Tunnels, goats, Germans, uphills, downhills and a flat Macedonia

Hey,

In Kotor we made some friends from UK, Germany, Serbia and Australia. We shared a few beers with them on the hostel (that we didn’t stay on), and continued drinking in old town, and later on the beach as well. When we had had enough we fell asleep on a small pier while our friends went to the hostel and slept in their comfy beds. When the sun rose we woke up and spent a few hours on the hostel before it was time to hit the road again. We said goodbye to everyone and especially to Tamara, who worked at the hostel and let us hang out there and use their facilities as much as we wanted to without any charge. Thank you Tamara! Hope we can return the favour in Sweden sometime.

After leaving Kotor we had to pass through a 1,6km long tunnel, and it was the tunnel from hell. Inside it there was a slim sidewalk that was in terrible condition, so we had to really stay focused. At the same time there was this extremely high sound, sort of like the entire tunnel would blow up at any second, and it made us almost lose our minds. And then suddenly the lights went out. Pitch black. The sound was so loud we couldn’t even hear us screaming at each other, but we put on our head lamps and continued cycling, and eventually we saw the end of the tunnel. We had survived. When we got out we ended up in a storm of wind and rain so we took shelter inside a small shop along the road where we stayed for an hour before continuing. The staff seemed to enjoy our company even though they didn’t speak a word of English.

That night we slept on a dodgy camping next to the ocean. The next morning we went for a swim and then cycled 35km along the water front which was heavily trafficked. We then had to pass through a 4,5km tunnel, this one in great condition with a large sidewalk, but we only made it a kilometre into it before we got stopped by some staff that yelled at us and told us it was forbidden (which we knew), so we had to throw our bikes up on a truck, and then they drove us through that tunnel plus one more before we got dropped of on the other side, close to the city Virpazar. No charge and no talking to the police. Pheew!

We had lunch and spent the afternoon biking along lake Skadarsko Jezero. Beautiful but only uphill and downhill all the time. That night we slept on a mountain top, next to some antennas just 20km from the Albanian border. The next morning we crossed the border and biked to the crazy city Shkoder. A lot of traffic and it took us a couple of hours to find an ATM and a restaurant to eat at. We then started to bike south along the ocean, and after only a few kilometres we saw some familiar faces – the Germans from Kotor who are touring the Balkans on scoters. We talked for a bit, but we were in the middle of the sun and it felt like 50 degrees Celsius, so we said goodbye and were on our way again. The heat has been pretty OK lately but that day was incredibly warm.

In the late afternoon we biked along a river and set camp next to it, a perfect spot for an evening dip and well hid from the road. A beautiful night under the stars ended early in the morning when we got woken up by a sheppard and his 50-70 goats. A great way to wake up, and we recommend everyone to try it! Albania is both the country with most trash next to the road, but also the country with the most friendly people. Everyone wants to talk to us, and most know at least a few words in English. The Albanians seems happy, but extremely poor.

That day we continued to bike along the river. It was a sweaty day which made our biking pants soaking wet, which in turn made our buts upset, so we had to use a lot of lotion to be able to continue. We had dinner at a small place along the road where they had a bear in a cage close to our table. The bear was fed with left over food and beer.

That night we had trouble finding a place to sleep but eventually set camp next to a river close to the main road. A lot of stuff happened on the road that night, and two dogs ran by us in the middle of the night and said hello. Jonas and Christofer had something running on their heads and all to all it was perhaps the worst night so far, but also a lot of fun now in retrospect.

We continued to bike along the river and eventually ended up in Macedonia, in Debar, where we bought some cold drinks before heading south along a scenic newly paved road. And it was FLAT! Perhaps the easiest 50km so far. The road ended in Struga where we had lunch before continuing back into Albania along lake Ohridsko Ezero. The pavement was terrible, and our bikes had to take a lot of bumps before we found a camping spot close to Progadec where we ate, drank and swum before falling asleep under the stars on three sun beds.

The next day we biked 120km which took us into Greece and the city Kastoria where we are now and will be for one more day. It’s time to rest our legs and pretty much do nothing for 24 hours.

Athens is getting closer and we are a few days before schedule, so things are looking great at the moment!

/Resting bikers