Kristen
This is it. This is really it. Our last day on the Via Dinarica. You’re probably as relieved as I am.
(A joke).
(I think?).
Day 66: Thethi to Valbonë
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Tag Archives: Albania
Day 65: Liqjentës e Jezercës to Thethi via Maja e Jezercës
Callum
All things going according to plan, this should be the last blog post I write on the Via Dinarica.
We’re two days out from the finish line in Valbonë, but there’s still one lumpy obstacle between us and it: Maja e Jezercës, the biggest, baddest mountain on the Via Dinarica. At 2694 m, not only is it taller than anything we’ve climbed so far, but it’s also more difficult, typically requiring crampons and ice picks to summit – or so we’ve been told. We have none of those things, but, just maybe, if we leave early and get some good weather, we might fluke our way to the top. That’s the plan, anyway.
Day 64: Gusinje to Liqjentës e Jezercës
Kristen
It’s all a bit of a mess this morning, the main reason being that we’re not actually in Gusinje, but still in Plav. Instead of getting up early (ish) and setting off into the mountains as per usual, we wake a little later and set off on a shorter, but equally challenging mission – to the Border Police Station in Plav, to pick up our border crossing permits (attempt two).
Day 63: Lepushë to Gusinje
Callum
Four days to go!
We’re almost at the end of the Via Dinarica, but, as if to give us one final challenge, this last section of trail goes from valley to valley, climbing up and down the ridges that separate them. If you imagine that you’ve dragged a garden rake through some sand, and then an ant walks perpendicular to the furrows, you might get some sense of what this section is like. We are the ant.
So it’s pretty much a mountain a day around here.
Day 62: Rikavačko jezero to Lepushë
Kristen
At the water’s edge, we’re only a kilometre or so from the Albanian border. We’ll duck back into Montenegro in a few days because our route is fairly convoluted, but the fact remains that we’re about to enter our last country of the Via Dinarica. We’ve hiked across Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and now Montenegro is done, too. We only have five days left of walking. How on earth did that happen?
What is the Via Dinarica?
We thought some of you might be wondering what exactly it is we’re doing out here…
bushnuts 