Posts

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

Image
  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 en...

The stunning meadow lake of Brezovica.

Image
Hidden in the Sharr mountains there is a wonderful lake that is called Gjoli or you can call it "Meadow Lake". This beautiful lake is hidden between the hills of Brezovica with an altitude of 2173m and the Meadow peak with 2500 m. Meadow Lake. It was a really hot Saturday and we were going to Brezovica of the Sharr Mountains, from there we wanted to go hiking through the magnificent hills of Brezovica. It was 7 am and we headed off towards Ferizaj to pick up the other hikers and from there, our last stop was Hotel Molika in Brezovica.   Sharr Mountains. We were a bunch of people and you couldn't see the end of the line, with us were even a part of the Roma community. Each of them was very happy and full of joy, they played with each other, and made fun all along the way to the top. I had the chance to stay with them all of the time and it was really awesome to talk to them.  Luboten seen from Meadow Peak 2500m. Hiking up through the rocky trail...

Two magnificent turquoise lakes.

Image
Hiking Njeri as usually does beautiful hiking trips around Kosovo. In this last weekend their destination was in two stunning regions of Kosova's mountains. One of them was in Rugova mountains and the other one was in the Sharr mountains.  Thus, on Saturday they went to one of the wonderful places of Rugova mountains, they visited the stunning lake of Drelaj.  The lake during this time starts to dry out because of the summer season, the best time to visit this lake is during mid spring. Drelaj Lake  Therefore, the next day Hiking Njeri went to the beautiful mountain of Jazhince  in the Sharr mountains. And visited the wonderful lake of Jazhince and its peak Jezercki 2. The lake had plenty of water, the water was very cold due to the springs that fall on that lake.

Journey to the hidden beauty of North of Albania

Image
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 tha...

Shutman Lake gives you happiness.

Image
One of the famous sayings of John Muir which makes my heart beat faster every time I read it is " No synonym for God is so perfect as beauty. Whether as seen carving the lines of the mountains with glaciers, or gathering matter into stars, or planning the movements of water, or gardening - still all is beauty! As for mountains always calmed my soul and mind. Just like the village of Brod I never get tired visiting it, and hiking up through those wonderful trails.  This time we returned back to the beautiful village of Brod and headed towards Hotel Arxhena which is located in the foot of the mountain. Brod is part of the Sharr Mountains range and has remarkable views. Brod is part of the municipality of Dragash and is positioned in the most southern part of Kosova.  In such a manner, we headed with 16th of June of 2019 to Brod to hike up through the peak of Zllipotok and eventually to visit the stunning lake of Shutman. Many hikers packed their backpacks and prepared f...

Cloudy skies covering the beautiful Sharr mountains.

Image
As John Muir said: " Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees". It was a beautiful Sunday morning in Prishtina were we wanted to go hiking with the hiking organisation Hiking Njeri. Hence, with the 26 of May we decided to go to Gjini Beg of Dragash, this wonderful mountain is a part of the Sharr mountains and reaches its peak up to 2610 meters high and can be summited from the village of Brod and there are many different possibilities to reach that wonderful summit. Just like that one time in October of 2018 me together with two friends of mine Rinor and Abetare, we reached the summit from Qelepina Mountains and through Trapeznica until we reached the peak of Gjini Beg during the down however about this adventure I will continue to write about it some other time. As usually we start from Prishtina  at 7 am and we arrived in the village which was hidden between the hills of Sharr mountains ar...

Up and Down through the snaky way of Shtupeqi Vogel.

Image
According to Bear Grylls "A Survival Guide for Life" book, page 21. He states that "When you stand at the bottom of a mountain, you can rarely see a clear route to the top. It is too far away and the path too twisty and hidden behind obstacles". But when you finally arrive, you will see that the struggle was worthy. There is a beautiful place hidden somewhere in a high mountain in Rugova Mountains which is called Shtupeq i Vogel, to get there you have to hike through different trees and pines that covers a good distance of 8 km. However, when you get there you will be astonished by the views of that mountain that provides you. After you arrive at the fascinating mountain huts of Shtupeq you will see a long road formed like a snake with many curves that pierces through the forest. Up there in the mountain huts was a water source that we could fill our bottles. From there we could not see the mountain peak but we kept going. The summit is called Vjellak a...

The human and the mountain.

Image
It was Tuesday the second of April and I was somewhere in Fushe Kosova. Suddenly a notification came on my Facebook account which was saying "Do you want to do an adventure just only the two of us", I said "yes" even without knowing where we are going. That person was Rinor, he has a pure adventure soul. Thus, we met at a coffee in Prishtina and he told me about the plan and the destination and when the adventure would start. We were excited and in the same time intimidated. In the early morning of April the 3rd we woke up early around 6 am and met at Rinor's house during around 7 am and aimed for the bus station with a taxi. A friend of ours Adnan, gave us some Ice Axes just to have them for safety. We decided to travel with a bus to Peja, which was at 7:30 am with Pranvera Tours. We kicked of, to an unforgettable adventure where we didn't know what was going to happen and we thought "Let's see what is waiting for us". When we arrived ...