TET – Albania

This is a ride report about the Trans Euro Trail in Albania and some more offrad adventures in the area.
The ride happened in May 2021.

Day 1

The bikes get loaded into a Van, after a couple of maintenance days at my friends place. My partner in crime is ‘Waushi’ who deserves the credit for some of the pictures.

We drove from the southern part of Austria all the way to Dubrovnik. Stopped in a small village to park the Van and stay for the night.

Day 2

Almost ready to leave on the ride.

But we don’t get far. Before we left Austria, I have changed my rear tire. Must have pinched the tube during the installation. The tire is quite hard and you couldn’t see the flat. Riding was getting kind of wobbly quickly, so we stopped at the next gas station and fixed the flat.

The weather turn to the bad. And it seemed that tis was not enough, so I had another flat. Hmm, is there something in the tire? Changed tube in the rain and hoped for the best as I didn’t find anything.

After this we made it without further incidents to Shkodra. We wanted to run the TET from north to south, but the first stretch was still closed due to the huge amount of snow fallen during last winter.

Found a hotel and had a drink.

The forecast was not good and we met some friends, so we decided to take a rest days and enjoy the city.

Albania has a curfew due to CV19. After a few drinks we walked back to our hotel.

Day 3

Our rest day starts relaxed with a coffee and some pastries.

As the weather changed from bad to good and back to bad and so on, we used the day to move with the help of friends to another sleeping location.

And went back to relax.

I wanted to make sure that my rear tire is not causing me more troubles. So we changed the tube with a new one. As the tire is quite hard, it was not possible to seat it with my little compressor. Easy solution, go to the next gas station to inflate it properly. Instead of rolling the wheel, we borrowed a bicycle to transport it.

For the rest of the day we scouted a bit through town. Found interesting car modification.

Day 4

The weather was not the best but we wanted to start. The track was not too difficult but we hit a roadblock.

After that had cleared we continued on the trail.

I mentioned that the weather was not really good?

But there where some nice sweeping roads.

And the weather is not always bad. We stopped early for the night and found a nice hotel a few kilometers away from the trail, but worth the detour. It has a great location in a side valley, next to a river with some washouts and it is popular with the locals as well.

It was not only my bike which needs maintenance.

We also had a decent meal.

Day 5

The plan for today is to go across the Lura-Dejes National Park which is also a big mountain with several lakes along. As we get on to gravel road we drop the pressure of the tires.

Nice landscape and we can see snow in the distance.

Than the route goes up into the mountains. Sometimes the meltwater runs down the road.

Until snow stops us.

So we have to backtrack to the last village and go around this section via the next valley. We are just here too early. But the track we follow due to this, is very nice and grants beautiful views.

All over Albania you can find small bunkers and horses.

The selected route does not disappoint.

Sometimes the trail follows old stone build roads which takes a toll on the bikes by rattling loose some bolts.

Others seem to dislike those roads as well and we find many choices.

Because there was rain for several days we still have a lot puddles.

Fantastic twisties.

We stop at an hotel near Elbasan and enjoy a drink which name reminds us of what causes us all troubles.

Day 6

It starts with a beautiful nice road alongside a mountain. Some clouds are hanging there and we are worried that we will be rained on again. Thankfully this is not the case.

Along the road we see some ‘casualties’, The scooter was beaten up pretty good, but we never found out what happened as nobody was around.

We approach a quite famous river gorge of Kanioni i Holtës which comes out of the mountains to the left.

You can hike in if you want but we passed on that this time.

The bridge used to be in much better shape.

There is only one other car but no tourist can be seen unlike in normal times.

Along the valley are big erosion cliffs visible.

Just past the small town of Gramsh the trail splits into a river bed track and an easier bypass.

My companion wants to ride the river bed but makes a fatal mistake on the first meters by not following the car tracks. With all the best intentions, first pictures than help. The sand was sucking everything in, but he managed to get out without further assistance.

First river crossings are no problem. You could see where cars have been driving and the riverbed was not too rocky.

