Bikepacking Albania – Part 3

On our final leg bikepacking through Albania, we went back to the coast and down the Albanian Riviera, made a new four-legged friend, camped at an old submarine base, and explored Sarandë during the low season.

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Back to the coast

We set off from Berat with no expectations on how far we would get that day, only knowing that we would basically be highway riding all the way to the coast. As the kilometres ticked along, we were keeping an eye out for any potential stealth camp spots. These were becoming harder to come by as the landscape opened up and became more populated. One of the disadvantages of no longer being in the mountains I suppose!

As the sun set, we pulled into a petrol station to reassess our options. An Albanian motorcyclist was worried that I looked a little cold and literally gave me the (sweat)shirt off his back. People here are so kind honestly!

We were just about to give up and ask the petrol station attendant if we could set up our tent right then and there on the forecourt, when something compelled us to just get a bit further down the road. Lo and behold, 200m down the road we stumbled upon this shell of a building in the middle of a field. Works for us!

The next morning after a slow breakfast, we biked until we saw the ocean for the first time in 6 weeks. We had now reached the “Albanian Riviera”.

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The Albanian Riviera

The southern coast of Albania is named the “Albanian Riviera” due to its stunning beaches, turquoise waters and dramatic mountain landscapes. However, the French Riviera it is not. Think less negronis in St Tropez or super yachts in Monaco, and more kebabs, cheap beer and street dogs on the white stone beaches of Sarandë.

This stretch of coast is quickly becoming a popular place for Brits and Germans to have a cheap beach holiday. Remember, some 30 years ago, Albania was completely inaccessible to the outside world, but it’s catching up quickly.

It reminds me a lot of when I worked in a resort town in Turkey many years ago – with English pubs, timeshare apartments and souvenir shops dotted next to mosques and fruit markets. The kind of place where tourists for-go seeing any real culture, with the priority being to lay on the beach for a week, consuming pints and getting an epic sunburn to take home. I can’t dog on this too much. After all, part of the reason we are taking our time cycling through the Balkans is that it is so affordable here.

In 10 years, if tourism keeps expanding, this place could resemble more well-known resort towns such as Marmaris or Remini … 😬 … and invariably prices will continue to increase with this. Hopefully most of this is going back into the local economy!

We spent the morning cycling into the town of Vlorë. Welp, if anyone’s been to a holiday town in the off-season, you know it can kinda be a bleak place to be. Grateful to not have to battle the crowds, but when everything is closed, the outdoor tables are all packed away and locals are walking the promenade in their thick winter jackets, it doesn’t exactly make you really feel like you’re visiting a coastal paradise.

All the closed beach clubs DID however present us with options for stealth camping ..

We slowly cruised along the waterfront looking for a suitable camp site, our dream spot being a closed beach club with no security and an open wifi connection …

We lucked out (after a bit of trial and error) and found a primo spot between discarded loungers and beach umbrellas on “Sunny Beach”. The name was a good omen. As the sun finally came out, we got to appreciate how inviting this place must be in summer. We set the tent up amongst the olive trees and made the most of the balmy evening.

We heard something sniffing around our camp in the night. When we woke up and unzipped the tent, we found we had the cutest new doggy friend waiting for us outside. We may have set our tent up in his patch, but he was just happy to share some of our breakfast and get in as many pats as possible.

The problem came when we had to leave. We almost became the tres amigos as doggo enthusiastically followed us out straight into traffic, so we had to throw it into the hardest gear and boost off until he gave up on catching us. It was a pretty gut-wrenching feeling, and if we decided that if we were ever to tour with a dog (as some people manage to do!), it totally would have been this lil guy.

We had other things to get on with – the top of the list being an almighty climb over Llogara National Park. A 16km climb, where the last 8km had an average of 8% gradient. There is no coastal road, this is the only way to get south from here. From sea level to over 1000 metres, via a million switchbacks. It’s a special road, and Top Gear even filmed part of one of their specials on this climb, but for us, this was just an unavoidable slog.

