Albanian Lakes and Mountains
Outings from Pogradec
It was time to move on from Fushë-Krujë. This involved driving via Tirana with the caravan in tow, yikes! His Lordship did a great job though, keeping his eyes firmly on the road. And using the eyes in the back of his head to pick up on any mad manoeuvres from other drivers. Needless to say, I kept my own eyes tightly shut!
Later on though, as the road rose high above Lake Ohrid, I kept my eyes wide open. What fabulous views! We were aiming for a campsite on the far side of Pogradec, just a couple of kilometres from the North Macedonian border. It was fun and games as we negotiated our way out of town, what with Her Ladyship navigating and His Lordship refusing to believe that we were on the right road. To be fair, I found it hard to believe myself. It was single-lane road – actually, a single-lane lane would be more accurate – in appalling condition, full of pot holes. ‘But it’s the main road to Macedonia’, Himself insisted, ‘this can’t be right’. But of course it could.
And of course it was. Luckily, our campsite was an oasis in the midst of the dereliction. Just across the road from the lake, it was beautifully landscaped, impeccably kept and had a great restaurant into the bargain. I had a feeling we wouldn’t be moving on from here any time soon.
The city of Pogradec on the shores of Lake Ohrid has the usual mix of ultra-modern and shabby old apartments, office blocks and shops. The lakeside should be lovely, I thought. Well, it might have been lovely, once upon a time. Several buildings along the promenade looked like they might once have been fancy restaurants and hotels. Now they were derelict and vandalised. The beach didn’t look too inviting either. I know that the summer season wasn’t really in full swing yet, but there certainly was a lot of cleaning and tidying up to be done before the crowds descend on the place. If the crowds descend on the place…
During our first few days there, I joined His Lordship on the bike for a spin along the lake. Once we were outside Pogradec, there was a spanking new cycle path alongside the brand new road. There were even some fancy lay-bys along the way. But litter, litter all the way. How humans can defile such a beauty spot is beyond me!
Our first excursion from Pogradec by car couldn’t have been more different. Turning away from the lake and heading into the mountains, we got a real taste of rural Albania. Her Ladyship remarked that it was like being transported back to rural Ireland of the 1960s. People wearing ragged old clothes, working the fields with hand implements, travelling by donkey and cart… After all the bling of Tirana, it is hard to believe we were still in the same country.
I thought the Albanian bunkers were creepy, but the scarecrows are even creepier. There was no danger of me even thinking about stealing those cherries, not with this scaregull, I mean scarecrow, guarding over them.
The Oldies were curious about what flowers these farmworkers were harvesting. Later, we saw the flower heads spread out to dry in yards, lay-bys or simply on the side of the road. They looked to me like cornflowers. Sure enough, I later read that Albania is well-known for all kinds of dried herbal and floral remedies. Among the myriad of medicinal properties of cornflowers, they can supposedly reduce the appearance of wrinkles. I must remember to get in a few kilos for the Oldies.
Par for the course, the road soon became completely impassable and we had to return to the main Pogradec-Korçë road. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise though, as we ended up in the magnificent Prespa National Park.
When we drove down to the tiny village of Globoceni on the shores of the Great Prespa Lake, it was again as if time had stood still. The locals harvesting by hand, pushing wheelbarrows, riding donkey carts… and smiling in bemusement at Her Ladyship who was hopping around at the excitement of having spotted about twenty pelicans on the lake. For goodness sake, losing it over a few big fat, feathered fishnets. Honestly!
The road eventually turned off up the mountain and soon we had glorious panoramic views of the lake. Now this was more my cup of cornflower tea! On top of everything else, it was wonderful not to have to worry about scary Albanian drivers. Judging by the amount of dung on the road, there was more bovine, equine and asinine traffic than motorised vehicles (including His asinine Lordship’s). For once, I could truly relax and focus on the views rather than the road. I was amazed to realise that I was actually looking out at three countries at the same time. Her Ladyship was more taken by the road signage which was in three different scripts and three different languages: Albanian, Macedonian and Greek. Whatever. It was all Greek to me!
The road turned west and took us over the mountain into the Galichica National Park in North Macedonia. A crazy road with crazy hairpin bends and crazy views. Totally OTT… And, yes, over the top we found ourselves looking down onto Lake Ohrid again.
We had come full circle. The long way round.
