Technical hitch ......

Hello everyone, I'm afraid the tablet has gone and busted, it is, as they say, no more. So my blog will have to be suspended until such time as I have a new laptop or similar device, probably purchased in Athens.

I'm updating Facebook, so if you haven't already, send me a friend request at sixtyodd Roberts, otherwise it'll be at least another week or two before updates are published here.

Laters

Albania

Hotel Onorato, Vlore, 3000ALL
A rather chilly 15 degrees

We arrived at the southern joint border crossing between Montenegro and Albania (funded by the EU) the border guard who stamped us out on the Montenegrin side simply slid our passports round his desk to the Albanian guard on the other side.  I watched as their IT systems scanned our passports with just a cursory check of our faces to make sure we were who our passports said we were.  They probably share tea funds too.

Within minutes of crossing into Albania we heard our first call to prayer.  Albania is a predominantly Muslim country but they are an incredibly tolerant society, despite, or is that because of, the 'interference' of others in their affairs.  Take a look at their history and it's astonishing they are so tolerant, it seems the world and his wife has had a go at running things in this part of the world for a long time.

It turns out (and we would have known this had we completed a bit more research, duh) that the coastal route from Shkroder to Vlore is virtually flat.  We really liked Shkroder, our first Albanian town, full of bicycles, mopeds and wild (off the leash wild) dogs, it felt chaotic, but in a good way.  Reminiscent of North Africa, or India, or anywhere where they are trying to pull themselves up by their bootlaces.  We still haven't managed to work out whether drivers have a clear idea of how roundabouts work.  Generally, it's a free for all, but somehow it all seems to work.

As we've come further south on the coast road the traffic has become heavier and faster, this being one of the main trunk roads and where most of the industry seems to be concentrated.  Apart from witnessing a gentleman get knocked off his bicycle today (a young woman who was completely oblivious to her surroundings, talking on her mobile phone ......) he was on the cycle path (yes, there are such things here) and had right of way, we haven't seen any accidents.  However, I haven't seen as many shrines on the side of the road since The Pan American Highway through South America, so they are happening we just haven't witnessed any.

On the road to Tirane we had stopped for a 5 min shoulder stretch only to hear bells from behind, yes, there he was again, Scotty, the Welshman.  So off we trotted for another coffee where we catch up on what has happened since the last time we bumped into each other, and what lay ahead.  I like that, bumping into people several hundred kilometres on .......  A few days later we would bump into 2 cyclists from Colarado, heading to Italy from Durres, and from Italy to Australia.  That was the first water-skiing instructor I've ever had the pleasure to meet!

That night I was very ill.  Not sure if I had food poisoning or a virus, but I spent 12 hours feeling very poorly.  Even when I've had dysentry and other nasties, I've never been so sick I couldn't keep fluids down.  I thought I might end up on a drip somewhere.  Fast forward 24 hrs, I was as right as ninepence.  Hydration salts, rest and plenty of water did the trick, thank goodness.

There are lots of cars in Albania and most of them are old Mercedes Benz.  To facilitate the driving of all these vehicles there are many, many petrol stations.  At points during our trip we have spotted brand, spanking new stations within 500 metres of the last glorious structure, and a mirror version on the other side of the road.  It occurred to us that these petrol stations have been designed as destination venues.  Some of them are so swanky their logos look like popular designer brands (I saw one yesterday that looked distinctly like Armani) We've come across stations with pools, casinos and spas, all of them have coffee shops and bars, some with forecourts the size of 2 football pitches.  Often, right next door is the old, dilapidated station which just stands rusting, envious of the new starlet next door.

When they're not building petrol stations they are building wedding venues and huge hotels, mainly in white and usually with some golden horses in the mix.  Biiiig hotels are the thing, and they appear to be doing very well judging by the number of high end vehicles parked outside.  Everywhere there are half built structures, often with people living on one of the floors.  Where we are at the moment there are so many half built hotels, some of which have been vandalised, it's a wonder if this place will ever look 'complete'. Work in progress I suppose, come back in 5 years and see how it's changed.

