Albania

Well I liked Albania but it was a stressful country to travel through as the roads were either non existent, fallen away or in an extreamly bad way but to top of the roads the drivers have never seen a driving test EVER. The country is extreamly beautiful but sadly has a rubbish problem whereby it is everywhere and no way of disposing of it but the people are so friendly.

Our first day in Albania we headed for the north and the lakes and mountains but after hours of driving on an aweful road we decided we must be not heading anywhere and then found a small oasis next to the lake at a small village (less then 20 houses) to camp and it was just the spot to spend 2 days chilling. One one day we walked down the road to the edge of the lake where we were told was a bar but you had to go through a 500m tunnel and only 450m of it had lights so 50m of walking blind to a beautiful mountainous setting for a beer.

Rules of the roads in Albania

*A no entry sign means feel free to drive down this road if you would like to just expect to move out the way of the oncoming cars somehow

*Blind bends means wait to over take on a straight part of the road and then when you can no longer see oncoming traffic over take the car infront at a high speed and hope for the best.

*Motorways, well if you are going in the wrong direction feel free to swing a u turn in the fast lane and head in the opposite direction and if you are a donkey or a motorbike then feel free to drive up the wrong side of the motorway but just stick slightly to the edge of the motorway.

*At the border we do not ask you to buy car insurance for Albania as it is far to much of a high risk factor and so we let you in to take your chances

*On a motorbike feel free not to wear helmets and ride 2 up with a large slate of marble between you down the middle of the road

ANYWAY WE EXPERIENCED ALL OF THE ABOVE AND MORE

At the bar in Koman by the lake we bought some of the locals a beer and sat chatting for an hour and the face on the old man when I poured sprite into my beer was a picture.

Jonny and I both said we would never drive through London yet somehow we ended up driving through Tirana the capital of Albania and wow that was scary. I was driving and making sure I didn't take out anyone or us and Jonny was shouting watch out for that car, bike, person and navigating.

One day we headed for what looked on the map to be a main road and the locals kept telling us we were heading in the right direction but we had to switch the car to 4 wheel drive and we were convinced this could not be the road and then a Mercedes benz came round the corner (yep Mercedes benz are all over Albania and some how they manage the roads).

Late one day we decided to head for the sea as we thought we would find somewhere to camp but we ended up having to drive across a river and this broken up bridge. We were not convinced about driving our car over the bridge but 2 local kids assured us this was the way cars went and after Jonny had a closer look we decided to give it a go (check out the photo and see what you think).

As tourism is not huge in Albania there are only 2 campsites and so we did end up camping wild. One night in the Mount Datji national park outside Tirana we found a place behind the trees and the other outside a farmers field on a lovely spot in the hills where I was very greatful for the portable toilet seat I had bought off ebay for £9.

We are now in Macedonia and have met some travellers of have done Albania and say oh don't go there but we enjoyed our time it just came with interesting adventures.

Our next update with be of Macedonia

Hope all well out there

Terri and Jonny