42:24N 19:46E

 

Had the engine oil and filter changed whilst we were in Saranda by a very nice bloke called Tom who spoke perfect English having spend the previous 15 years as a bar waiter in Greece. All went smoothly until we left and had driven 10k down the road and the engine pre-heater light on the dash came on. Very strange because Sand had removed the preheater before we left. Apparently improves engine breathing. Anyway, fiddled around for ages trying different solutions before deciding it’s a false reading so forget it. Later that day, the oil level warning light also illuminates! This a lot more worrying but again v strange because the oil level was fine and the pressure good. Next day decided that Albanian oil is probably rubbish so changed it again. Still no fix despite Sand trying all sorts. So we drove into the Albanian outback over 20+ miles of very steep single track dirt and rock road, thru a pass 1675m high, with engine warning lights glowing. We need an auto electrician to sort this out!

 

Anyway forgetting that little problem for a while, after this hair raising journey we arrived at the head of the valley in this remote village of Thethi.  It was cold and wet!  There are some homestays in the town, and the little guy, Francisco (11) from one of them ran out to meet us and steered the car over the heath robinson wooden bridge, and straight to their home, standing on the running board and steering one handed.  We were worried about our truck on the bridge but it didnt collapse!   This meeting and greeting is a great trick to get customers in, but the other families in the village must hate them!  Their are 5 kids in this family – 3 boys – Francisco (11), Nicola (15) and a bigger one who was off with the sheep; and 2 girls; Pashka (20) and Sofia (18).  The 2 girls have been to school in the nearest town, Shkodra, where they stay with their mum’s parents.  But Sofia told us that Francisco has not been to school at all, “there is no school here, and no teacher , it is a problem”.  We did see a broken down looking school building, and a bit later, a chap with a Mao hat arrived with an older chap and a young boy, and they all embraced, and the Mao hat said in a Leeds accent to Francisco “are you going to come to school?”  We gathered that he is a volunteer teacher from Leeds Uni, for how long we dont know.  Interestingly, Francisco was very keen to have a look at my ukelele, but wouldnt try to play it, I think it was way out of his comfort zone and he didnt want to make a fool of himself.  He started off very charming but in the end we decided he was a pest, he had his hands into everything without asking!!

 

It was chilly so we set out for a walk in full wet weather gear, only to shed and carry all of it after 10 mins when the sun came out!  The highlight of our walk was the ruined lock-in tower, a broken down old house on top of a pinnacle of rock about 30 feet high.  The northern Albanians have a history of blood fueds between families.  If any member of a family is hurt or killed by another family, the male members of that family are honour bound to avenge the killing.  This has apparently resulted in all the male members of some families being killed.  The purpose of the lock in tower is to sit it out when things get really bad.

 

There were ancient bikeys from Czechoslovakia, and a young German called Malte, with his mum and “her friend”.  They were in Albania for a wedding.  Malte was about 23 and charming, Mum had flu and hardly said a word.  Dinner was cooked by the girls and was served outside, everyone was freezing so we sat there wrapped in blankets for a while then went to bed, and it was lights out at 10 when the generator went off.   We left early next morning to take the “short” route (two and a half hours) back to town; the slow route takes a track that takes 7 hours to do a distance of 40 miles.

 

We went on to Montenegro, a tiny country two thirds the size of Wales, which speaks Montenegrin and has the euro (although they are not in the EU).  Montenegro means black mountain.  The coastline is stunning but we landed in a campsite where the tents were`18” apart and the beach was seething.  So it was up early again to get out of there, and carry on to Croatia, hopefully to get the car electrics fixed.