Ostros -> Krnjice

siesta next to the road

In the morning still some people were feeling sick and i had a problem with my left knee... so i cycled really calm and stopping a lot for small siestas in the way :D

rakija and homemade cheese

We stopped to eat next to a really nice family house where they offered us rakjia and we bought them some homemade cheese, potatoes and tomatoes to make lunch because in this region there aren't many shops...

Andrea giving nuts and raisins to everyone who passes :D

After lunch, we cycled to the lake, we could finally go down the mountain to a small beach and swim in cristal waters :D

Shkoder -> Ostros (Montenegro)

unmounting camp

In the morning Ondreij left us and cycled alone to catch a train back to prague and we cycle to the border with Montenegro...then we crossed a great hill and cycled along the Shkoder lake (but in a high altitude, in the top of the surrounding mountains)...

Crossing the border

All the big cycling up was made under sun and some people in the night were not feeling well (still unknown if was a water problem or too much sun)...

stopping to pick berries all way up

big going up way in Montenegroview over Shkoder Lake

We found a nice field to camp and have lunch and dinner (with some kids visiting us to see what we were doing :D)...

Shkoder

cleaning bike :)

While some went to visit the city others stayed next to the camp, cleaning bicycles and doing biketour patches...

lunch time, next to the river

We had a long talk about food (what is each one habits, hot versus cold food, schedules, etc...) to try to get a more equilibrated way of eating for everyone...

Ondreij gave a really unexpected new, he will leave us because will be a father ;) and Andrea (italy), Barcha and Ivana (Czech Republic) joined us this afternoon...

Ondreij workshop and last night in biketour

In the night we had 4 guests to dinner with us and a nice and informative workshop about United Nations Climate change policies by Ondreij...

Rinas Lake -> Shkoder

yolanda swimming under the sunriseIn the morning we swam in the hot lake water :D... and then start cycling north to meet the group...

We stop in Lezhe for lunch (onion byreks :D)...and after siesta continued cycling...

meeting the group

When we had a stop to pick some berries the group just appeared in our back!!.. (we always thought they would be ahead of us...) and we magically were all together again :D
We then cycle all together to Shkoder, the albanian bicycle city :D, where we camped in a field next to the river

Tirana -> Rinas Lake

The group left tirana in the morning, and me and yarden stayed in Tirana waiting for Yolanda...

internet in the city park :D

we cycled around, and hate a great vegan pizza with a albanian chef we had met the last day...

then Yo arrived (from holland, 4 trains, one boat and a bus :p..) and we cycled out the city... we decided to camp next to a great lake were we cooked fire potatoes and tahini :D... great resting day and to see yo again ;)

Preze -> Tirana

Waking up in the top of the hill was pretty beautiful and going down the hard hill was so faaaast...
We cycle to tirana where we meet a local organizer from a local NGO promoting bicycles... with them we cycled in the new bus and bicycle shared lanes and took some pictures for future propaganda about bicycling in tirana, in the mean time some other local activists were spreading flyers in the local park where we also had company of lots of local children looking at us for hours!!
We still had some time to discuss a little about my general opposition to bike lanes and introduce vehicular cycling and then we went to a recent opened hostel that made us a special price to camp in their garden (really nice people).

Ondreij auto*mat t-shirt

In the night marcha, me and jorden went out to walk and look for rakjia (local spiritus) and chocolate :D

Durres -> Prezë

transformed taborda (luckly it just stayed few hours so bad)

I wake up with an allergic reaction, probably to mosquitoes bites (something that didn't happen to me for long, long time), and a funny swallow face...

We cycle back to Dures where Isabel (Germany/England/Bosnia) joined us, and then we continued in a road parallel to the highway to Preze, a small village with a castle in the high top of a hill (last 3 or 4 km took almost one hour to climb).
There we meet some people responsible for a recent permaculture project (as i was felling really tired of the allergy i slept almost all the meeting and afternoon)
We mount the tents inside the castle with a great view over the long flat surface bellow...

Shkalinur -> Durres

In the morning we cycled some km in the sand next to the sea water direction Dures.

On three wheels next to the sea :D

Arriving there we had a meeting with Irene (???) of a local NGO about the problems in the city, there is a big italian coal power plant planed to be built in Porto Romano and local people are not really aware of the problems of it.

saying goodbye to lilly and babsi

After the lunch, bapsy and lily left us to cycle alone, faster by the coast, direction north.

Porto Romano

We then cycle to see the future place of the power plant (Porto Romano) and had a flyer distribution action in a big avenue of the city.
In the same avenue, in the evening, we projected two movies about coal problems (sadly the sound system was too weak and no one could really understand them) from Bankwatch (the organization Ondrej works on).
Already late, and after a dinner in the avenue while being watch by really interested people on how we eat (people in albania don't really find staring at other people as bad education and they do it constantly in a really deep way that you take time to accept), we cycle to a field next to the city where we camped with the company of thousands of annoying mosquitoes!!