Not a Fjord

Today, we take the boat. The first plan was to go with the first ferry at 9AM. We had to wait for the 11AM. Thus, we had the breakfast a little bit later, drove – we thought – to the harbour and wanted to spent the waiting time there. Wrong! You are not allowed in the waiting cue more than half an hour affront. They sent us back… to the next coffee shop. Nice view. Good coffee; a shame it came in a paper cup.

We drove back to the spot at the proper time. Seems, we had to cross a tunnel to reach the harbour, at the other site of the dam. The ferry crosses the reservoir behind the dam. It’s a 2,5 hour tour, through mountains. Reminded me a lot of fjords in Norway or New Zealand. So much beauty! So much interesting geological formations. Not much live in or at the water we could see. Downside was the rain… we did our best to enjoy the viewing deck, not getting too wet or too cold in the wind. Loved it a lot, anyway!

After we left the boat, we followed the Valbona River up to Valbone. Again, a magnificent drive. The landscape keeps you in awe!

From Valbonë, the interesting part started: finding our guesthouse for the next two nights. They don’t have addresses… a bit of a description, maybe some coördinates… Succes! The navigation, first, sent us an impossible route, aweful grabble, rocks, not levelled at all. We started to worry a bit about the car, actually. And it is a great 4×4! The next try was better. Crossing a try river bed, follow the (not understandable) hint of a local … accept for his hand guester. A bit more than 2 km a grabble road up the mountains… and there it was. Looking over the valley. A cosy place, nice people. The average age of the hikers certainly lower than our age. Breakfast and dinner, we have together. You can choose between eating … or not. No menu. No clutter. Served with mountain water.