View down into the river bed which we are going to follow for the good part of the day. Before we really went into that we enjoyed the landscape.

After this we searched our way through by zig zag along the river. Sometimes following the line on our GPS, or following the car tracks or create our own trail. Most of the time it was no problem just very rocky and a few fairly deep water crossings. Nothing I would tackle alone, but fun, close calls included.

It seemed to take forever, so when we saw a road leaving the river bed we decided to follow that up the mountain.

We only checked briefly if this road is going the right direction. Around here is erosion everywhere. The landscape is breathtaking and the roads are in between challenging and non-existing. Still, people live here.

That’s the view back where we came from.

The road leads back down to the river and theoretically across, but the water has done its part and there is no way we can cross it. Huge steps and deep water channels. On the GPS it showed us another road on our side of the river, just we couldn’t find it.

The pictures are showing the road, or what’s left of it!

But together we made it up the steep road. I know it doesn’t look that steep, but believe me it was.

As we thought the big challenges have been met, more was coming.

The road become quickly single trail or more a goat path.

At a crossroad we met a shepherd and we tried to find out which way we should go. He was keen to help but it was not clear to us what he meant as he was pointing on both of the possible tracks several times.

So off we went to explore by foot.

This was the better option, we thought.

The track was filled with sharp rocks and I got a flat on the front just as we could see another road below us.

After fixing the flat we had to ride down to the said road which felt so good to be on.

Soon we reached a village where we rehydrated with a beer and borrowed a pump to check the tire pressure.

The rest of the late afternoon was without problems and we reached our destination of the day near Corovode by following sweeping roads.

Day 7

The day starts by following another river gorge and crossing some bridges.

On the TET GPX file is a Canyon marked to be explored and you could camp there as well, so we stop. Just to find out that the bearing of my rear sprocket is gone. It had made sounds before but I didn’t think it was that bad.

So first thing was to fix the bike, and then a drink and after that explore a bit the canyon. The people running a small bar next to it where very helpful. It only concerned me that they have been drinking already Raki. This was well before noon. A tree stump normally used as a stole worked perfectly for my bike.

With the help of the locals the repair was done fairly quickly.

Now it was time to do a small hike into the canyon.

It is not far if you want to stay on the trail but still very nice to see.

The following route was easy gravel and some asphalt. Always with nice views.

We stopped at kind of a war monument along the road.

On one of our stops to check the bike if still is all there, I discovered a rather unpleasant surprise. There was a small oil leak from the oil tank in the frame. Because it was small we continued on our journey but kept the observed in mind.

We followed the track all the way to the coast. Some stretches are newly rebuild or in progress, but others are still nice gravel roads.

Finally we made it to the sea, where we stopped for the night.

Before we could go for dinner, I wanted to try to stop the oil leak with some liquid metal.

Finding some cleaning stuff to remove the oil from the surface for proper bond was not easy but in the end we have been successful.

Day 8

We followed the trail towards the border of Greece. Nothing really special to report. The scenery is nice but more for normal tourists. The highlight of the day was the small pontoon ferry which is part of the official road SH81.

It was a cold and windy day. As this was the end of the TET Albania we sat down at a bar for a rest and discuss what we shall do next. Other guests told us that the border to Greece is closed completely. There goes our plan to continue on the TET of Greece. Our next plan, to ride into the mountains, is shut down as soon we see the dark rainclouds all over the inland.

So we turned back towards the sea to stay another day at the sunny coast. The campground in the town of Sarande was our destination, until we saw it. It is a gravel place next to a totally destroyed building. In the end we stayed in town at the hotel Eleana.

We relaxed for the rest of the day on the promenade. The Town seems to be normally a very busy tourist place, but this time we saw not a lot. Still most places where open and happy to welcome guests.

Day 9

During the relaxing time we came up with a plan. Riding cross country towards Pogradec at the Macedonian border where we had some tracks to visit. Along the way we tried different routes.

First stop was Gjirokastra which is one of the oldest towns in the country. We wanted to visit the castle but it was closed.

