Vaufi
Pack Dog
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2006
- Messages
- 223
- Reaction score
- 138
- Location
- Munich, the beer capital
- Bike
- BMW F700GS
The first visit to Albania in April 2008 sure made an impression on me â?? so much, that I decided to ride down again from Munich in autumn. This time Bodo, who had accompanied me in Southern Africa in 2006 for three months, joined in. Since he is riding the ADV 1150 I decided to borrow the big GS from my son, instead of riding my old snail, the R80GS ;-)
We took it easy and rode right down from Munich, across the Alps, along the beautiful Croatian coast, through Montenegro.
The coastline of Croatia gets more & more spectacular the further south you go. A few kays before the border to Montenegro is the ancient city of Dubrovnik, dating back to Venetian times.
But in those years the Venetians were busily expanding their colonies, so along the Montenegran bay of Kotor they built another fortified trading post called Kotor.
The city of Kotor:
The next day saw us riding around Lake Skutari, a border lake between Montenegro and Albania.
Although this region is very poor, nothing is too expensive for the dead
The villages are picsturesque, but very basic.
In Albania we only stopped in Skodër to get some local dollars from the ATM. Since there are usually no road signs we had to ask for the directions. An elderly man, who had served as a MIG pilot in the Albanian airforce, showed us the way. Immediately another guy pitched up giving us different directions and trying to get us to stay in the hotel. In order to emphasize his importance he whipped out a home-made business card:
We decided to believe the pilot and headed straight for the Albanian Alps. Our goal was the village of Komani below the dam wall of a lake streching for about 100 kays like a fjord into the mountains.
Travelling in these countries donâ??t ever forget your puncture repair set....
That sticks
Since the roads get worse, the further they are away from the capital of Tirana, a ferry service was installed on this lake ;-) So here we go for a 60 kay trip to the village of Fierze further in the east.
No, this wasnâ??t our ferry yet But we were trying to imagine how to load the two 1150â??s onto this small boat :eek7:
Hereâ??s our ferry. Even big trucks maneuvre around in the tiny harbour half as big as my back-yard. But it saves them a lot of time going by ferry instead of using the narrow, winding and pot-hole infested road.
Next to the engines on one side was a tiny tin shanty for Gents
and the other side one for Ladies
In the middle of nowhere you could spot some smallholdings, only accessible across the lake.
After three hrs the ferry neared Fierze and the first signs of civilisation could be seen: a road, a goat-herd
and finally the port of Fierze:
We took it easy and rode right down from Munich, across the Alps, along the beautiful Croatian coast, through Montenegro.
The coastline of Croatia gets more & more spectacular the further south you go. A few kays before the border to Montenegro is the ancient city of Dubrovnik, dating back to Venetian times.
But in those years the Venetians were busily expanding their colonies, so along the Montenegran bay of Kotor they built another fortified trading post called Kotor.
The city of Kotor:
The next day saw us riding around Lake Skutari, a border lake between Montenegro and Albania.
Although this region is very poor, nothing is too expensive for the dead
The villages are picsturesque, but very basic.
In Albania we only stopped in Skodër to get some local dollars from the ATM. Since there are usually no road signs we had to ask for the directions. An elderly man, who had served as a MIG pilot in the Albanian airforce, showed us the way. Immediately another guy pitched up giving us different directions and trying to get us to stay in the hotel. In order to emphasize his importance he whipped out a home-made business card:
We decided to believe the pilot and headed straight for the Albanian Alps. Our goal was the village of Komani below the dam wall of a lake streching for about 100 kays like a fjord into the mountains.
Travelling in these countries donâ??t ever forget your puncture repair set....
That sticks
Since the roads get worse, the further they are away from the capital of Tirana, a ferry service was installed on this lake ;-) So here we go for a 60 kay trip to the village of Fierze further in the east.
No, this wasnâ??t our ferry yet
But we were trying to imagine how to load the two 1150â??s onto this small boat :eek7:Hereâ??s our ferry. Even big trucks maneuvre around in the tiny harbour half as big as my back-yard. But it saves them a lot of time going by ferry instead of using the narrow, winding and pot-hole infested road.
Next to the engines on one side was a tiny tin shanty for Gents
and the other side one for Ladies
In the middle of nowhere you could spot some smallholdings, only accessible across the lake.
After three hrs the ferry neared Fierze and the first signs of civilisation could be seen: a road, a goat-herd
and finally the port of Fierze:
