Bikepacking Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia – Part 1

Before cycling through Albania, we had no idea what to expect. People tried to warn us (probably trying to be well-meaning, but also influenced by anti-immigration sentiments in Western Europe), that we would encounter our fair share of scammers and tracksuit-wearing thugs. Guess that’s one way to summon Liam Neeson?

A bit dubious about these reviews, and still needing to wait out some time before our Schengen visa renewed, we thought we would find out for ourselves what Albania was all about.

What we ended up experiencing was a safe country that was excited to be open to the world, full of lovely, hospitable people and inquisitive, chatty children. We found some epic gravel riding and amazing campsites in the mountains, beaches and even an old submarine base!

It was also probably one of the first times in Europe that we had whole days where we felt almost completely alone. No groups of ‘oldies on e-bikes’ in these hills, that’s for sure. It gave us a chance to get back to our roots of why we love to tour, the simple pleasures of gathering wood for a camp fire, of slowly having a coffee and planning the day while the tent dries, or stopping to listen to the call to prayer from the small local mosque echo through an otherwise silent valley.

We crossed from Montenegro into Albania at the southern point of Lake Skadar and boosted our way to Shkodër.

Shkodër is a cute wee city, and the unofficial biking capital of the Balkans. Bikes rule the streets, as around 30% of locals use the “bicikleta” as everyday transport. The reason for this? Albania’s history of communism. In fact, prior to 1991, private car ownership was illegal in this country. You will struggle to find a bike that’s less than 30 years old – most of them have been passed down from this era, held together with duct tape and rust. Drivers are used to the supremacy of bikes and, as long as you are predictable on the road, they will give you space.

We quickly found what would become our local lunch spot – Puri. Oh my goodness this place was amazing, and our first introduction to CHEAP and hearty Albanian food. We ended up eating here 3 times during our brief time in Shkodër. If you ever make it there, try the “Father’s Rice”, you won’t walk away hungry.

We were booked to stay with Warmshowers legends – Chuck and Susan, a retired couple from America, who have hosted over 1000 cyclists in their home! They tell us that they have only ever declined to host one person, and they will make room on their large patio for as many people as need a place to stay. As soon as you enter their apartment, you are greeted with hundreds of ‘hand-slaps’ from cyclists on the wall – a cute wee tradition that makes you feel connected to others who have cycled a similar path. Tom and I feel grateful that our hands have now been added to the wall too.

On the second night we were at Chuck and Susan’s, they ended up hosting 8 cyclists, including Caro and Andreas (@andanotherkilometer), who are travelling the world via tandem. Tom and I both agree that they are very brave, our relationship wouldn’t survive the arguments over who was doing more pedaling than the other!

We had a communal dinner and tucked into their local wine (that they buy by the drumful) and had a great night swapping stories and comparing routes. Of course, such is cycle touring life and meeting people on the road, we were leaving one way and the others were going another. However, as we said our goodbyes, we agreed to meet up with Caro and Andreas again in Tirana.

We have been so lucky with the weather on our travels, but a stray rain day delayed our plans (and forced us to stealth camp in a building site). 

Like most of the Balkans, sadly our views from the road were lined with rubbish and discarded plastic bottles. Someone explained to us that, as Albania only started using plastic when their borders opened in 1991, there is little understanding amongst people (particularly the older generation) on the impact of plastic on the environment, and dumping rubbish in public places simply makes it “someone else’s problem” to deal with. We biked past many timid street dogs picking through whatever was strewn around.

Once in Tirana, we reunited with Caro and Andreas at a cheap apartment we had rented for the weekend. Another ex-communist capital city with all it’s concrete charm – including old bunkers right in the middle of town!

Caro had heard that the Tirana marathon was on the next day – so why don’t her and I try to sneak in and at least do the 10k? A plan was hatched to get us to the start line undetected.

We needn’t have worried. Two freeloaders were the least of the organiser’s worries, as the race start ended up being chaos. People cutting the course all over the place. We somehow finished ahead of the eventual 10k winner (??). We believe that we both finished in the top 20 females. That’s our story anyway and we are sticking to it 😛 got the medal too, that’s the most important thing. The boys performed well in their duties as cheerleaders and paparazzi. 

If I had a dollar for every time I had taken part in a marathon in a communist-or-formerly-communist country whilst on this trip, I would have 3 dollars. Which isn’t a lot but it’s still a random fact.

Someone once told us that Albania didn’t have any good gravel riding – for the next few days of riding we set out to prove them wrong. 

Our next leg of our Albanian journey was north up through the Bovilla canyon. This route choice gave us probably some of the best campsite views of our whole trip so far, up high above the Bovilla dam. 

