It seems like the better I sleep, the more tired I am in the morning. I sleep well tonight and stand up for breakfast at 7:15. This is the second time we’re staying in the same place for two nights. Today we get a transfer to Grebaja valley from where we will do a relatively short round trail and be back in the afternoon.
The drive is not longer than 20 minutes and we pay the same entrance fee for the national park as yesterday (this is Montenegro, so everything seems more organized).
Grebaja valley was supposedly the most beautiful valley in Tito’s Yugoslavia. Today it’s in Montenegro and the moon-shaped mountain comb that we’re going to climb makes up the border to Albania. The cultures seem a little mixed here. The village we are sleeping in (Vusanje) is an Albanian village on Montenegrin grounds. Everyone is Albanian, speaks Albanian and feels Albania. But technically Albania is a few hundred meters of altitude away.
From the rangers cabin we start climbing the valley through a shady forest. We are back in the dusty dry landscape of the first days and my legs and boots are completely brown after half an hour.
I do not feel strong and happy today. I feel completely out of energy and very slow and unmotivated, even sad. Maybe it’s because the end of the trail is coming closer and the real world feels a little closer. Maybe it’s because the pain from my blisters is killing me.
I keep climbing anyhow. 1000 meters in total, to a maximum elevation of 2060 m on the summit of Taljanka peak. This location is the end of the valley, which is defined by a comb of mountains consisting of 5 peaks and passes. The path goes up on one side, over all the peaks and along the highest point of the comb and back down on the other side. The views are absolute incredible and make up for the exhaustion and pain. Sometimes I really wonder why I still like hiking so much. It is my absolute favorite activity and I am passionate about it but it seems to be inherently connected to great pain for me. I have tried all kinds of tricks, tapes, shoes and socks but my feet are just not made for walking and I sometimes hate it. Nevertheless there is no other place where I would rather be. I can only imagine how awesome this must be for people who have more robust feet.
Even though today is Sunday and we had expected many day tourists from the region, it is relatively quiet and not crowded at all. We mainly see one (probably local) family walk the whole trail with several small children, the smallest of which maybe 4 years old. Very impressive.
On the way down my emotional low is on its highpoint and I’m not even motivated enough to finish the whole trail. I take a shortcut back to the starting point and skip the last kilometer of the official trail. On this shortcut I encounter an enormous snake. Finally! I’ve been waiting for snakes since we came here. Yesterday we had seen a very interesting small one (forgot to tell you) that was light pink with dark red crosses on its back (after Googling: probably a viper), maybe 30 cm long and threatening us with a loud whistling sound after hiding in a stone wall. The one I see today is much bigger, at least 2 meters long and silverish green (after Googling : probably a Caspian whipsnake). It’s clearly a real snake, not the type I had seen last time in Albania which had turned out to actually biologically be a type of lizard without legs. Unfortunately it’s too quick to get any photographic proof.
After having some lunch under a tree, I find a bar in the small village on the bottom of the valley and get the cold Coke that I’ve been longing for since the peak.
I meet Ana and Pascual again for our transfer back to the hostel at 4.
The mood improves with dinner. We’re sharing our table with a very nice swiss girl from the group (we reunited with them today) and after trying to avoid people the whole day this feels nice again. We even have some Rhakia together and go to bed when it starts being too cold outside (so at 9). Tomorrow was going to be the hardest part of the trail and I had been quite scared to do it with my destroyed feet. Now we have organized some small transfer in the morning that will spare us the first 5 km and make it a relatively doable distance again.