Like any burgeoning economy there are those less fortunate.  There are people who make a living out of dumpster diving, or, simply combing the side of the roads, recovering and (presumably) recycling, cans and plastic bottles.  I have seen many middle aged/elderly gentlemen wearing those boxy, suits my father and his generation would have worn in the 40s and 50s, while the young manage somehow to buy designer (or is it?) gear.  Take a glimpse behind the shiny, new and you find the tried and tested traditional.  The rubbish dumped pretty much everywhere is a complete eyesore, but what are people to do if it isn't being collected, or, there are no official places to take it?

Lola, one of our landladies in Albania, is a shining example of an enterprising woman.  I'm guessing she was in her late 60s, she had studied English, German and Italian after leaving school.  She had the whole landlady thing off to a tee.  We were greeted warmly, she demonstrated her grasp of the English language by not only speaking excellent English but writing, in longhand, our receipt, with her beautiful cursive writing.  Lovely Lola.

We are in Vlore for 2 nights and then we hit the hills.  The Llogara Pass is where we're headed, sometimes called Albania's most difficult road, whatever it is it looks spectacular.  The weather today has been rather cool and storm clouds threatened, but came to nothing.  The forecast for the next few days is good, the temperature is climbing back up to what we've been used to over the past few weeks so we're optimistic we'll have good views and won't freeze to death!

See you on the other side!

Laters

PS they love topiary here!

Almost through Montenegro

Sunday 1st October 2017
Seascape Apartments (27.5E)
Ulcinj, Montenegro

An extremely pleasant 23c

Montenegro has been an experience, but more of that later.

We arrived in Dubrovnik and eventually found our room in 'Ivan's Rooms'.  For those who haven't been to Dubrovnik, the streets are virtually straight up from the coast road and the port.  Ivan, a sweet man, well into his 80s, couldn't speak English and while I tried to explain to him my name wasn't Lukas from Germany, he just said 'lady, lady', from that I concluded that 'lady' was his wife and she would be home soon.  Lady turned out to be Elena (another one) who arrived roundabout the same time as Lukas from Germany, who it happens, had booked a room with double bed and shared balcony but had ended up in the twin with a shared terrace.  It was just the mix up I was fearing, but by now we were quite attached to the lovely balcony and its sunset.  But fair's fair, we moved.

Dubrovnik

I think we must be heathens at heart because we were not really taken with Dubrovnik.  That's not really accurate, we weren't taken with the number of tourists gawping at Dubrovnik, and of course we became part of that throng.  Our first afternoon was very hot and very sticky, our second day couldn't have been more different.  The rains came and boy did it rain, pretty much all day.  We were very grateful for the overhang at the Tommy supermarket.  We sheltered there for so long waiting for the river on the road to slow down we needed to go into the supermarket and buy some food!  The tourists were not put off visiting Dubrovnik, but now they had umbrellas.  We walked a little, found an Irish pub, had a very expensive pub lunch and then caught the bus 'home'.

Raining in Dubrovnik

Leaving Dubrovnik

Harbour, Dubrovnik

The following day we cycled out of Dubrovnik on the old road initially, until it finally met the new road, where we had to remove our bags, haul the bikes over the barrier and reassemble.  Oh, and the tricky bit, climbing on the bikes while being passed by vehicles driven by some of the worst drivers we've come across to date.  Minutes before this, while on the old road, I had been looking at a sign (in English) something about 1944 and the liberators, I didn't get much further because suddenly, from above, came an almighty crack, so loud it literally made me jump.  Thankfully, it made me jump backwards and to the left, out of the way of the rock that had become dislodged, probably due to all the rain the day before and crashed to the place where I had been standing. For the first, but not last time this trip I'm sure, I asked myself what I would have done if I had been hurt.  Remote location.  Language a problem.  BW's advice 'if you hear that noise again, just GO'.