We wanted to cross the mountains east from here. According the GPS there is a road into the next valley and then a trail across the next mountain. We will see.

The road up the first mountain was a great sweeping band of asphalt. Great views back into the valley we came from are granted.

In the middle of that field the road changed back into gravel and let through the gorge at the other end.

More gravel into the next valley towards a village named Sheper, where the trail should start.

At the beginning of the trail it was okay-ish, but we could see that it becomes a tracking trail across the next mountain. So we turned around and went further up the valley. We couldn’t go south where supposedly a better road would be because there is the Greek border again.

The road was marked all the way to the end of the valley. From there it was only about 1km trail to the next village, let’s see if we can go there.

The road ended in a place called Doshnice. This was basically one half fallen down house. Looking at the GPS the trail runs just next to it and below, so go check it out.

Nope, not going to try with fully loaded bikes. I even walked a few hundred meters to see if the trail was any good.

Finally we through in the towel and decided to go all the way back.

It was still very well worth it. Fantastic landscape and a great ride.

On the way out loose gravel caught me in a turn and the bike swiped around as I applied throttle too early. No problem, nothing broken, nobody hurt.

Instead of rolling down again on the paved road at the other side of the mountain we jumped on a small road, at least it was marked as a road.

As we reached the main road we stopped at the next opportunity for a well-deserved refreshment. The bikes had a rest in the shade. We only made it to the village of Permet before we called it a day.

Day 10

The planned route leads us towards the Greece border again. Road is paved but situated nicely and crazy mountains are shown alongside. We turned off the main road in the village of Carcove. The first stretch was also paved and very nice. In fact we enjoyed this so much that we missed our turn onto gravel.

Most of the trail was not difficult, but some sections are steep.

The entire area seems to have a lot erosion. Even the roads are sloped sideways sometimes or become very small.

At one point we found an interesting looking old bridge and decided to check out the area a bit more.

There are nice pools up the hill and we used them for a little refreshment. Very cool place.

The area has some hot springs which are set up for tourist and an larger old bridge. You can camp there and they have a little bar as well. We checked it out but there were too many people for our taste.

Because the weather was great and the upcoming route led us into a remote area for a long stretch, we stocked up on food and drinks before heading back into the mountains.

The last village we saw for a while.

And then I didn’t pay enough attention on the ruts formed in the clay when it was soft.

The track passed by a fantastic gorge. The river has cut deep into the rock and is winding in S-shape.

Next I know was that the bike jump like a mustang and I found myself on the ground. I didn’t feel good and took a rest in the shade. Thankfully nothing broken except one of my foot pegs. The bike has some more scars, and I knew that there will be colorful bruises for me soon.

It took not too long before we continued although I was pretty bummed making such a stupid mistake. They forgot to take back some machinery, or was it still in use? There are also very nice views.

The next village was still far away, so we decided to look for a camping spot which we found a bit away from the road.

After setting up the tent for me and the fresh air version for Waushi we collected wood for a fire. That was done in a quit unorthodox way but successful.

We are at roughly 1200m above sea level and the temperature are dropping quickly as the sun sets. So we started the fire to warm us up and for the barbecue. Nothing special, but everything roasted on an open fire tastes better.

Day 11

The night was cold but as soon as the sun came up it warmed up quickly. After a coffee and a granola bar for breakfast we packed our stuff and headed off. First the road was easy and we passed some very small villages. In fact there where like 2 or 3 houses, kind of. At an interesting cliff we stopped for maintenance in the shade.

The quality of the upcoming road varied a lot, from easy forest road to deep rutted, hm, I don’t even know how you would call that.

So we followed more or less the GPS until we arrived at a river. The car tracks let trough the water, but it looked very deep.

I checked it out and decided that it is not worth the risk as the current was also quit strong.

Instead we can take the bridge nearby, or not.

We scouted the area for an alternate river crossing but couldn’t find anything. Then backtracking it is.

Sometimes the road vanished, sometimes we had to overcome obstacles, but in the end we made it back onto our planned route.

What an fantastic scenery.

Although some people looked really skeptical.

There where again rough sections.

