Today we move to the mountains for three days. We will enjoy a cruise on Lake Komani and spend the rest of the day in the middle of the Albanian Alps in the village of Valbone, which is also our starting point for tomorrow's crossing to the village of Theth.
Valbone
We have to get up early, the ferry on Lake Komani leaves at 9 and it's still a long way to get there. Before we leave we hide our backpacks in the optician's office and after a short wait we get into the transport van that has just arrived for us. We are not going directly to the lake yet. We drive around the town and at the next hostels we add more tourists until the car fills up to the last seat. As I have already written that everyone knows everyone in Albania, the morning's journey is clear proof. The driver is always honking or waving hello to someone. When waiting for a fellow passenger, he or she exchanges a few words with someone on the street.
Shkoder - Our ride to the lake
When we finally leave Shkoder, we come upon a semi-dilapidated road stretching along the Drini River, which is cascading over the dam. Lake Komani is one of these dams, so it's not exactly a real lake. We have a short pee break a few kilometres before the finish and then continue to the finish.
Drini River Valley
As soon as we get going, the guy starts collecting the fare, which includes the ferry ticket. We have that, but it's booked online, so we're only paying for transportation. I'll just reiterate here that there is no need to arrange anything in advance and the locals will sort it all out for you. There is a 300 metre long narrow tunnel leading to the dock, into which other arriving minibuses pile. There's not just one company running the collection service. With so little space and so many cars, it's quite chaotic with reversing and arriving minibuses and tourists passing in between. We found out on the spot that two different companies operate ferries here, so we still need to find the right boat. Besides, there are also boats that will take you to Komanit Canyon, where the Lumi Shales spring is located. The colour of the water here, according to the photos, is a nice turquoise and you can even swim there.
Lake Komani - Harbour
We set sail on the ferry to Fierze half an hour late and have a two and a half hour cruise between the white rocks. This lake is occasionally marred by patches of floating plastic rubbish, mainly in the folds of the lake.
Komani Lake
Fierze harbour
When we arrive in Fiera, there is a bit of a complication because we cannot find our arranged transport. The problem is that unlike the start where there is one port, there are two ports and they are about 200 meters apart. Because we bought the boat on the internet, we sailed with a different company than our driver expected and so we turned up at the second port and the driver was waiting at the first, so we couldn't find each other. Eventually we found each other over the phone and reunited. On the way to Valbone, we still stopped at Bajram Curri where our driver needed to do some shopping and advised us to do the same as there was no shop in Valbone. After this break we continued to our destination. And quite a shock came. On the internet it says everywhere that Valbone is a mountain resort where infrastructure is being built in a big way. The result? It's more of a hamlet of a few houses and one hotel under construction (Grand Hotel Valbona) that was nearing completion. Note: at the time of writing (2023) the hotel is still not open. That was it in terms of tourist infrastructure, but the nature around it is awesome.
The driver will take us directly to our accommodation (Guesthouse Skender Selimaj) and there he will say goodbye to us. We check in and go looking for a restaurant to eat at. Fortunately, we find something like a restaurant across the street. Probably the only one nearby. The waiter looks a bit confused and after we ask about the menu, he tells us that they only serve steak and chips. We take what's there and after a long time our food is served. The steak is probably from local cattle that graze all over the place and the fries are likely to be home made too. All the houses around here have large gardens where something is grown besides cattle. Some entrepreneurs have turned these gardens into a camping sign. Once we finish eating, we look in vain for service. After an hour, someone gets up and goes looking for her, saying we'd like to pay. This chasing of waiters is the local color. The food is brought to you in record time, but getting paid has always been a superhuman task.
Valbone
Valbone - Lunch in a local restaurant
After a late lunch we go for a walk to the edge of the village. The driver showed us a place where you can go swimming, so we go to check it out. Along the way we come across a waste sorting station in the form of horses, who pick out containers in a style of eating what they can chew and throwing the rest next to them. Cows process waste in a similar way, so I can only imagine what the steak we had for lunch here was made of.
Valbone - In the distance Grand Hotel Valbona
Valbone - Waste sorting
At the end of the village we first encounter the legendary Hoxha bunkers. Enver Hoxha was a communist dictator who, after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, went a bit mad and paranoidly ordered the construction of some 170,000 similar bunkers scattered across Albania as a defence against a possible Soviet invasion. This brilliant idea significantly undermined the country's economy.
Valbone - Hoxha bunkers
We come to an old water mill and Ála tries to take a bath there, but the water is as cold as a pig and she won't last long. Zanet tries a little further upstream, but she can only manage a few seconds.
Valbone - Old water mill
We return back to rest for a while in our accommodation. Towards evening, everyone but me decides to give our restaurant a second chance. The result is that the service was even more pathetic than at lunch and the wait to pay was two hours. Only when they started to get up from the table to leave did the waiter come running with the bill. I'm glad I skipped it this time. We end the day with this experience and go to bed. Tomorrow we will cross the Valbonne Pass to the village of Theth.
Valbone - Finish your meal, milking and sleep
Useful links:
Ferry on Lake Komani
Guesthouse Skender Selimaj
Other accommodation in Valbone
Apartment Lika
Other accommodation in Shkoder
