Journey to the hidden beauty of North of Albania

This time we wanted to do a great adventure with two friends of mine, Rinor and Egzon. We met some days ago in Prishtina and talked about the meeting point and the time when we would start our adventure, everything was set and we kicked off with the 22 of June 2019. So the first day of our adventure began and we didn't knew what would happen after we got on Egzon's car...

And so on, in an early Saturday morning we gathered around 4 am in the morning and headed to Valbona Valley in the north of Albania. We were packed with heavy backpacks mine was slightly light, Rinor got tents on his back and Egzon was equipped with his cameras since he is a professional photographer his backpack was very heavy from his gears. In other words, around 7 am we arrived at Valbona Valley, it was a beautiful weather, the clear blue river was flowing through the valley so smoothly that gave us chills.

Rama's Stone Cabin

According to the weather forecast it was presumed that during that particular day to be rainy but the morning looked good and sunny and very warm, thus we parked our car and started to hike through a beautiful trail covered with pines and huge trees. In the beginning of the hike the sun started to shine and it was so hot, we were hiking through a rocky terrain, and we could see many mountains around us.  We could see on our left side the highest peak in the Accursed Mountains it was Jezerca with 2691 meters, a wonderful and gigantic mountain and some called even the queen of the Accursed mountains.

Valbona Valley National Park. 

Along the way, we could see wild strawberries, they were so beautiful and sweet to eat, so we stopped for some minutes and ate some and took some pictures as well. Just before we arrived at the mountain cabin called Stani i Rames, we stopped there and took a short brake at the shadow of a tree due to the hot weather we could not stay in the sun. Everywhere we looked the view was amazing, it had a 360 degree view of the mountains, the mountains looked colossal compared to the mountains that we have in Kosova. Afterwards we arrived at the mountain hut of Rama and we stayed there for 30 minutes, and hikers from different countries were there having fun, eating and laughing with each other and enjoying the wonderful views of our splendid mountains.

Rinor, Egzon and Me, eating breakfast.

During that time I was looking at the mountains and Rinor was talking with Rama for a possible new trail to hike and to get faster to the lakes of Jezerca and Egzon was listening quietly. Rama used to sell cold drinks and some tourist wanted some so he sold one Coca Cola can for 250 Albanian Lek, I personally thought that was a bit expensive since if we convert 250 Lek to Euros we get 2.05 Euro, anyway nothing beats the excitement when you are surrounded by nature.

The Pyramid, the border between Albania and Montenegro.

Thus, we continued our journey and walked forward into nature, from there up we didn't know were to go but we had Wikiloc and Rinor knew the trail because he was earlier on the Rosi peak. So we went to the pyramid as described from Rama, we stood there and gazed at the wonderful views of the mountains, we could see amazing peaks from the distance there were in Montenegro, they looked so spiky, and amazing, I never had seen something like that. So we chose a different trail as the one that we had on Wikiloc, this trail was unmarked and we continued hiking and every step it became more dangerous and rocks kept falling, you could see many cliffs above you that looked very remarkable and very risky to climb.

Rosi peak covered in the steamy fog.

 Our plan was to go to the mountain hut in Montenegro and from there to hike up to the Jezerca lakes, so we continued to hike through those cliffs and we got cold feet and decided to descend down through that part of the mountain and to the valley. We continued descending, even the descent was unsafe, we kept walking for couple hours and still got nowhere, we could see the mountain hut in Montenegro but it seemed impossible to get there, however we insisted to go there, we got down through a steep forest with pines, and we reached a point were we could not proceed further due to a huge cliff that we had no chance to cross it.

The three of us decided to head back to the pyramid at that point we were thirsty and hungry not to mention very tired, in such a manner we kept calm and headed back we found an unmarked trail that leaded to the pyramid that was located in the border between Albania and Montenegro. After several hours of hiking up we arrived at last at the pyramid between 5 pm and we were thirsty and Rinor was determined to continue further tomorrow to the Jezerca lakes however I was shocked what happened to us and I had no will to continue anymore, Egzon was someway in between tired and overwhelmed as well. Rinor decided to get back to Rama's cabin to get water for us and we prepared the tents, he went down for about 1 hour and came back with water and we enjoyed the sunset over the accursed mountains and went to sleep.

