For the second of this year’s summer holidays, I decided to try something a little different: a guided group trip with Much Better Adventures, entitled the “Balkan Three Peaks Challenge”. The goal of the six-night tour was to climb the highest peaks of Albania (shared with North Macedonia), Kosovo and Montenegro.
The meeting point was in Tirana, Albania’s capital city, at lunchtime on the Sunday. I decided it would be more relaxing to get there the night before, so added onto my booking the optional extra of a hotel night on Saturday. My Ryanair flight from Stansted was scheduled at 13:15, so it didn’t require a particularly early start to drive down from Derby that morning. Although the airport processed us efficiently and we were waiting at the foot of the aircraft steps before the arriving passengers had even finished disembarking, our departure was delayed by around an hour due to staff shortages in European air traffic control. We eventually arrived in Tirana around 40 minutes late, at 17:50. It seemed unlikely I’d be able to catch the 6pm bus into the city centre but I rushed through passport control – with no queue – and ran to the bus stop to get there a minute or two before its slightly late departure – good to avoid an hour’s wait for the next bus or the expense of a taxi!
It was only a few minutes’ walk from the bus station to my accommodation at Hotel Vila 60, a pleasant place but hidden in rather a tatty courtyard. After checking in, I walked back into the city to grab some dinner at a takeaway restaurant and have a bit of a look around Skanderbeg Square in the twilight.
On Sunday morning I continued my exploration of the main city centre sights, most interestingly the ‘Pyramid of Tirana’ and the large ‘Tirana Park’ where it was actually a decent walk of several kilometres through the woods and around the lake.
I, and about half the group, met up with our guide Renis behind the opera house at 12:30 and we soon set off by minibus to the airport to collect the other half who had flown out that morning. There were 14 of us in total. From the airport, it was around a four-hour drive, initially along the toll motorway then on increasingly rough and twisty minor roads, to the small village of Radomirë. We picked up up our other guide Deni part-way. We could see Korab, our peak for the next day, from the hotel garden, and later on a beautiful sunset in the opposite direction.
We spent the evening over a vegetarian meal and getting to know each other. Deni briefed us that, due to morning thunderstorms, our only real chance of reaching the summit of Korab was to get a pre-dawn start around 4am, and try to walk quickly. Everyone was up for that so we got an early night. My sleep in a four-bed dormitory was somewhat disturbed by the heat and one of the group’s intermittent snoring!
We were up at 3:30am for a coffee, and set off with a packed breakfast by torchlight, walking in the dark for around the first hour. The route headed up through grassy pastures to a spring, where we paused for breakfast, then up rockier ground to the Korab Pass, on the border with North Macedonia. Deni set a purposeful pace (although it was comfortable for me) and discouraged long stops to maximise our chances of reaching the peak. The route was waymarked as being on the award-winning High Scardus Trail, recently set up through the work of Deni and others – something I might like to tackle in the future. A short walk north up the ridge from there brought us to the 2764m summit with a pyramidal marker and flag, and we were able to get a few photos before the cloud rolled in just seconds later!
Our descent was initially by the same route. We were accompanied some of the way by a large sheep guard-dog, finding its flock and eventually the shepherd on horseback further down. There was one fairly heavy shower of about 10 minutes, and one distant clap of thunder, but it was otherwise good weather. Towards the bottom, we varied the route a bit by dropping down to the right into a steep-sided river valley with some dramatic crags on the right.
Approximate route map: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/2730655
Front: Kevin, Calum, Jess, Sarah, Katie, Mike. Rear: Steve, me, Renis, Jussi, Deni, Becca, Claire and George.
Once back at the hotel, we had some lunch then set off on our minibus journey into Kosovo. Renis had managed to change the booking to bring the departure forward a few hours (following our very early start) which enabled us to take an extra stop for ice cream and a drink in the attractive Kosovar city of Prizren, which we learned is Deni’s hometown.