Shortly after our dice with death we bumped into 3 touring cyclists, one from Kent, one from Wales and one from Spain.  So off we swanned to the local Konzum supermarket for coffee and a catch up.  Later that day we would find each other again, on a bit of a lonesome road; we were heading down to the sleepy cove of Molunat to camp on the beach and the 'boys' had found themselves a wild camping spot on the hill.  Had I realised it would be a very steep 3km climb back up to the road to carry on into Montenegro we may have made a different choice.

The hills had been evident for a long time but now we seemed to be engulfed by them.  The road to the Montenegran border was up and down, and very little sign of life along the way.  We were waiting for the inevitable border town to materialise but it never did.  We passed through Croatian and Montenegran borders without issue and plunged into Herceg Novi but not before turning off data roaming as neither Montenegro or Albania are covered by EU plans and £7.50 per mb is a bit steep!

First glimpse of Hercegovina Novi

Our first night was spent just the other side of HN in the first campsite you come to on the main road.  My advice, don't touch it with a barge pole.  The only good thing about it is the wildlife which inhabit this lovely wooded area.  That night my Exped mattress popped.  Imagine a lilo, with all it's channels, well the Exped is like that and one of the 'seams', the one right in the middle unfortunately, has gone, leaving a rather large hump where there used to be two small ones.  We're in touch with Exped, hoping we'll get a new one sent to Greece because I don't like the idea of going back to using Thermarest.

And so the traffic and terrain have become the thing, while the weather has been extremely pleasant.  Montenegran drivers are in a class of their own.  The buses and taxis are THE worst, never moving out to give us room and moving far too fast for anyone's good.  We made the decision not to follow the MapsMe bike routes, just far too much climbing, so we are sticking to the main road, still a lot of climbing and dealing with the traffic but we get where we're going a bit quicker.

Rooms and apartments here are very cheap; In Budvar we were accosted by a gentleman who said he had a room 'very cheap', and we began the journey through the narrow alleys to find the 'very cheap' room.  I knew immediately I wasn't going to like it, but I looked out of politeness.  It looked and smelled like the local tramp and his 3 dogs had just vacated so I just walked away.  In complete contrast, while walking away from the dump, a lovely lady beckoned us, and her English-speaking son, and said they had a room.  It was lovely and clean, we had a fridge and a little balcony and our own entrance all for the princely sum of E20.  We now know it's a E15 room, but hey.  We weren't quite so lucky with our choice of accommodation in Bar (Hostal Berlin) but that was only E13.5.

I've got a touch of sinusitis again, so we decided we would stay near the beach at Ulcinj for a couple of days.  We found a lovely little camping place, very close to the beach, but found that for another E10 a night we could get a 2 bed apt very close by.  OK, we don't NEED a 2 bed apt but that was what was up for grabs on Booking.com so we grabbed it.  The owner has just been to pick fruit from the garden and has brought us grapes, pomegranates and satsumas.  That's our breakfast sorted tomorrow morning.  The resident dog (only a puppy) keeps following me around.  I've noticed his ears are quite scabby, we're considering giving him a bath but in the long term I'm not sure we can do anything.

Tomorrow we enter Albania.  We're not sure what to expect, although we have found a couple of blogs online, one of which is quite old.  We know the terrain is mountainous, and will continue to be down into northern Greece.  I think my legs are getting used to climbing, although I am rather slow :)

Two sweaty people after the steep climb up to just before Budvar

The whole getting to Athens to obtain Indian Visas has gone by the by now.  Firstly, I have plenty of space in my passport (approx 5 empty pages) but I don't have two consecutive blank pages, which is a requirement.  Knowing how bureaucratic the Indian embassy can be I can't risk it.  Obtaining a new UK passport in Athens takes approx 4 weeks, on top of the 3 weeks to get the visa, nah.  Fly to London to do both, we considered this as an option but it's far easier to fly to Bangkok, get a 30 day visa on arrival and head straight down to Cambodia.  We will need new UK passports but that's easier to arrange when we are visiting friends in Australia.  That little word 'consecutive', honestly, who would have thought we'd have been hampered by something so trivial.

Laters