8. Adriatic Sea to Durres (Albania) to Rreshen

Most of the folk on the boat were big fat truck drivers! I know….Roald Dahl is no longer able to use that term…but it is true! Try navigating around the restaurant at breakfast time. Stomachs so huge preventing any reasonable semblance of chairs neatly placed next to tables…and simply impossible to squeeze past!! I sometimes worry about my own belly…but not here!! 

About ten women on the boat…but otherwise..male truck drivers…with all the tucks squeezed in…in complicated jig-saw fashion. And surprising really…for a boat that goes every other day…it was jam packed full. Of trucks! Indeed a few were turned away…when the jigsaw ran out of space!

A good sleep…in a great cabin…with honestly the best shower for days (power…I mean!). The farting from the adjoining bed was something else though. And Iain thought HE needed noise-cancelling earphones! Not often we share a room. Hopefully that might be the last on this trip!! (..not sure who felt that more…..!?).

The boat arrived but ten minutes late…with a chaotic scramble to get on with the journey…

Funny thing…as we waited in (car) line for passport control…Iain espied this number plate….

…..”long way from Iceland”…or words to that effect. Ignoring the country that the ferry we had just arrived on came from…!! Reminded me of a short international trip South from Collioure…when Liz expressed surprise at the number of cars from….Estonia!! Must run in the family…..!! 

…we found sim cards and cash in town…and were on our way properly by ten!

A mixture of roads…some lovely…some plain awful! Well about 25km of awful roads…too busy…uncomfortably do…but busy enough that the speeds were not high either! With a number of interesting side trips…some Google-inspired (we were following the walking ‘track’ for no bike routes here!)…some just inspired!

But the EXTRAORDINARY thing about those busy roads…is the cars…! I am not sure how we missed it last year…but we did!…..for the cars are simply extraordinary!! Huge numbers of all-but-brand-new Mercedes..Porches…..Audis…..Range Rovers…evan a Maserati…and all in country so poor that many are prepared to cross the English Channel in a rubber ring to escape. 

And…it turns out that – an estimate of course – over 80% of the cars in Albania are stolen!! From the rest of Europe….!! So you can buy the most swept up Merc for less than ten grand!! And the police, the government…just turns a blind eye! It must save a heap of foreign exchange!!! Good luck with their attempts to join the EU though!!

We arrived in our over overnight stop in Rreshen in good time…felt like a big day!! Mountains ahead!!

And later….the procession of swept up cars continued even in this small town. Mercs…Audis….Etc……all totally unaffordable…but on display in their hundreds. Really quite funny…as long as it was not your car which was stolen!! (Apparently Mercedes set up a dealership in Albania….,but only months later…it closed again! Just far too much cheap-as-chips competition! Simply extraordinary!!)

But the town itself felt so alive!! Sunday night…and it was BUSY! Everyone out for a stroll…or a beer…. For a town with a population of only 8,00….it seemed a quarter of the population was out! Great sense of community!

Plan for an early start tomorrow…as we face a journey into the unknown really. 72kms on the “motorway”…or 140kms….on the mountain road!! Guess which way we are going!!

5 Comments

  1. Robyn

    3 more readers joining in on your exploits. I’ve shared blog with Ange & Shane 🙂 The highlight of my day signing in for the latest read! xx

  2. John Williams

    Looking good Neil. Have one for the road for me, or as they say in Albania. “një për rrugën”. (well I hope that is what it means)

  3. Liz

    What an extraordinary place!
    Definitely in Iain’s camp re romm 🤣
    ( I’m hoping mountain road btw!)

    • Liz

      Oh and apologies Bean for the genes…..add to our huge ability for procrastination 😜

  4. Shennae

    Not totally convinced about the noise coming from the ‘adjoining bed’…!

    *Reminds herself to pack her silicon earplugs*

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