At a crossroad marked on our GPS we decided to follow the higher rated road.

That turned out to be a mistake. How the hell can this be a road at all? Still we checked it out.

Can you imagine how steep this was?

And on the other side of the hill it didn’t look much better either.

So once again backtracking, taking the lower rated road and hope for the best. It turned out to be much better.

Soon we arrived at our destination for the day. We cleaned our bikes, found a place to stay on booking com and went for a drink and a meal.

There was a big European Union party going on and everybody had fun.

Day 12

Today we only planned to ride to Pogradec at the Macedonian border. So we decided to try to find a replacement for my broken foot peg.

That’s how it should look like.

And this is how it looked.

Anyway, he had only a scooter peg but made it work and I had again something to stand on. Success!

This was taking us quite some time. Every place we asked pointed us to another town. So to ease our frustration we stopped for a drink.

After a long search we finally found a small shop which supposedly sells motorcycle parts. Never knew that a footpeg is so interesting. Seven people plus me are looking at the issue. Then the shop owner went to work and suddenly everybody disappeared. Was quite funny to watch.

We rode back to Pogradec and checked in at a campground next to the lake. Refreshment and something to eat before we set up our tent and waited for a friend to join us for the coming days.

Day 13

Now we are a team of three and the first business of the day is crossing the border into Macedonia.

It is no problem and soon we can look back to the lake and Pogradec. We left the lake towards east and then turned onto a gravel track up to a mountain top.

It is rocky and quite steep but once reached the top the view is the best reward.

We have to go the same way down and then continue further east for a few kilometers before turning north.

Now the trail leads through a mountain range. The quality varies a lot but is mostly rocky. Soon we can see the town of Ohrid from the top.

Ohrid is supposed to be only a fuel stop, but things are turning out to be different.

After refueling and paying I get to my bike just in time as the side stand gives way. I have no main stand so that’s a problem. We ask others on the gas station if they know a place where we can get this welded and we’re quickly pointed towards a shop. As we show up at the said location we see that the place is closed, probably since a long time.

Now what to do? On the GPS I see some auto parts store in town and I’m confident that they will know a welder. The stores are mostly along one street and for which reason ever I stop at the third of them. It turns out that the store owner is the president of the local motorbike club. He drives me with my side stand in hand to one of his inmates (Sasha) who is a professional welder. The stand is fixed quickly and soon I’m back at the bike. Meanwhile my friends got a coffee from the auto parts store and chit chat a bit. Sasha insists to come as well and we install together the repaired part.

While we do that I realize that my oil leak from the reservoir is becoming bigger and having a professional welder on site I ask him if this can be fixed. He thinks yes but says that we need to find a mechanic to disassemble the bike for that. I’m not a motorbike mechanic but can do that for sure myself. We agree to meet at his place after we find a camping spot.

Our question how much we owe for the coffee is only answered with the question ‘Are we a coffee house?’ and we are sent on our way. We find a campground on the outskirt of town and Sasha is not willing to let us go there alone.

He leads the way, helps with the price negotiation and after we set up our tents, and the obligated drink, him and myself are riding to his place to get started on the repair.

I have to remove the fairings, tank, horn and the water cooler to give access for the welding. While working the son of Sasha comes home from work and is now helping with organizing whatever his father need.

And the final repair. Looks like new to me. I feel very much relieved.

So now the only thing what is left is to reassemble the bike. That’s done quickly and after getting the payment out of the way (which was not much), Sasha insist to invite us into town.

He wants to show us around a bit and have dinner together. We are not allowed to pay for dinner but at least we can pay the coffee afterwards.

He also invites us to go for a ride together on the next day. We accept the offer with thanks, having in our mind that this will not only be a great experience but also gives us a chance to pay back a little tomorrow. It just didn’t feel right that he invited us after he helped me so much.

Happy and excited we crawled into our tents.

Day 14

The morning starts with a coffee and a pastry before we meet Sasha. He leads the way out of town and into the sticks. It is nice for a change to be on an unloaded bike and not need to navigate. We just follow him. After some nice fast gravel roads we reach our first lockout.

