I first wake up at 6 because of the first light and a herd of sheep that walk through the front yard with their ringing bells. I decide not to get up and sleep until 8:30, which is later than I wanted. I have breakfast at the hostel with what I can still find in my backpack and head off to the Gjipe beach. The path is about 4 km long and leads first thought the olive plantations of the village and then into the coastal mountain terrain. Everything is full of very spiky bushes, mostly ilex, and my legs are completely scratched when I arrive.
For so many scratches I would have expected a quieter place but even here there are 3 bars, a camping and umbrellas and the beach is pretty full, even though it’s not as bad as yesterday. I am convinced now that on the whole Albanian coastline there is no single virgin beach left. Everything is developed for tourism (actually in the evening I was told that the German couple found one today).
Most people who are here come down with a car to the parking that is about 30 minutes walking distance from the beach, a few come by jeep, and some are brought here by boat. Trying to escape the masses, I decide to climb the rocks again and reach a spot away from the sand where nobody else is. The water is warm and turquoise and not quite as clean as yesterday because of the white sand on the ground but it refreshes me from the midday heat.
I jump in a few times, read a bit and swim a bit until I feel I had enough heat and sun for now.
This beach is connected to a river which has formed a huge canyon that leads from the top of the mountain to the sea and has no water in summer. I cross the beach again and enter the canyon which I plan to climb today. People from the hostel had already warned me that it would not be possible to walk the whole thing back to the village because it gets more and more difficult until it’s not possible to go on without climbing equipment.
I start walking through a relatively wide valley between high walls and rocky underground for 5 or 10 minutes. There are even a few tourists in flip flops who can still explore this part. Then the rocks get bigger and I need my hands sometimes to climb them or to secure myself while walking up between walls of rock or through slides formed by the water.
After 10 more minutes of walking, the first roped climbing part shows up in front of me. The landscape becomes more and more impressive and I am completely alone now. I encounter a small pond of water in a curved rock where two frogs live, lots of colorful butterflies, and even a few bats in the darker caves. I climb between 6 and 7 passages with ropes until I reach the point where I don’t know how to go on. An enormous rock closes the canyon and there are no ropes or apparent routes anymore, so I turn around.
As expected, climbing down the difficult passages is more difficult than on the way up but I make it without major problems back to the beach after 3,8km and one hour in total and just in time for a late lunch grilled fish.
As I sit in the bar for a while writing and relaxing and enjoying the shade, two German girls ask me to play some “Stadt Land Fluss” with them and we sit there until 6.
I get one last jump into the water and make my way up on the normal road towards the parking lot. Half way up, I start getting pretty bad belly cramps but I still make it and find someone to take me back up to Vuno.
Walking, it would have been almost 2 hours, but my plan had been to hitchhike anyway. Just that now, after the first lucky beginners’ mistake yesterday, I carefully select the people I want to drive with. This time it’s a very trustworthy middle-aged Italian-Albanian couple and another Albanian friend of them. I make it back to the bar where the bus will supposedly take me back to Vlore tomorrow and try asking for the time but with no success. Again, people are very unfriendly and ignorant and passive to an extent that drives me crazy. I’m getting really tired of this type of Albanians and am happy to leave the country tomorrow. Private people are so nice, but workers in restaurants, bars, tourist offices and buses have been almost all unfriendly.
Back at the hostel, I meet my German roommate who tells me about her bad hitchhiking experience of the day. She had been sexually assaulted by a guy who wanted to take her down to the beach in the morning but got away fine. It’s good to know that this nightmare for any travelling woman also exists here. As I had already decided to only travel safe from now on, nothing changes for me but it’s still shocking to hear these stories, even the mild ones.
This time there is water for the shower in the hostel, even though it only flows in a very specific position of the shower head that is not very suitable for washing yourself, but it works. I’m happy to have a proper place again tomorrow. It’s all okay to be hippie and what not but what they are offering here should cost 3€ a night maximum, because everything is a desaster.
Hoping to feel better tomorrow, I just hang around in the hostel until nighttime and talk to the people from yesterday. Thankfully, the owner of the hostel can at least tell me the estimate time for the bus tomorrow. All in all a great day with nice swimming and awesome climbing and with a not so great ending.
