6. Durres to Berat

It was a wakeful night! Trying not to snore! Hahaha!

The boat was late arriving.

So it was not until 10.30 that we raced off the boat. First in line for immigration…so thankfully no waiting…no Icelanders to chuckle about! (…all those cars with “I” as their international plate…Iain’s surprise when we landed here last time in 2023…forgetting which country we had just left!)

But then the immigration police asked Martin for his “other” passport! His passport is so old their machines could not read it!!

Eventually they gave up….and just waved us through!

And we were off on our Albanian sojourn!

But no maps…no money…so that was our first priority! Easter day? No problem! But it was still close to midday before we were properly on our way!

Immediately, I was reminded about the extraordinary quality if the cars here! One of the very poorest countries in Europe…yet full of the highest quality cars you will see anywhere in the world. All but new top range vehicles…Mercedes and Audi, huge BMWs and Volvos, Range Rovers and Hummers! It beggars belief really! All stolen from around Europe. And smuggled past corrupt customs officers. That is the story. And I cannot believe there is an alternatively credible story. Simply mind-boggling!

We only rode around 3km….and my tyre was all but flat!! Alas! A real niggle! But we pumped it up…and with fast riding…and “heat”….it held for the day! For yes…the sun was out….and it was almost hot!

We started our day by slipping on to the motorway by mistake!! Terrifying! No hard shoulder! But shoulder-height barriers which were impossible to jump! Thankfully it was not long before we landed at a service station where there was a tiny gap in the barriers which allowed us to escape….!

…on to a service road, which we are able to follow for 30kms or so! But that too disappeared….so we found a ‘walking’ route which took us on a fairly significant detour, across busy farm land….to avoid that motorway!!

Across this extraordinary bridge…..

And a lot of mud tracks…thankfully largely dried out!

We were surprised to see a truck heading our way…..

…..not sure if they ever made it, it really looked like it was going to topple! And they had not got to the worst bits yet!

It was slow progress. Lovely..but slow!

And then the ‘motorway’ headed off to the coast at Lushnje…where we had a very late lunch…. And then at 4pm were were back on a road for the last 40kms or so.

Very pretty as we approached Berat.

And even prettier when we arrived!

A gorgeous town…a unesco site…described as “a rare example of an architectural character typical of the Ottoman period”.

It was nearly six though by the time we arrived. So it was a quick shower for me and off for welcome and well-earned ice-cold beers! And a cup of tea at our lovely wee house for Martin!

A somewhat ironical name….for two bad bikers’ accommodation!

Great Albanian platter for tea…..and two exhausted bunnies were in bed nice and early! 

It had been a big day! Indeed it felt like the big ride of yesterday…simply carried on to our big ride today! Nearly 450km over four days. We are both a bit sore and well knackered!

A rest day tomorrow! Phew!