 60 km a day didn’t seem unreasonable.
The first 20 km were nice and flat; then the road turned inland and started to rise continuously. I passed by a small park with youngsters dancing in a circle to music. Dancing in a circle seems like a common thing to do in Albania. Up ahead was a snow-capped mountain and the gradient got steeper and steeper. The road got more and more twisty and I finally had to admit defeat and get off and push. Pushing a heavy bike up very steep hills is quite painful. And this hill did not stop. It was getting late and I knew that I wouldn’t reach my goal for the day. After a few km of this I found an isolated place that offered food and I had some soup. They recommended a place to stay just up the road, so I booked in and sorted myself out. Apparently, I still had a way to go until the top of the ‘hill’. It looked like it would take me three days to get to Saranda.
February 25 – Vlore to Saranda part 2
I hoped that my legs were still working as I woke up, and to my surprise they were in reasonable shape. I had a really good omelet for breakfast (no charge) and set off. Immediately the gradients were too severe to cycle, so I was pushing again, and this went on for a few kilometres until finally I reached the top. Over the next few minutes I descended down the side of the mountain with snow-capped peaks one way and the sea view the other. It was by far the most extreme decent I’ve ever done and rivalled anything I know about in the Alps. You can pick out the zigzags in the distance on one of the photographs below. One problem for me was that being on the brakes all the time was quite painful. Of course, I was assuming that the brakes would keep functioning; its quite amazing that they coped in the circumstances. It was exhilarating and scary in equal measure. At the bottom, I called into a cafe that was shut, but they offered me soup. It was horrible. It was a sea of olive oil and I couldn’t see beneath it. I fished around and found beans in some tasteless liquid. Bland beans in olive oil.
Then it was back to the old routine of pushing up steep, seemingly endless hills, then diving down to a small village and then repeat, stopping off now and then for a coffee or a can of Coke. I passed through Dhermi, where I had originally planned to stay overnight and continued on to Himare, right down by the sea. I decided to find a place to stay there and, after eating some rather delicious meatballs, I started wandering around. The seafront was deserted. I could have found a regular half-star hotel, but for some reason I noticed a couple of women having a chat and asked them. One of them said that the other (not a word of English) had a room. She asked how much I would pay, and I gave the going rate (generous as I’d find out…). They walked me down to a ramshackle building, up some crumbling stairs and there was the room. It looked OK. They tested the toilet, which you had to flush by pulling a string in the cistern. I slept OK, not realising the challenges ahead.
February 26 – Vlore to Saranda part 3
I woke at 6am intending to give myself as much time as possible, in the light of past experience. Went to the loo, but the flush didn’t work – no water in the cistern. Taps didn’t work – no water anywhere. Switched on the light – no electricity. No worries, so I set off in similar vein to yesterday. But then it got worse. As I climbed, the wind got up and in a matter of minutes it was gale force, coming straignt at me from the south. I’ll swear that the gusts were around 60mph – I’ve never experienced wind like it. Of course, it was picking up grit from the road and sand blasting my face. This is why there are few photos from today, I didn’t want to damage the lense. There were times where I had to make an effort to cycle down hill. I was blown off the bike three times. Sometimes I had to stop pushing and just brace myself and the bike. I could see gusts approaching by their effect on trees ahead. Then I could brace. This went on for around 6 hours.
I stopped at a small restaurant, which was closed, but they did me an omelet. I asked about the buses that ran between Vlore and Saranda. Some take bikes. The next one was in 10 minutes. We flagged it down. No luck, they wouldn’t take me. Then it got worse. It started to rain. I looked at the weather forecast for Saranda – it was rain. So I dragged out all my water-proofs and put them on over everything else, said goodbye and thanks for the omelet, and rode off. The next couple of hours were not good, as you can imagine, but gradually the gradients got a little less severe and I was able to get on the saddle more. There were a couple more horrendous climbs and descents before the route took me inland a little and the weather improved. Saranda was now just around 15 km away and I arrived just before dark, had a nice chicken and chips (sorry, fries) before meeting up with Kiel and his mum who showed me to the flat. Keil (the English speaker) is a first year student in the capital Tirana, studying software engineering. Great to have someone to talk to. I’ll describe the flat and my thoughts about the journey there later.
