HOT SPRINGS, 4×4, and RAKI – ALBANIA ROADTRIP 🇦🇱 — Australia to Scotland by road – Episode 95

Albania is renowned for it’s easily accessible off-road trails (potentially not generally considered off-road trails by the locals, just roads). The weather forecast was looking patchy though and as a lot of the tracks we’d planned to take involved riverbeds we had to do some planning. From Gjirokaster the central highway cuts straight north to Tirania. We were faced with two options; we could hug the coast and hope for some sunshine to enjoy the ‘Albanian Rivieria’, or head inland and explore the mountains. With little to do on the coast if the weathers miserable we opted for the mountains as the rain only makes the mountains more picturesque (and muddy). We left Gjirokaster late and, against one of our main principles, drove through the narrow winding country roads into the dark. For the exact reason we choose not to drive in the night the roads were filled with shepherds herding their flocks home after a day in the paddocks so careful attention was required. Our destination was a hot spring and, like the Blue Eye, we were surprised when we arrived to see a significant amount of other overlanders. We were also surprised to see, like the Blue Eye, how they seemed to congregate in mud pits and camp on top of each other? Not content on sleeping in a mud pit we drove the 150m back out and found a nice level dry patch to ourselves. As if it was waiting for us, almost simultaneously with us finishing setting up the skies opened and it bucketed down again. Thankfully unlike previous nights it was only rain and no wind so it was actually quite relaxing.

We had found since coming back on our journey that the canvas of the tent didn’t appear to be as waterproof as previous; this could simply be a result from sitting closed for so long. We’d left it up on several occasions to try and weather it again though it wasn’t overly successful. Before leaving Gjirkokaster we hunted down and found several cans of waterproofing spray so with the sun out now and the canvas dry we gave it a quick coat.

All packed up we made the short drive down through the swimming pool size puddles and mud holes to the hot spring carpark. It was already quite busy with tourists by the time we arrived though they were predominately around the bridge and adjacent hot springs. For several hundred metres up the river there are other hot springs of varying temperatures dotted along the banks . Not too keen to get in a packed public bath we headed upstream in search of some solitude. The trek up the river is quite easy and flat with the slowest part being the wading back and forth through the water. Due to the muddy colour of the water, navigating the submerged rocks was like a minefield, as careful as we could be Jolie still found a big one and re-broke her toe. Thankfully the bright aqua waters of the final spring was enough to momentarily distract from the pain. The spring feeds from the base of an overhanging rock face in a man made pool which sits several metres above the adjacent river. The blue water contrasts drastically with the brown river water as it flows down across the rocks. We had hoped for something around 50 deg C though it felt only 30. Still an incredible backdrop to have all to ourselves.

After a quick dip we headed back to the Troopy and started our journey on the ‘shortcut’ road to the town of Berat. This is a 60km track which cuts through the Fir of Hotova NP before rejoining the main road north. In theory this 60km dirt track should be a convenient, much more interesting route than the main road which heads in the other direction. That ‘shortcut’ theory is null and void though after a few days of heavy rain. The track was rutted and in pieces, the combination of the pourus soil and rain led to water retention on the track and it was either slippery or deep mud. This coupled with the combination of narrow path and drop off made for some ‘interesting’ and very slow driving. We managed to cover roughly 30kms over 2 hours that afternoon and were forced to push on nearly past dusk in search of a campsite. The terrain didn’t accomodate many flat open areas and those that were semi reasonable were inaccessible from the road. Thankfully as the light dipped we serendipitously came across a small soggy paddock and ducked off to set up camp.

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