With all the roaming livestock on the road and the constant sound of cowbells, we pretended this was our own Queen Stage in the Tour de Balkans. Eventually we made it, lungs burning, and were greeted with some spectacular views of the whole coastline 🙌

Time to quickly layer up for the descent! Now THIS is where this road became fun –

On the way down, we caught up to another cycle tourist, Jack from Australia, who was on the home stretch of cycling from Paris to Athens. We grabbed some lunch and exchanged stories about our routes through the Balkans.

We rode together to Jack’s accommodation in Himare, and then we continued down a steep goat track to our camp site for the night – ANOTHER abandoned submarine bunker. Gotta thank dictator Enver Hoxha and his insane military spending for this one.

If I had a dollar for every time we camped at an old communist submarine base, I’d have two dollars, which isn’t a lot, but … random.

Just as we were setting up the tent for the night, a 4WD emerged out of the darkness and a couple of burly looking Albanian dudes stepped out. Despite not having a single problem with free camping in Albania, you always brace for potentially being told off or harrassed.

However, these guys could not have been nicer. They were recreational freedivers, who were taking advantage of the clear night to go fishing for squid. Tom even got offered some very fresh raw calamari from their catch (after they tried to convince him to go out into the water with them).

Our final leg through Albania had us pushing through to Sarandë, the main town on the coast and our ferry link onward to Greece. Although this day was only a 52km ride, it felt like every kilometre gained was an effort. This is probably because of our massive climb the day before, and because I was impatient to have a few rest days in Sarandë. The views through the smaller hill-top towns and submarine bases dotted around the shore were a great distraction though.

With all the weather reports saying bad weather was incoming, and eager for some downtime, we booked a cheap two bedroom apartment (€18p/n) in Sarandë for a week. Any cycle tourist will know – after cooking on a tiny cooker in the dirt, battling the elements in the cold and dark, it feels AMAZING to have an actual kitchen at your fingertips. Don’t even get me started on the washing machine …

As our photos will show – the bad weather never actually eventuated. We weren’t mad about it though, Sarandë was such a charming wee city (despite being closed down for winter). Lots of construction going on – like the rest of the coast, this place is expanding quickly with tourism. We didn’t do too many of the “touristy” things in Sarandë, and sadly it wasn’t quite warm enough to lounge on the stunning beaches in this area, but it was nice to just be grounded for a while.

We even had Jack come and stay with us for a night before he caught the ferry to Corfu. It was so nice to play host after all the kindness we have experienced from other people on this tour. This wouldn’t be the last time our paths would cross with Jack either!

Sadly, it eventually came time for us to move on from Albania and catch the ferry to Corfu, Greece.

The Balkans were just supposed to be a place for us to wait out the 90 days until our EU visa renewed. Reflecting back, this part of the world quickly became one of our favourite cycling destinations.

We were astounded with the variety of history, culture, landscapes and mountain biking in such a small geographical area. The kindness and generosity of the locals constantly surprised us, especially from those who often didn’t have that much to give. We got used to automatically waving to vehicles who were tooting at us, as they were always enthusiastically waving back (back home in New Zealand, hearing someone tooting behind you elicits a very different response …).

Yes – organised crime does exist here, but honestly, we have nothing that those guys want, and we have quickly learned that if you don’t bother people, they wont bother you.

Our assumptions of this part of the world before we came here were wrong. No one ever asked us for money. No one ever made us feel unsafe. The gravel riding was amazing. The people were so open and positive. Drivers were patient and gave us plenty of space. Albanian children are always keen to practice their English, even if that means yelling HOW ARE YOU WHERE ARE YOU FROM in a flurry as you ride past them. It feels like a region that is excited to be connected to the world, after such a long history of isolation and hardship.

So please – if you are thinking of bringing your bike to this part of the world, have a look through our photos and our route maps, and take whatever inspiration you need out of it. Contact us if you have any questions, we are always happy to help out.