The Peaks of the Balkans: top destination for foreign and local adventure lovers.

 

The Peaks of the Balkans is a hiking trail that covers three countries, Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania. This trail attracs many tourists that are in love with hiking and want to see new places, meet new people and see different cultures. Not only that they seek the beautiful sceneries but also get to know the culture of the people that live in these majestic mountains.

Undoubtedly, staying in nature is a wonderful thing, however if you would have to stay for 8 days, without a doubt, that's when the magic kicks in. We were for 8 days in the most beautiful parts of the accursed mountains together with people who later not only became friends with us but also we created a bond that we would never forget. Outdoor Kosova organized a training for future guides in the peaks of the balkans, our intructors were amazing and had professional attributes, they always kept teaching us new things. Our training instructurs were Fatos Katallozi and Mentor Bojku they both did an amazing job and enjoyed every moment with us, we learned from them alot as well they did it vice versa.

We were doing a wonderful 8 day adventure through the peaks of the balkans which was amazing. Our first day started from Reka e Allages, particularly from Ariu Guesthouse in Pepaj. The hosts where amazing, a lovely couple Mustafa and Fetije, we stayed there and did some icebreaking speeches about ourselves.

The Peaks of the Balkans training elapsed from 21-28th june.

Day 2

On the second day, after we stretched out and had prepared our equipment, we ate breakfast and got ready to start the Peaks of the Balkans. The hike started from "Ariu Guesthouse" and this trail gets you near the peak of Hajla and if you want even you can climb it as well. We just did a traverse near Hajla and went to Fatos Lajci's mountain hut which is located at the foot of the Hajla peak. 

In addition, this trail has 13.5 km (8miles). The elevation gain goes up to 700m. The total time of this hiking was 07:08h. On this day we learned how to perform with the tourists, check the rooms at the guesthouses, check the bags if every bag has arrived on time and much more. Without a doubt, we had an amazing hike I had the chance to do the Guiding together with Mentor. After we arrived at the Guest House "Shqiponja" we had an amazing evening with the people out there.

Day 3 Liqenat - Babino Polje

Our next goal was to hike from Liqenat through Jelenku pass and go down to Babino Polje in Montenegro. I also have written about Babino Polje in my previous post, make sure to read it because it was an amazing adventure.

 Back on track, we woke up around 7AM and around 9AM we went to the location where we had to start the hike, from there we followed the trail that leads to the big lake of Liqenat and 30 min away there is another beautiful turquoise lake which is called Drelaj Lake. 

After a while, we went to Liqenat Lake and there we had a short snack break, we also did beforehand water breaks.

 

As soon as, we reached the lake, Rinor and I went for a cold chilly swim in this majestic glacier lake. From here we had to go up through the Shkodra Valley and up to the Jelenku pass. Lugu i Shkodres derived its name by people who used to carry they food with horses and donkeys many years before.

 

Why is this valley named after the city of Shkodra which is in Albania and is very far away?

According to Fatos "The citizens of Shkodra long before where roads where difficult to access they used these goat mountain paths that leaded them from Shkodra to Peja. There is a pass named after Peja which is just above Theth, this is a symbol of both cities that used to exchange foods and stock whatever they had".

Henceforth, reaching the Jelenku pass, we had a wonderful view in front of us, and had the chance to see the gigantic Mariash which was touching the clouds. Indeed, Mariash was beautiful but we did not had a clue what we were going to see in a few days. On the other hand, our group members, they enjoyed this trail to the fullest.

 This hike was going to be around 9 hours and we were enjoying it. The distance of this hike was 16.30km one way, with an elevation gain of 950m.

Day 4 Vuthaj - Theth

Later on, after Enko from Babino Polje drived us with his 4x4 vehicle to Vuthaj and eventually to our starting point, the weather was hazy and the temperatures were very warm. We had an amazing day, the trail was very easy, we stopped and had water breaks frequently. This is one of the most beautiful passes which reaches about 1750m and has an elevation gain of 500m. From Vuthaj to Theth you have to go through Peja pass first, which has an amazing view. The most spectacular view comes when you are near the pass and you can see Arapi peak in the accursed mountains.

In addition, after we arrived at Peja Pass we had a lunch break, after we finished our lunch break we slowly started to descend down to the amazing Theth, we hiked 10 km in one way and had to use another 4x4 vehicle in order to reach Theth, we wanted to spare extra 3km and decided to go faster. We got stayed at Rupa Guest House, we had there an amazing time and did some yoga inside the yard of Theth's Church. 

We had an amazing dinner and had a wonderful time there, the people in Theth are incredible, we went and visited other guesthouses, I would recommend everyone to visit this amazing place.

In addition to this, the next morning after we ate breakfast we continued our hike to Valbona Valley as it was planed.

Day 5 Theth - Valbona Valley

Day after days, we were hiking, we were having fun, eventhough we got tired sometimes but it was worthy. So on the 5th day we went from Theth to Valbona Valley. This hike is one of the most famoes hikes in the Peaks of the Balkans, almost every visitor who comes to albania wants to hike this trail, becuase of its stunnishing views that this trail provides, hikers all around the world come and climb up to the Valbona pass and see the amazing spiky peaks of Valbona.

In Valbona, we slept at Kol Gjoni Guesthouse and had almost the same vibes as the previous days. However, everytime we went to a different guesthouse the views changed too, this time we saw some wonderful peaks that I could not resist to capture them.

Day 6 Cerem - Doberdol 

On the 6th day we had to hike from Cerem to a remote mountains hut village that is located very deep in the accursed mountains, this place doesn't even have electricity, they provide the energy through solar panals, very favorable to nature as well. In order to reach this amazing place you have to hike from Cerem for about 16km and 950m elevation gain in order to reach the picturesque Doberdol.

Day 7 Doberdol - Milishefc

The previous night we had so much fun, we kept talking about our experiences of our past days away from the people and the city. We started around 9am to hike and got near the top of Trekufini or Tromeda 2300, this peak separetes Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo. After we climbed the peak and took some snack breaks there and had some pictures we started to descend down through the ridge and eventually arrived at Roshkodol. Later on, after finishing around 18km and 1000 meters of elevation gain we arrived at the Guest House Lojza with the host Zeki, a very funny person. This hiked marked our last hike of this trip becuase the next day we had to descend down from milishefc to Peja with an 4x4 Jeep. Overall, in this hiking trip, I learned alot from Fatos and Mentor, they always were observing our behavior and in the meantime they were having fun with us together. I hope we could do this peaks of the balkans again with them some day.

To anyone who hasn't done it yet, I recommend you to get your backpack and get going.