Albania

Day 9 202 km ( 3232 km total)
I'm currently sitting in the garden of a very nice little oasis of a guesthouse near Durres, Albania having just finished a georgeos meal & a couple of local beers, thinking I'm in Albania!

The route here was, varied here's a recap.....

I woke quite early to a strange sound outside the window, peered out and saw this!

I didnt think the water looked deep enough for that, and there was me thinking I'd found an undiscovered gem!

Anyway I got up, as I had a couple of jobs that needed my attention on the bike. I had noticed a small oil leak which would periodically drop a drip into the catalytic converter, resulting in a whifs of oily smoke at traffic lights. Turns out it was an 'oil gallery plug' that wasnt sealing properly, a little smear of silicon soon sorted that out.

The other issue presumable resulted from yesterday's little catnap, one edge of the right pannier was just touching the exhaust heat shield and would vibrate annoyingly at a certain speed. Nothing was bent & so I just loosened all the mountings, re-positioned a little & re-tightened, sorted!

So by 0830 I was feeling pretty pleased with myself & went for a walk to explore the village in the morning light. Some lovely views, & nice and quiet.

A quick cappucino and then it was time to pack the bike & get off.

The next hour or so was similar to yesterday, excellent views all along the coastal roads

 

All of a sudden we hit a queue., seemed to early to be the border but thats exactly what it was. The Montenegro-Albania border is a combined affair, so one set of guards process you out of one and into the other.

It was friendly enough but quite formal, had to produce the bike registration documents, driving licence & buy local insurance. All of this time being pestered by groups of kids & their mothers for donations of Euro.

It's always find it a bit tricky dealing with this, the kids look so hard done to its easy to give them some money, but is encouraging this behaviour in their long term interests? Of course once you have given somethimg to one, then you will have 20 more clammering for the same handout, some becoming quite insistant.

Once down the road into Albania proper it is very evident you are in a different country.

The landscape is similar but the roads, villages, cars @ locals are distinctly more 'run down'. The one remarkable thing was the sheer number of petrol statiosn en-route. No real towns, villages, industry or agriculture was visible, just petrol stations - weird!

There were also lots and lots of police checkpoints, but none of them gave us any attention.

It was only 90 minutes or so to Durres, and not a lot to see, hence the absense of photos. There was the occasional fort (?) on a hilltop, which if I had had more time would have been interesting to explore & find out more about.

Apparently the city has been occupied for some 2700 years and more recently has had quite a tumultic history through the first & second world wars and the post war years.

Based on the experience I have had in the hotel this evening, what I can say From personal experience that the Albaninas are amongst the most friendly, hospitable people I have found anywhere - not much here on this street, but really friendly people & a very welcoming atmosphere.

Food & deink was pretty good too :-)

Gëzuar! ..... Off to Greece tomorrow....