Jezerca Lakes

The second day.

After a long and tiresome day we woke up the next day and ate our breakfast which was oat meal with some dried grapes and drank a cup of coffee. Moreover, we packed everything we had along with our tents and kicked of to Buni i Jezerces, this time following the trail. In order to do so we had to get on the neck of the Rosi summit and descend down following the signs. Our journey lead us to the cabin called Vusanska Zastanska or also called Vuthaj Cabin (Stani i Vuthajve) in Montenegro. The trail was beautiful indeed and marked very well, you could see the markings every 50 meters.

On the side of Montenegro.

 The view was always getting better and we were getting down without noticing it due to the amazing nature that surrounded us. When we arrived at the cabin in Montenegro we proceeded further and found a spring where we could fill our bottles and ease our thirst away, during that time we saw many hikers that were heading to Rosi peak. Additionally, we had a chance to see a group of caws that were eating grass there and they were thirsty just like us, one of them had a bell on her neck that made a really relaxing sound adding the wonderful view, in other words it was second to none. Subsequently, after we rested for about 30 minutes, we grabbed our stuff and headed up to the trail that leads to the Jezerca Summit 2691, it is the highest peak in the Accursed mountains and I'm sure I mentioned it at my other story about Gjeravica.

 So we headed to the trail of Jezerca in order to go to the wonderful lakes of Buni i Jezerces. Several hours passed and we arrived there, we were tired and thirsty, however the landscape was unimaginable, out of this world, I never imagined something like that. Rinor and Egzon kept insisting to be quiet because they wanted to record that brilliant and wondrous nature. There were 6 glacier lakes that cease to be part of the northern Albania, that place is worth to visit it and stay there for a week or more. Not to mention, we even met the cameraman of the well known Czech climber Adam Ondra. We took many pictures, and gazed at the peaks that were watching over the lakes, in such a manner we stopped at the last lake and we had a perfect view of the mountain peaks in front of us. We set our tents and prepared everything, and jumped in the lake to do a quick swim, after that we prepared something to eat and later we went to sleep with a huge excitement.

The third day.

The next morning we woke up at 5:30 am and we were preparing for our return back home, we ate breakfast, we took some pictures, we enjoyed the view for as much as we could. We had to return back the same way that we came, we thought that returning back on the trail of Rosi peak would be demanding for us but when we found ourselves on the hill it didn't felt so difficult rather it felt easy. Time flew, it started to get foggy, some raindrops fell down, but we didn't believe that it would rain, so after some minutes we were near the neck of Rosi peak and it started to rain heavily, even it hailed but we couldn't stop there because we had to move further and get back. 

Montenegro's hidden gem.

Thanks to god after couple of minutes the hail and rain stopped and we were descending down and heading back at Rama's cabin. We met there his nephew and his horse, which I liked to touch the neck of his horse, the horse looked so strong and a bit sad, the nephew went down and we stood there and prepared some noodles. It didn't last long and we saw some German hikers, 4 of them, they were mid fifties, they were so friendly, the instance they came, they approached us and shucked our hands and presenting themselves, Egzon offered them some cookies. 

Happy faces!

We asked them about their journey and they responded that they finished the Peaks of the Balkan trail alone without a guide, we were about to head back and one of them gave us some chocolate and we thanked them and started to return back. After several minutes we arrived at our car and changed our wet clothes and went to drink some forest tea at a guest house called Jezerca, the owner of this guest house was Rinor's friend and we spend a good time there. After a three long days of hiking we started to go back home in the midway we went to eat at a restaurant in Bajram Curri which is called "Cakaj" and we went back to Prishtina safe and sound, and with pure joy in our hearts. Let's see what kind of adventure will be knocking at us in the future!

On the neck of Rosi peak with lots of rain.