Target is Albania
Written by Péter Krajcsó
Photos and kayakers: Péter Krajcsó, Bojan Rusjan, Dejan Sedej
Corsica was dry
already last year, this year it seemed to be even more, so for the spring kayak
trip we choosed another destination where there was snow and rain. It was
Albania, the virgin paradise of the whitewaters.
As it is virgin it
was difficult to get information about the rivers, so I try to summarize our
experiences.
As it has to be,
once you drive so far, we tried to paddle as many rivers as we could. We made a
Montenegro-Kosovo-Albania-Montenegro round. I was already in Montenegro before,
by the Tara river in the famous Durmitor National Park. The south-west part of
the country is different. Driving by the road poorness is reflected by the
many-many unfinished and unsettled giant houses – who knows why they started to
build them – and there is quite a lot of garbage. It is continueing still in
Kosovo but there you see already some stores for high-class cars and motorbikes
while on the roads there are running old VW Golfes – you get a feeling from
where they stem. Close to the boarder there are NATO millitary forces supposed
to ensure piece but giving atmosphere of war. We didn’t spend much time in
Kosovo but I had really a paradox feeling.
For the fourth day
we arrived to Albania to the country of the bunkers. In the beginning you find
them interesting but as there are ca. 700 000 bunkers int he country (one
for every four inhabitant) your eyes quickly get used to it. We were driving around
just in the northern part of the country as it was already far enough and they
say it is nicer and less rubbishy. If I should describe it shortly I would
simply say that (the northern part of) Albania is wonderful. I could compare
its beauty to the Soča
and to the Julian Alps. Difference is that there is wild nature as it was made
by the years. There are mountains and waterfalls, the rivers are crystal clears
with opalescent blue tone, the forests are green already in April and because
of the rare population you can hardly see garbage around. (Otherwise in Albania
communal garbage collecting do not exist.) But which is really wonderful, which
you can hardly see anywhere else, are the people. They share the poorness
earsier and hold together more. They are open, friendly, unselfish and helpful.
Three times happened that evening falled when we were in some end of the world
places, three times we asked for help where we could spend the night and three
times we could do it on the spot. Once we got a whole house in a farm, once we
set up our tents behind a local bar and once in the garden of a village hall.
Even if they expected payment for this, they didn’t tell, they left it to be
our decision. Friendship and good relation is more important for them because for
help they can expect help as well. From their close environment you see that
they are hard-working people, their houses and gardens are in order. Foreign
languages they hardly speak, if every tenth speaks English or Italian maybe
German or Serbian. Albanian language is othervise like Hungarian, there is no
similarity to any other languages. But with some activity you can make out your
thoughts.
Some tips for
Albania
- Go far away from
the cities
I could not say any
good about the cities. They are ugly, busy, crowded and there is hardly
anything to see. Inside the cities the roads are in a horrible state with
unvisible and unmarked holes and gaps. Walkers, bikers and donkeys are on the
streets wherewer. Let’s do the necessary things quickly and go out to the
nature!
- Take a GPS with
yourself
As for me, I don’t
like the GPS. It ruins the enjoy of the drive and the orientation. But in
Albania it is absolutely necessary. Road signs are hardly existing, you have no
chance to get out from a city on the right way.
- Take a 4x4
The roads are
developing, soon you can get almost everywhere with 2WD, but you will be
certainly more relaxed with a high built 4x4. Not mentioning that to the really
nice places definietly do not go asphalt roads.
- Get to know local
people
Be open and honest
to them and they will be the same to you. Even though is better not to show up
your money! It is usual that in the countryside people have guns at home, but
it doesn’t mean that they want to rub the lost tourists. They simply need it
for their own safety, as you can see hardly a police outside of the cities and
the main roads, and also because of the wild animals.
- Try the local
food
For European prices
the restaurants are cheap and food is good. Lamb is typical food there, they
serve meat, cheese and sour cream from it.
- Hire a local
river guide
If you are not
sure, if you don’t like unexpected challenges or to live from day to day and if
you can afford. Outdoor Albania is one company organising all kind of activites
and its owner Gent Mati is the kayaker who paddled most of the Albanian rivers
for the first time. You can save definietly a lot of time with a guide.
Finally some
desription about the rivers one after other as we paddled on our trip. I try to
locate them, but as put ins and take outs do not exist, usually you go from
bridge to bridge, or you choose some other places where you can get to the
river. Take the classification for your own responsibility and scout from the
road as much as you can!
Morača (Montenegro) – the
river of the deep canyons
The lower is normal
section above Podgorica, class II-III with one class V must run, with 150 meter
high vertical walls. Because of the high flow we rahter skipped this rapid, and
drove further up along the river as long as we could. We found a small bridge
where the river looked already dry enough and from there we paddled down to the
roadside camp which you can definietly recognise comming from the river by the
garbage piles. It’s a beautiful section, there are some class IV-V
bouldergardens, some portages, othervise wonderful deep canyons, wertical walls
with easy water.
