Albania: From Valbona to Tirana via Lake Komani, 17 September 2012

We went up at 3 in the morning to take the small Ferry which departs from Fierza at 06:00 in the morning and arrives in Komani at 08:50

We took the local bus called Dragoba down the lake

Some clever locals had taken a public bus and built a ship's hull around it. This is the local waterbus service that that ply the long, sinuous waters of Lake Komani.

Previously there was to big car ferries operating on the lake. As of June 2012 the car ferry is no longer running. The new highway connecting the coast with Kukes and Kosovo has made it redundant. But the small bus-boat is still running and full with passengers. The passengers aboard the Dragoba were mostly going to or from home – we made a lot of stops at tiny landings, not much more than a few rocks, so that people could jump on board or ashore or collect packages.

Lake Komani is the result of the Drini River being dammed. The steep mountains and narrow valleys ensured that the new reservoir retained the narrow shape of a river rather than that of a wide lake. Some times it looks like you are driving straight into the rocks

Lake Komani is a dammed lake, running some forty kilometers through the heart of the Dinaric alps.

As desolate as the lake seems, its shores are actually inhabited by a few hardy families. Clinging to the cliff-like sides of the mountains are tiny farms, not much more than hovels with a few square feet of plowed earth and a handful of goats.

These people, almost totally cut off from the world around them, rely on boats to get anywhere and on the ferry to bring them any supplies or mail.

From Komani we went with the minibus to Rozafa castle, a castle near the city of Shkodër, in northwestern Albania. It rises imposingly on a rocky hill, 130 metres above sea level, surrounded by the Buna and Drini rivers. Shkodër is the capital of the District of Shkodër, and is one of Albania's oldest and most historic towns, as well as an important cultural and economic centre. Due to its strategic location, the hill has been settled since antiquity. It was an Illyrian stronghold until it was captured by the Romans in 167 BC. The fortifications, as they have been preserved to date, are mostly of Venetian origin. The castle has been the site of several famous sieges, including the siege of Shkodra by the Ottomans in 1478 and the siege of Shkodra by the Montenegrins in 1912

Swallowtail, Svalehale (Papilio machaon)

Bellflower, Klokkeblomst, Campanula

View over Lake Shkodra from the Rozafa castle, a massive lake just west of Shkodra, 60% of which is in Montenegro. Lake Shkodra is in fact a former sea bay that was cut off from the Adriatic when the sea levels dropped, thousands of years ago. The lake is the largest in the Balkans at 41km long and between 370-530 square kilometres, and the lake surface varies between 5 and 10 metres above sea level depending on the season (lowest in winter). As its depth is up to 60 metres, the bottom of the lake is well below sea level, making it a so-called cryptodepression.

We had our lunch in a nice restaurant just next to the Drini River. The restaurant had its own little zoo with local mammals and birds.

Lynx

Eagle

Drini River

Albania: Valbona, 16 September 2012

The second day in the Valbona Valley we went up the river bed to where the Valbona River starts. The Valley are inhabited by three ethnic groups: - In the upper part people from the nearest village to the west: Thethi (Orthodox Christians). - In the middle part of the valley; Montenegrins (Orthodox Christians). - In the lower part of the valley to the east: Kosovo Albanians (Muslim)

View from our bedroom window

The Valbona Valley. For agricultural purposes the land has been terraced

A house in the upper part of the valley. The steep roof probably reflects the need to avoid problems due to big amounts of snow.

A happy pig on its way to the grazing together with the cows

The very start of the river before it disappears between the stones

A farm

An eagle (?)

The ruins of the school where the brothers from the farm went when they were children. Parts of the building has been swept away by the river, so there must be water above the stones some times.

On our way back we had a cup of coffee at a nice new hotel is situated where the road ends and turns into a jeep track. The owner drives this impressive Toyota LandCruiser turbodiesel. The hotel is situated at a spring. In communist times the place was popular among top communists (by then it was another building than the present).

The Toyota LandCruiser is a gift from Danida (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark)

In the late afternoon a group of 12 members of New Zealand tramping and mountaineering clubs came to the farm to stay overnight. They had crossed the mountain pass between Thethi and Valbona. In front the guides and the horses carrying their luggage.

Albania: Valbona, 15 September 2012

The first day in Valbona we were hiking to the hamlet of Kukaj and then continue on to the meadows located at 1650m of elevation where we enjoyed great views on most of the above 2000m peaks of the valley. We saw what we considered to be en eagle and a falcon. Back to house a bus full of women from Tirana arrived. They were quite noise, so the silence of the Valbona valley was broken for a while. After they came they a long walk, then they had a party with dancing and went to bed at 2 a.m., and went up at 6 a.m. to go back to Shkodra. Their dinner was freshly slaughtered goat, that we saw it being roasted nearby the forest. Bleda left to Tirana to do his study, so the next day his brother was our guide.

haystacks at the farm

And one more haystack at the hamlet of Kukaj

The hamlet of Kukaj

In the middle of the picture the highest mountain in Albania: Mount Jezerca (2 693 meter).

The path

Black birds (some kind of crow)

Forest fires happens rather often in the area, there was one 15 years ago, one 6 years ago and one this summer.

The Valbona River. A river without water – the water is below the stones that fills the river bed

Looking at the Valbona River

The Valbona River

Some women in the village preparing food

The freshly slaughtered goat from the farm is prepared for tonight’s party for the 19 women from Shkodra.