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.