In the morning we woke up above the clouds – so we climbed to the top of the canyon to take it all in 🤩

Looking at the map, our day into Burrel had us climbing all day, but that we would be rewarded with a 17km decent – whoopie! However, once we got to the summit and the tar seal mysteriously gave way to a 100 year old cobbled track made by Italian WW1 soldiers, we knew we were in for a long evening. We started off trying to be strategic with our line choices, carefully rolling over the large rocks and steps. However, as the sun got lower in the sky, we just started fully sending it where possible, no brakes baby ✌️. Our poor pannier bags were being launched every which way on their hinges as we bounced across the cobbles. We were just lucky that the views were 💯🔥.

We eventually arrived in Burrel in the dark (3 hours later than expected …) and found a place to camp next to a reservoir.

It was decided that, as we were so close, we may as well detour into Kosovo and Macedonia. So we headed north through Peshkopi and onto some gravel backroads (through some rather epic valleys) to Kukes. 

Kukes is the “poorest town in the Balkans” – as described by a local. We were a bit weary by this title, as we thought we might finally meet the lawless, thieving Albanians we had been warned about (but had not yet experienced ourselves). However, we had no reason to worry at all. Everyone we met was so warm and welcoming, and curious about our cycling journey. The people with the least tried to give us what they could, even if it was just an apple from their tree. 

We stayed in the only hotel in town … long abandoned since the fall of communism. Beggars can’t be choosers I guess. Just be glad you can’t smell the stale piss through the photos. We felt bad for the local teenagers, who thought they had a stealth place to smoke weed and listen to some tunes, until we came along and set up for the night …

We crossed into Kosovo and were immediately blown away by the new infrastructure. Unlike in Bosnia and Croatia, there were no signs that less than 30 years ago, this country was in the midst of war.

After a couple of days exploring delightful wee Prizren, we headed east up an awesome climb through the Sharr Mountains National Park. It was here where we first got talking to Eva and Connor (@wobbles_on_wheels), a British couple also on their own long term cycle touring journey. We grabbed beers at a little village restaurant, which we later found out had been one of the checkpoints for the transcontinental bikepacking race! As dark set in, we found a nearby field to all camp in together. 

And just like that, another awesome cycle touring friendship was formed ☺️

After a cruisy morning making breakfast and trying to gather as much warmth from the autumn sun as possible, we biked the first few kms together. We then split off to go north to the capital city Prishtina, while Eva and Connor headed south towards Macedonia. 

Our main reason for going to Prishtina was to visit the bear sanctuary. After spending all day bashing 17km from Prishtina through an old overgrown mountain bike track (thanks for that route choice Tom – anything to get us off the highways eh!), we finally made it to the sanctuary at dusk. This turned out to be awesome timing as this is when the bears are fed. 

Visiting these beautiful animals was a very sad experience. The bears have all been rescued from horrific situations, including being kept in cages as roadside attractions in Serbia and force-fed alcohol as entertainment. Many of them show the signs of psychological damage from captivity such as repetitive pacing on the same spot. It is sad that they will never be able to live free in the wild, but at least here they have large enclosures and friends to hang out with. 

A day of highway riding south had us in the land of Alexander the Great, Macedonia, in no time! ALSO – MILESTONE REACHED – 10,000km cycled on this trip!

Skopje is Macedonia’s capital city, and has so many statues it borders on kitschy. Seriously, they love their statues here – including “Warrior on a Horse” (don’t call him Alexander the Great, you’ll cause a war with Greece).

We had been keeping in contact with Eva and Connor, and figured our paths could meet up in time for the All Blacks vs England rugby match. With such high stakes on the line, we boosted the 120km down to Demir Kapija. We covered pretty much the entire length of Macedonia in a few hours, putting out all the watts.

We arrived and managed to grab some beers JUST in time for kick off. 

The All Blacks won by the way, 24 – 22 😉

Local teenagers kept us entertained at our camp spot, including teaching Eva and myself a traditional Macedonian dance and talking about life in this small, ex-communist country. People are still definitely struggling in the Balkans, and young people feel like the way to get ahead is to move abroad and earn the euros. We appreciated the entertainment, but these conversations started to get a little hazy as the night went on …

The next day, through the fog of a hangover, Tom and I had a decision to make. Do we continue south and take the most straightforward route into Greece? Or, do we divert back into Albania and carry on down the Ionian Coast?

We both felt the same on this one – we felt drawn back to Albania. To us, we hadn’t explored enough of this amazing country yet. So, back west we turned…