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Albania -Valbona Pass -Qafa e Valbones

velkavrh2. 05. 2022 09:17:28

With PD Iskra Kranj we had a trekking trip in Albania. We went by plane from Italy to Tirana. The first night we slept in the town of Skadar by Skadar Lake. Then we drove to Theth valley, which I'll present separately. There we slept one night and drove to Valbona valley. These are the most remote places of Albania, where Montenegro is nearby. The population here is of the Catholic faith. Winters are long. Tourism is developing. Soon above 1300 meters snow appears this time and more and more of it. In the morning we set off on a five-hour hike across the -Accursed Mountains- to Valbona Pass -Qafa e Valbones. We did 1200m ascent up and descended 950m down. Walking was a total of eight hours. At the top of the pass it was too dangerous to cross it, so we descended into the steep long gorge by rope fence - adrenaline. Of course at the start of the snow we equipped ourselves with crampons. Back we went by historical path to Ragam village. There and back they brought us with small off-road minibuses as close as possible to the starting points and saved us three hours of walking. The drive with minibuses was already adrenaline-packed - narrow rocky roads - barely drivable. Back across mountain river arms - no bridges. Now the water for crossing was just right. Ten days before we wouldn't have gotten across. We had sunny weather, wonderful views. Peaks really remind us of our Alps.