The Albanian Riviera

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Leaving Gjirocaster, the Ottoman style old town, the huge castle and the stupendous views across to the mountains over the valley, we re-traced our steps south for a few kms and then headed west, into low mountains. The road was not particularly steep but it was narrow and this accentuates the gradient. It's a route that plenty of vehicles take, motorhomes included of course; they just take their time.

The road goes to a large town called Sarande and this is an Albanian holiday destination, that is clear. The place was very busy, with lots of people on the beach. We managed to find a parking space on the road above the beach and dived into a modern cafe to grab a coffee. As we were beginning to find, surprisingly due to our (incorrect )preconceptions, there was a good internet connection here. This has been the case throughout Albania.

Sarande is the day-trip target for holidaymakers to Corfu. It's only a few minutes by fast ferry from there. Indeed Corfu is very close to the Alabanian Coast and it can be seen for many kms along the coast. In 1982 we stood on Corfu and looking across at Albania, which at that time was a completely closed country, having cut off ties to Russia and subsequently China, we wondered what it must be like to live there. I remember that there was no evidence of lights at night and you couldn't see any movement. It's not the case now!

Swinging north along the coast, this is the southern end of the Riviera. It's a little like the Mani in the Peloponnese in that the mountains come right to the sea. If anything, They are more dramatic as they are steeper.

Archie's Camping in the TomTom, directed us here:

This is the view from the beach to the campsite

This is Camping Kranea, at Livadh, Himarë. The website is www.camping-kranea.com (not viewed it though). It's run by Dennis! Yes I know. Dennis! I pleaded with him to tell me his Albanian name, but Dennis it is - although it's pronounced differently of course.

It's one of three small sites along a 1km stretch of shingle beach and there's probably room for twenty motorhomes. We decided to sleep in the Landy as we didn't intend to stay more than two nights but in fact we extended to three as it was so nice. We had fitted homemade flyscreens to the two rear passenger doors, when in Stoupa. This was using flyscreen net bought off-the-roll at Katarina's supermarket, and copious amounts of duct tape ( yes!!!). We can now sleep with the windows open but still use the silver foil blackout sheets too.

This site was fairly full, with a collection of German families with pre-school kids, Austrians, Swiss and a Dutch couple, Ben and Ilsa, who are on their way to Greece, but holding-out here for definitive news on the financial situation. They are hardened Greek travellers; this year is number forty nine (49!).

There are one or two more hardened vehicles, including a Mercedees truck with a 5.8l engine and a high Iveco van.

The route most have taken to southern Albania is again a ferry, not Patra this time but Igoumenitsa. We also met James a cyclist from London. He has escaped his job and a girlfriend who wanted to settle down and he is cycling to Istanbul. This is the first phase of a journey that will then see him hop over to Hanoi and then cycle all the way back to the UK with another young women who is lined-up for the trip.

James was very matter-of-fact about what he was doing. He was about forty six days out from London and already in Albania; it seemed pretty impressive to me.

By now we had realised that there's no point shopping for food to cook in Albanian. It's cheap enough to eat and drink at the restaurants, so it was fish every night and Tirana beer or local wine. Yum!