Long driving day, due to lack of places to stop when we were ready to.
Woke up early as we gained an hour yesterday coming into Albania. Seemed to reach Sarandë very quickly and we did the coast road through so we could have a look at it. Very built up with hotels but the beach and sea looked really nice.
We’d thought this north/south road would be a fairly fast one, but although very scenic, it was narrow with lots of twists and turns. Stopped off at the castle of Pórto Palermo, after seeing coach-loads of tourists arrive. Nice sea, white pebble beach, but all around the car park was an absolute dump! Of course, you couldn’t walk around it without paying to go in, but we were already put off anyway without further draining the cash reserves. Why do they just dump stuff everywhere?
Carried on north, with the driver opting for a mountain pass rather than a tunnel. Lots of livestock around today – cows on a beach, goats, many wild horses and donkeys too.
Stopped for lunch near the top of the pass. Shame it was overcast and misty as they reckon you can see as far as Italy on a clear day. People were paragliding off the top…even a seven year old Belgian girl! Don’t think Britain’s health and safety laws would allow that!
Down the other side, we were heading towards Vlorë, where I’d got a camper stop earmarked as we knew we’d have no internet. The outskirts of Vlorë resembled a rubbish dump and some of the road surfaces could rival the UK for potholes etc.
Drove past the site to visit a monastery on a causeway a few kilometres away as we needed a walk. Billions of mosquitoes apparently appear at sunset – I’m already covered in itchy lumps so no way we were staying in that car park.
Retraced our steps to Venus Beach Bar which was taped off and closed. 🙄Just when were both really ready to stop!
Got on a bit of motorway and the only option now is behind a service station. The building blocks the road noise though so it seems ok.