After that, we continued for about an hour to the city of Gjakova, where our home for the night was the luxurious Hotel Ҫarshia e Jupave. I shared a twin room with George. The main course at dinner was steak cooked at the table to personal taste on a super-hot stone slab – quite a spectacle!
The next day, the guides were unsure whether more storms around lunchtime would prevent us from reaching our next peak, Gjeravica. Three Land Rover Defenders picked us up in Gjakova and took us an hour or so up roads then a rough track to the small settlement at Gropa e Erenikut. The ascent followed paths across colourful blueberry-covered slopes up the Ereniku valley then traversed north onto rockier terrain below the peak.
We paused briefly for water and photos by Liqeni i Gjeravicës (Gjeravica Lake) then zigzagged up through the boulders on a fairly clear path to the saddle. Deni encouraged us to press on as the clouds were building fast. It was only a short further climb up to the summit, at 2656m the highest entirely in Kosovo (although it’s now known that one point on the North Macedonia border is a couple of metres higher). We took a few photos then headed back down to the saddle.
The route then traversed left below a craggy peak to reach a higher saddle below the peak of Gusan, then zigzagged steeply down to another lake, Liqeni i Zemrës, where we paused for food. As clouds were continuing to build, Deni opted to take the lower of the two possible routes to our guest house for the night, descending a grassy valley to the top of the remote settlement at Junicka bacija, then traversing through the forest on good tracks.
The destination, Gacaferi Guest House, was different from advertised, the itinerary recently having been updated to stay at this lovely new hostel rather than a more basic shepherd’s hut previously used. That meant we unexpectedly had hot showers, power and wifi for the night! Also unexpectedly, we arrived before the rain, and were able to watch an impressive thunderstorm a little later from the shelter of the veranda instead!
The mother of the host family prepared a delicious spread for dinner, including meatballs and cow’s lung. Deni told us about her impressive past achievements, setting up an NGO to support women after the Kosovo War. I had my first really good night’s sleep of the trip, in a four-bed room with stunning views from the windows!
Approximate route map: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/2730673
Left to right: Deni, Renis, Jess, Becca, Katie, me, Claire, Louise, Mike, George, Kevin, Calum, Sarah, Steve, Jussi, and two other hostel guests not with our group.
Wednesday’s route followed the ‘Peaks of the Balkans’ trail. We ascended through forest and pastures to reach a small peak, Trekufiri, at the point where the borders of Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro meet. This was a very popular destination, the busiest place we would visit on this tour. The views into Montenegro were particularly good with a cloud inversion in the valleys.
We continued by descending to the collection of shepherd’s huts and guest houses at Dobërdoll, where we bought drinks and had a rest for a while. The remainder of the day’s walk roughly followed the Albania – Montenegro border, initially through forests on the Albanian side with impressive views down into the UNESCO-protected Gashi Gorge. We paused in a roofed sheepfold to wait for one heavy rainstorm to pass, then again for refreshments at a friendly mountain café just before reaching the Aljuci pass, again avoiding a heavy rain shower by doing so!
Then we crossed over to the Montenegrin side for an hour or so, and finally back into Albania for the final descent from the Vranica Pass to Guest House Vita in Ҫerem. Although the day had not included a major peak, it was the longest of the trip in terms of distance, at around 24km. We quickly showered then convened for dinner in the separate dining room, followed by sampling the local spirit, raki.
Approximate route map: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/2730688
Thursday’s walk was shorter but covered the most technical terrain of the trip, on the limestone karst of the Kolata massif. From Ҫerem, we ascended through forest then pastures to reach another mountain café at a shepherd’s hut, where we purchased drinks chilling in a water trough and left the payment inside as the owners were not present. Shortly after continuing, we passed them descending to the hut having been foraging for blueberries.
It was not much further up to the Borit Pass, which Deni explained was a geological boundary between grassy / forest terrain to the north and exposed limestone karst to the south. We descended a short distance, back in Montenegro for this section, then turned left to climb up the Persllopit Pass, winding through limestone crags with a few easy scrambling steps. We passed a cave entrance from which there surprisingly emanated a very chilly breeze!
