Losing the Spark for a Second While Bikepacking in Albania 🇦🇱

Our first days cycling through Albania came with that early new-country excitement. Fresh views, new roads, and the feeling of exploring somewhere completely different. We also dealt with a few flat tires and some busy main roads, but that’s all part of a long ride from Turkey to Germany. Some days are smooth, some days you just push through and keep pedaling.

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But all the kids are super helpful. Yeah. [Music] To make the escion like I’m gent from [Music] Good morning from Albania. It’s um the first proper day of cycling and um now I’m going to show you quickly quickly the route through Albania. It’s going to be a pretty chill one just along the coast fear dur like all the way up to Montenegro. I think it will take us maybe like 5 days, 6 days. It’s not going to be uh crazy hilly, just the first day or two, but then that’s pretty much it. All right, let’s go. Oh. Oh man, that’s some proper climbing. We are now at 65k,400 elevation so far. And now we have a little downhill right there. And then after this downhill, there’s actually the last little town. And then we have a big climb. Um, but I think we will just do it tomorrow early before the sunrise. [Music] Yeah, we just had a beautiful dinner here after a very very long success successful day. Um I think we cycled 75k in the end with 1,600 m of elevation and we are very very tired and this restaurant here has also a campsite. So we might just going to stay here. Yeah, down there we slept last night. Um, but yeah, we just started, well, we started down there, but now we started the switchbacks of today’s climb. So far, it’s not too steep. And I think the view will just get better and better. And I really hope we will not get too wet because it looks very rainy up there. [Music] We just made it to the top of the mountain. It’s a beautiful view. Just the blue water. Here’s a restaurant. Um, but yeah, it’s a great climate change. Heat. Heat. Yeah, it’s literally the perfect timing for a flat tire. We are under this roof here and it’s raining crazy. But yeah, we’re just going to take our time here. Okay. Okay. such a session. Like Arisa has another flat and I don’t know why because the first thousand kilometer were completely fine but now today she got two flats in a row. Um, and then we got super off track finding a spot to camp, but now we are just tired going actually to a campsite and yeah, but all the kids are super helpful. Yeah, you have over here. Yeah. Good morning. Good morning. We just woke up. Everything is super super wet. Um, Arisa’s tire is still fine, but now I have a flat tire. So, I think we just psych it yesterday afternoon through some bad um ground like lots of thorns. Um but well, going to fix the tire, dry out our things, and then we’re going to continue. Damn, what a morning. Yeah, this morning we cycled out of here. It’s a very very small town and we are on our way to uh Dur. I think it’s another 40k. We are now at 70k. But it’s been a it’s been a boring day actually. like very long and slow. My crank is just super loud. Um yeah, at days like this I often ask myself like why? I mean, yeah, to explore this world on my bike, it’s just I’m super super grateful that I’m able to do this. But, uh, often I think, oh, why not going to places where you actually find more joy to ride your bike? But that’s what happens if you are cycling across countries. Like you can’t have a 10 out of the 10 gravel cycling the whole time or on any trails. Like sometimes you just have to go places and you have to go further. But if you are literally cycling for like 70k, 80k, 100k next to main roads and it’s just not pretty, then you really realize it can be very harsh and long those days. Like if I have a proper gravel race bike, whatever, I just push through. But if you are running a like we have right now like vintage bikes, those bikes are fun for like 50 60ks a day, 70ks a day, preferably uh even better if it’s gravel and off-road and beautiful scenery. But if you push this bike along those main roads, that’s really not it. I’m having a flat tire right now like I was running. I run through some uh glass. Super annoying. But I’m literally trying to get as far as possible right here. Just a little hole because of the glass. But yeah, It’s our last night here in our Albania. I think in total we spent 5 days in Albania. Um especially the first two days were incredible beautiful like beautiful mountains and passes and in general like very very beautiful. Um but the closer we got to the main cities obviously it got more busy and a bit more pricey. And yeah this is such a beautiful sunset. And tomorrow morning, we’re going to cross into Montenegro. Yeah, it’s an early morning for us. And instead of being already on the road, I’m uh now fixing a puncture. Like I think every second morning we wake up and if it’s not my bike, then I recess bike. But literally every morning I have to like almost every second morning I have to fix a flat tire. Like it’s really really annoying. Like sometimes I think it’s fun to have a flat tire with tubes because you plan your whole day and then something happens out of nowhere with a flat tire and then other things are happening out of this flat tire. But if you just want to start your day and you have like a certain plan to cross a border and stuff, then it’s just super annoying. But well, going to fix this one. Have a beautiful view in the morning. And soon I think in like 10k we are already at the border crossing to Montenegro. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat.