While several times larger than Montenegro, Albania is still very small so getting from north to south does not take long. That said it’s full of amazing little towns, steeped in history and some pretty stunning natural sites. It’s fair to say that we probably found more of these in the south than in the north. 

In addition to its beautiful coastal attractions ( they don’t call it the “Albanian Riviera” by accident, two inland towns in particular stand out on the itinerary of most who are exploring Albania – Berat and Gjirokaster. Berat was probably the favourite in terms of it authentic Ottoman-era architecture while Gjirokaster had the more impressive fort of the two. Both were impressive, full of tourists and one could easily enjoy getting lost in the cobble-stoned streets of their respective old towns. We certainly did ! Again and again wherever we went in Albania we were shown the most amazing hospitality, especially so in these two places. The camp hosts were extremely knowledgeable and willing to go to almost any lengths to ensure we had an enjoyable stay, but we found the same at restaurants, stores, gas stations and just anywhere we came into contact with local people. Curious, always, as to where we came from and how we liked Albania you could absolutely see these were incredibly proud folks, so grateful to be free of their recent past ( the 45 lost years ) and delighted to be back on the European travel circuit. 

From Gjirokaster our ours took us south through another national park and it’s rather unusual natural attraction, the “Blue Eye” ( named after its resemblance to a human iris). An almost two kilometre hike in from the entrance brought us to a crystal clear creek where a crowd had gathered – right there, below the observation deck was this most stunningly deep blue circle of water which looked almost surreal.

From the national park it was not far to the coast where we’d hoped to experience a couple of day on one of Albania’s top beachside towns – Hisame, Saranda and Ksamil among those vying for the distinction of being the best. Here the weather dealt us a bit of unseasonal blow depriving us of the chance to see these places at their best. We explored Saranda and Ksamil and settled on just one day and night a beautiful and somewhat secluded little beach just north of Ksamil. Despite less than ideal swimming conditions ( it being a bit of a cooler day ) the water was really warm making for a nice dip, the last one in the Adriatic for a while anyway.

With that the Greek border was only about 20kms south so we meandered down that way, this time an easy and quick crossing…😊.

Till next week…

In Case You Wondered:

Q: Has it been easy to get water, dump grey water and empty the cassette toilet everywhere ?

A: Mostly, yes, and bear in mind that we almost NEVER use commercial campgrounds ( we are fully self contained so there is usually just no need ). There’s a variety of places to get water – service stations, public parks, paid filling stations, etc, and so far we’ve found no issue locating cassette toilet style “dump” stations ( though easier in some places than others ). Here is a picture of one of the fancier cassette dump stations ( this one in Norway ):