Zlorečica
(Montenegro)
The exit is in
Andrijevica, the minor road goes up from here on the river bank. Again we drove
up as long as we could. It is a narrow creek, sometimes you have to wach out
the trees. There was one short narrow canyon which we had to portage because of
the trunks, otherwise it is class III.
Pećka Bistrica
(Kosovo)
There are a lot of
Bistrica rivers in the Balkan countries. We were already scouting more of them
but in Kosovo the upper flow of Pećka Bistrica was finally a Bistrica which we
could also paddle. You can find it driving west from the city Peć towards
Montenegro. It was reminding me of the Restonica river from Corsica. As it is a
road-by river, you can start and finish wherewer you want. I got to know again
that looking from the road you have to add ww II to your classification. You
can see many rapids from the car but the most difficult ones will be behind the
eyes. But it is a nice river with endless class IV-V rapids. Finally one
paddled Bistrica! Close to each other two bridges are showing the end of the
upper part. The lower part already from the road looks a lot more difficult
with narrow canyons, high and sick drops.
Valbona (Albania)
The Soča of Albania! The river
and its environment as well. The gravel road starts from Bejram Curri to the
nort-west towards the village Valbona where some hotels are wating for the
tourists. Although the road is straight we succeded to get lost because of one
privat asphalt road going to a farm. Here happened that instead of getting
direction we got a whole house where we spent three nights among wonderful
local people. The road is going next to the river giving the chance for more
starting and finishing points. Starting from the village Valbona after some
warming up there is a ca. 4 km long class IV-V canyon with a lot of trees and
trunks inside. Several times we had to portage but there is a walking path on
the river right which makes it easier. After the river continues with ca. 5 km
class III, and one km class V-VI road-by section again full with trunks. Here
we quickly decided to finish before and to start next day after . Lower there
is one more canyon and a few km class III-IV section. The upper Valbona valley
finishes with a short and narrow canyon with vertical walls which is hard to
scout, so se took out before.
Fani i Vogël
(Albania)
This river is the
only one from our trip which I would not paddle again. The walley itself would
be nice but the A1 highway is crossing it many times with enermous bridges and
pillars. In the 20 kms there are about 5 class III-IV rapids, one X which is
about 30 minutes to portage, otherwise flat water.
Shala (Albania)
The only river
where 4WD is really needed and will be at least in the next 15 years. There are
some half-scheduled busses from Shkodra but we rather rented a taxi. We thought
in the beginning that our driver made the business of the year with us but
during the way we saw that he didn’t. 30 kms we made in three hours, from a few
hundred meters we drove up to 1300 and down again. Of course time stops where
you can get like this in 2012, so no wonder that you feel arriving to Africa.
We set up our tents in Breg Lumi, in a small village close to the end of the upper
Shala. Here I understood what is the difference if they say for a river class V
or class V-VI. Because the first two kms of the upper part is class V-VI with a
lot of siphons. I was walking about the same as paddling, but after it was a
relieve to paddle down on class III-IV to the village. Next day we went further
to the lower section. We knew that there is 6 km wild and 14 km flat water to
the take out. For me these 6 kms were one of the most enjoyable paddling ever.
Long class IV rapids, easier than the rivers before, but not too easy to be
boring or unchallenging. True relaxing paddling with wonderful surrondings. Not
like the next 14 kms. Surrondings still beautiful, flatwater still ok, but we
got crazy because of the wind and the waves. With the short flat-bottomed white
water kayaks it was impossible to keep going straight. We knew that there is
one village in between, we planned to rent a taxiboat but we didn’t counted
that we are in Albania. In the village there was only one boat but without
petrol. We started further disappointed but with smashing luck we met some
fishermen who drove us to the dam. It is possible, so for next time I would
organise a water taxi before.
Kir (Albania)
Towards north-east
from Shkodra through the valley of the Kir goes the road to the Shala. We
paddled the upper Kir as well but the enjoy on the river is not in ration with
the difficulty of the transport. So next time I would start from the village
Prekal where the asphalt road finishes. With its low canyons and with the
crystal clear water I could compare the lower Kir to the Koritnica. There is
quite a lot of flat water but there are from the beginning to the end some nice
class IV-V rapids surprisingly where you would not expect any more. There are
some portages, but all of them are scoutable and easy to walk.
Tara (Monetegro)
On the way back
home we paddled the lower Tara as well, just in the right time. After the rains
and the melting snow we had about 100 m3 water. Rocks were hardly above the
water, just huge and long wavetrains. Beautiful finishing of our trip.
I enjoyed your article. Your descriptions were precise and detailed enough that I felt I could go there and avoid trouble. When you said the water was opalescent I could just picture it.
ReplyDeleteNice writting .....nice job.....great adventure.
Barry Klaas
Hi
ReplyDeleteI have some questions on Al;bania whitewater rivers. Please contact me at gorenburgleo@gmail.com