Today will be a day of hiking in the high mountains. We will leave Valbone and cross the Valbone Pass to the village of Theth.
Valbonne Pass
We wake up so that we are ready for breakfast at 8. It's completely home-cooked. Freshly baked bread, homemade butter, honey and vegetables. There was also tea or coffee and a jug of fresh milk. So we didn't have that, because it is not recommended to drink unboiled milk here and you really don't want to risk any viruses along the way.
Valbone - Breakfest
After a hearty breakfast we pack our things, pay for accommodation and set off. The first four kilometres are on the main road and are quite boring.
Valbone
The road ends at the Fusha e Gjese Hotel, which was still under construction at the time. At the hotel there is also a starting point for this trail to Thetu, including a map and necessary information.
Hotel Fusha e Gjese
Start of the trail from the hotel Fusha e Gjese
What follows is a similarly boring, three-kilometre-long journey along an empty creek bed, which, thanks to the melting snow, must turn into a proper river in spring.
We pass through the settlement of Rragam and then the first proper climb on a fairly dirt road begins. We continue through the forest through no man's land and suddenly we come across Simoni Kafe.
Rragam
Simoni Kafe
We have a beer, some coffee and then continue our journey. We start to gain metres in height and the trees are decreasing proportionally. Finally, more interesting scenery is revealed in front of us. We come across a signpost pointing either to Theth or to Maja e Jezerces, the highest mountain in Albania. But we skip this one for time reasons and continue the serpentine climb up to the Valbona Pass. It was here that a group of Czech tourists got lost in the 1990s and their fate was never solved. And it is this story that triggered a panic at home after the publication of a memorial article on Seznam about a week ago. This event is one of the reasons why many people have avoided Albania so far. We reach the Valbona Pass at one o'clock after about four hours of walking.
The Valbonne Pass
It is quite windy in the pass, so we don't stay here much except for the view and photos and descend lower, where we have lunch. The descent to Theth is more boring than the ascent from Valbone, because there are more mature trees here and you can't see much of the valley. All in all, the descent takes us about three hours.
Theth
Unlike Valbone, here it already looks like a tourist resort. And I recommend choosing the right hotel location, as this village is quite spread out and having accommodation at the other end means you'll have to add a few extra kilometres to your legs. Although I didn't have this information, I luckily chose accommodation at the right end of the village, to the relief of us all.
Theth
Theth - Guesthouse "Gjin Thana"
We have accommodation in Guesthouse "Gjin Thana". After the whole day we take a shower and then we go to eat somewhere. According to the map, I find the first restaurant on offer and a scenario similar to yesterday unfolds, but there have been changes for the better. In addition to the steak, they also knew how to make a vegetable salad and offered Patrick cheese instead of the steak he didn't want, which was a bit of a fail, but he didn't have high expectations after yesterday. The result was cold slices of cheese. But the rest of us didn't complain and looking at our table, it looked like quite a feast.
Theth - Guesthouse "Gjin Thana"
Dinner
The problem was again with the payment, when we had to chase the supervisor again to finally pay. They forgot to bring us one fry but charged us for all three. Janet was selected to go and claim it. Only you claim something when you're a Czech in Theth and you know what happened to the previous ones :D. However, the staff were helpful. He acknowledged the mistake because we had a photo of the whole dinner and Janet returned the whole thing to us. It didn't even get lost during the night. After a hearty dinner we went back to the hostel as it was getting dark and we were not in the mood for any walks around the village. We spent the rest of the evening playing cards and went to bed quite early after today's performance. Tomorrow we'll go through Theth and go back to Shkoder.
Useful links:
Guesthouse Skender Selimaj
Other accommodation in Valbone
Guesthouse "Gjin Thana"
Other accommodation in Thethu
