Sorry to all of you for the posting hiatus. Between settling in to Peshkopi (oh yeah, I was placed in Peshkopi) and starting work at the Bashkia (or town hall), I sort of neglected blogging but I am now comfortable, relaxed, and ready to get back to it. There are a number of important topics that I want to post about, mainly Peshkopi and starting my work with the tourism office, but I am going to start with a picture blog (Plog?) of a pretty exciting trip that I took last weekend.
Sometimes I think that starting a new paragraph builds suspense…
So me and some friends decided to take a 90 minute furgon north and hike Mount Korabi. Korabi is the highest mountain in Albania and the second highest in the Balkans. The peak is actually the border between Albania and Macedonia. The mountain is self stands at 9,068 feet and is roughly 6 miles from the nearby village where we stayed.
We started the hike around 7:30 in the morning to avoid any potential rain in the afternoons, which apparently is common in mountains. For the first couple of miles, we walked on a pretty wide path that gently sloped up. While a morning hike is always enjoyable, I was in rough shape and for a pretty ridiculous reason. Across the street from our hotel was a delicious cheese factory that produced various types of white cheeses (different variations of feta). So between our visit to the factory and dinner (which heavily featured items from the factory) all paired with my love for all-that-is-dairy, I was impressively dehydrated before we even started the hike. Luckily, the first leg of the hike was pretty easy and I could hydrate a bit.
We were not the only ones on the trail! Directly ahead of us for the first half hour was a herd of cows and cowboy (for lack of a better word). Sorry for the bad lighting in the pictures. I think we can all decide to blame mornings.
After a couple of miles, we split ways with the cows. While the cows stayed near the village, we moved into a rocky valley filled with streams and spontaneous pastures being grazed by sheep. The path here was barely defined; only marked by periodic symbols painted on rocks. This only added to the untouched beauty of the countryside.
Several times we had to cross streams to continue our hoke. While the streams appear ostensibly easy to cross , we never could seem to find a way across without getting wet. For the most part, we had to take off our shoes and socks and walk through the foot-deep freezing water that had only just melted a couple miles upstream. During one crossing while my hike-buddies were looking for an easy part of the stream cross, I had a thought that ever guy has and that every guy should ignore… “I can totally jump that far”.
Almost.
At least we all got a much needed break as we waited for my shoe and sock to dry.
Finally, after about 3 hours and 6 miles, we had reached snow, which is kind of a testament to the base elevation because we had not really even started to climb the mountain yet. All the work up until this point was getting from the village to the mountain. We had made some climb (everything had been uphill), but the without much grade.
This picture may be my favorite. After a particularly rigorous section of path, we found ourselves in a green pasture with sheep grazing. Not visible in the picture are the blue and yellow flowers everywhere. I wish I had taken a picture of them, they were so intensely vibrant like I had never seen before. What I like about this picture is how the sheep and pasture are juxtaposed with the harsh, snowy mountain behind them and the cloud only a hundred feet above.
The landscape at this point drastically changed. We lost the shepherds, the sheep, the streams, and life for that matter. They were replaced with rocks, gravel, and snow. Our path led us through some huge snow banks, some of which were about seven feet deep, and up some gravel routes where we had to use our hands to prevent ourselves from falling. If my hike-buddies are reading this, again I am sorry for possibly choosing the coldest, wettest, and toughest path to the summit. But hey, its not worth having if you don’t have to work for it, right?
After about 6 hours, 7 miles, and only 30 minutes before our return time (we agreed that no matter where we were, we were going to head back at 2), we reached the summit! After so much effort and struggle, the feeling of elation upon reaching the peak was amazing.
After such along morning, if was nice to turn back and head towards a nice shower, dinner, and a bed. We expected to take a nice, easy pace and enjoy our return walk. Albania is never that easy. After getting off of the mountain and back into the valley, we were walking through a herd of sheep, which is pretty cool. Unless you see a sheep dog. Sheep dogs here have a reputation as being very aggressive and most websites recommend bringing a long stick with you when you hike Korabi. Although I kept an eye out for one, I hadn’t found a decent stick all morning and I didn’t think that it would be a problem. I was wrong. As we were rounding a rock in the midst of a herd of sheep we pretty much walked right into two sheep dogs. As much as they startled us, we startled them more. They started barking and walking towards us, teeth barred. My hike buddy had the good sense to pretend to throw something at the dogs, and luckily that was enough to keep them from approaching any closer. We quickly managed to pick up a bunch of rocks and slowly back away. Unfortunately, the dogs had no interest in letting us go. They decided to closely follow us for a couple of miles. Every time they decided to get close, we threatened to throw the rocks at them. They would then back off, start barking, and slowly approach again. Thankfully, they eventually wandered off, but it was a nerve-racking couple of miles.
Overall, we covered 14 miles in about 10 hours. The hike was incredibly beautiful and I would recommend it to anybody visiting Albania. Just make sure to bring a long stick.
Reveries of a Peace Corps Volunteer 