Friendly Albania

We've really been enjoying our time in Albania, we've seen some great mountain views, stayed at a "homestay" in the mountains and the people are very friendly. We took a dirt track to Theth in the mountains yesterday and stayed with a family there, though the setup is more like a bunkhouse where the host cooks dinner and breakfast. The views were breathtaking there and the way of like seemed little changed, aside from the relatively minor tourist impact. The village was in a remote valley, two hours drive from the nearest tarmac and three from the nearest town.

We have headed south to Berat and battled the crazy driving to arrive just before sundown and bag a great hotel. Tomorrow we'll do some site seeing in the town and head on, perhaps to the Ionian coast.

Destination Albania

We had a great but busy day yesterday exploring the Tara gorge, which was spectacular, and its hard to believe it started from a great wild camping spot, so many great views. We rough camped next to a mobile phone mast, high above a valley in the Montenegro hills. The views were spectacular and we weren't bothering anyone up there so we were pretty calm about it as a camping spot.

Tara gorge is 1300m deep, only 300m less than the Grand Canyon and I'd hoped to do some rafting but everything is shut at this time of year. The views were jaw dropping though and we even drove down a rough track from the top to the bottom, a good day.

Today we're making a wifi stop in the capital Podgorica before heading on to Albania.

Kotor bay

A bit out of sequence, but we drove around the outside of this bay yesterday before driving up the side of the mountain for a stunning view. Montenegro again.

Tara gorge in montenegro

Waaa! The view here is so stunning it is difficult to comprehend and the picture doesn't do it justice. We spent the past few days coming down through Croatia and yesterday in Montenegro, the scenery here is all great. A day or so longer here and then onwards i think.

Island of Rab

I'm doing a few entries at once because if i use internet once it costs me 2 quid for the whole day. We've been strugglin to find open campsites recently, most closed a week or 2 ago. This has led to some great rough camping spots but a sense of unease at the end of each day. Today we found an open campsite on the Croation island of Rab so we've checked in for 2 days and the picture above is from the site. We arrived in Croatia yesterday and were in Slovenia the previous 2 days which we both enjoyed. We saw 3km of a 20km cave system, staggering in scale. We also got caught in a lot of unseasonal snow and played the smug 4x4 driver card:) After Rab we'll carry on South to the Dalmation coast.

Officially classified as a tank

We saw this tank at the side of the road and i knew exactly the picture i would take:) This was a few days ago at the Austria-Slovenia border. We also saw a sobering bunker complex that would have been manned by Austrian conscripts in the event of ww3. They wouldn't have lasted long.

Sleepy Austria

All yesterday we passed very busy areas in Austria near Innsbruck, even the valley we camped in while surrounded by mountains was pretty bustling. Today we've seen a quieter side of Austria in the south, but we covered a lot of ground and are both ready for a short day tomorrow. We hope to be in Bled, in Slovenia by lunchtime tomorrow where we intend to stay and see some sights.

Manicured Switzerland

We stayed three nights in Switzerland and saw lots of stunning alpine scenery, the rivers seemed to me to be managed, the fields were mown and the villages were picture perfect cute. It made it all slightly unreal. This morning we wake up in Austria and maybe it's the route we took but it has not been as cute as Switzerland, though they had a very helpful Toyota garage that set me up with a new wiper.

Picnic in France

We're having a tasty picnic and we'll cross into Switzerland later today. We've had a pleasant morning pottering around these forests and trails. Yesterday was a driving day which was finished off with rain and me knocking tasty dinner on the floor. Bah. The night before we met some brits at the campsite and chatted and drank into the evening.

Email time.

We found wi fi and made with the internet thing, planning our next move (Reims) and catching up on email. We're in Paris today and will go to the Eiffel Tower later, it was a bit of a pain getting in on the train but the tube is easy. Disappointed to miss the catacombs but the city it beautiful. More photo's when i get the computer back from B.

Casting off

Just leaving Newhaven now and neither of us are looking forward to the windy channel. Waves equals seasickness:( looking forward to the french wine and food though.