Eventually we reached the pass, and paused for lunch before continuing towards the peak on a well-marked path. The route led into a hanging valley – no glacier now but there was a terminal moraine at the front of the cirque and a small snow patch at the back. Then we made a rising traverse of the eastern slopes on some fairly exposed but technically easy ledges to reach grassier ground on the summit ridge. It was just a short final climb up to Zla Kolata, at 2535m the highest point in Montenegro. Neighbouring Kolata itself is slightly higher, but not on the border. It looked a lovely easy ridge walk to get there, but sadly it was not included on our tour.
Mist had been swirling around the summit throughout our ascent but had just about cleared by the time we arrived, and it continued to brighten while we were there, giving quite sunny views to the higher peaks to the west. There were also good views down the Persllopit Pass to the north, and into Valbonë to the south.
After a while, we set off back down to the Persllopit Pass by the same route, then descended the south side of the pass through more pastures and forest to our accommodation at Guest House Rosi in Kukaj, After dinner, we had our final expedition briefing around a bonfire in the yard. It was great that we had managed to bag all three of our target peaks, despite the fairly poor forecast the first two days, and done so without even having to walk in the rain (except for 10 minutes on day 1)! Chatting with Deni, we learned that he is in fact the chief of mountain rescue in Kosovo, as well as an international mountain guide – highly qualified indeed!
Approximate route map: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/2730695
Friday’s itinerary was much more relaxing – most of the group were glad of that with tired legs and sore feet but I would happily have set off for another mountain day! We started with a short drive down into the main Valbonë valley in a 4×4 minibus, then switching to a regular minibus for the drive on asphalt to Fierze at the top end of Lake Koman. There we boarded a vehicle ferry for a two-hour cruise along the reservoir to the dam at Koman, admiring the fjord-like scenery from the top deck.
Another bus met us in Koman to take us to the celebrated Mrizi i Zanave agritourism restaurant. After a sweltering journey in outside temperatures of around 35°C, we were glad to arrive and enjoy a slap-up lunch in the air-conditioned restaurant. It was a fixed, taster-style menu, with a wide range of delicious items to sample, all made from locally-produced, seasonal ingredients. A great way to celebrate the conclusion of a wonderful few days in the mountains!
Finally we continued to Tirana, where we stayed in the comfortable Hotel Theatro. I had again been paired with George, but he and a couple of others had booked accommodation elsewhere, so I ended up with the room to myself. I went for another stroll around the city centre before meeting up with most of the group for a final meal together – although we were not that hungry after the very big lunch a few hours before!
That just left the journey back to Derby. On Saturday morning, a taxi took me and Becca to the airport at 7:30am as we were on the same Ryanair flight. We departed on time and the drive back to Derby also went well, getting me home at around 4:30pm.
In summary, it was an excellent week in some very scenic mountains. Travelling with Much Better Adventures definitely enabled me to visit places that I probably would not have had the confidence to visit alone, and the logistical arrangements of a guided tour enabled us to tackle linear routes that would have been very difficult to arrange independently. As someone in the habit of doing substantial mountain walks back-to-back on every holiday, the “Three Peaks Challenge” was not especially challenging, particularly at the steady pace of a large group, but the days were definitely substantial enough to keep me entertained. The food was tasty and quantities suited me (generous breakfasts and dinners, and lighter lunches supplemented by personal snacks), and the accommodation was more luxurious than expected, with comfortable single beds, hot showers, electricity and wifi available every night.
It was really interesting to spend time in a place that’s culturally so different from Western Europe – different cuisine and lots of Islamic influence to the art and music. The group got on well, and worked well together in good spirits to achieve our common goal. I suspect I will return to the Balkans in the future – perhaps self-guiding with the help of a tour company’s organisation. And I’m pretty sure I will go on another MBA trip – I’d better get browsing the catalogue to find suitably challenging ones!
My full photo album can be found on Google Photos here.
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