Then the trail goes up even higher until we reached the top which was just below 2000m above sea level.

Great off-road riding continued for the whole day.

We made a loop back to the lake, before we visited the Monastery of Saint Naum which was founded in 895A.D.

Very interesting place and we had a prime parking spot thanks to Sasha who seemed to know everyone, he probably does. Normally you have to walk quite a bit from a parking lot situated outside of the area.

The day finished with a visit in a restaurant where we got typical local food and a fantastic sunset. What a beautiful day!

Day 15

We left in the morning Ohrid northbound on the E52. Naturally that was not exiting, but roughly 30km north the route turns into the mountains. The plan was to cross those towards the Lake of Debar. It was not difficult to ride the gravel road until there was more and more snow visible.

What!? These mountains are not higher than the one we have been on yesterday. As higher we get we become more concerned.

Waushi went in front to scout out if it will work. Soon he comes back with the bad news.

No way we can go across here.

We check the GPS for an alternate and make a plan. Unfortunately that turns out to be not so easy.

The roads where not much traveled and there are some hiccups along the way, but in the end we made it to the border with Albania just north of the lake.

As we have missed the Albanian TET section via the mine earlier in the trip, we want to do it now and hope the in those two weeks the snow has melted.

So we hook up with the track in Shupenze. It is clear that we are not going to make it through this section so we stock up on food and drinks before we go into the mountains again.

The ride was good and long so we are looking out for a spot to camp as we approach the mine. The mine is not in operation when we visit it. Although we joke around, we are pretty beat and expect that there are more challenges will come before the summit. It is also getting cooler already. So we make the decision to camp a bit below the mine where we will have some protection from the cold wind.

Two of us are pitching their tent and Waushi is as usual setting up his minimalistic sleeping arrangement.

That gives him time to start the fire and collect some wood to burn.

The spot is great and we enjoy an simple barbecue and a few drinks before we get a well-deserved rest.

Day 16

The night was cold but we get up refreshed and ready to tackle the remainder of the mountain.

After an initial first climb passing the mine, it was a nice gravel road, at least for a short while.

Then we had to go up a valley where a river couldn’t make up its mind and used the road on an off as a riverbed.

There was a short easy looking stretch but it turned out to be just a mud pit. I promptly fall for it.

Together we are able to free my bike and continue on. We again and again thought that the next ridge will the summit, but it went on and on.

There are some lakes which are looking really nice.

Just the snow got our attention and we became concerned that maybe the snow hasn’t melted as hoped.

Soon we hit the first patch of snow on the road. The first few of them where no problem, but it got worse, until there was no going further. I hiked quite a bit ahead to see if it would be worth to struggle on, but there was no way. I turned around defeated when I reached a section where the snow was for sure about 2m high on the road.

This was a bummer. Now what to do? Do we really need to go all the way back what we did the last 1,5days? After looking closely on the map we found a potential trail down the mountain. With not much confident that it will work out, we started to roll down. This road was obviously not used much but we managed to get to something what looked like a water pipeline construction site.

The road was rough with big rocks and for the icing on the cake was the river flowing on it as well. I went first and bottomed out at about 2/3^rd of the overflowed section and came to an abrupt hold. Nevertheless I made it across. This was enough to convince my travel partners to give the steep pipeline track a second look.

That was basically a track running straight down the mountain, of course very steep.

So we split for the rest of the way to the village at the bottom. Thankfully we reunited after some time there. Meanwhile the clouds became dark and soon after it started to rain. Great.

In the rain we tried to find a shorter way to the town of Reshen but ended up taking the TET because all other roads have been dead end or became unpassable. Very often the road classification on our GPS didn’t match with the realty, this was a problem we noticed a lot and was also a big contributor here. As we left the mountains the weather cleared up and we made it safe to our chosen night stop.

Day 17

The goal for today was to ride the other part we missed an the TET. It is a quite famous track looping into a valley with a small village named Theth. The south part of the loop is still the rough track what made it famous, the north part is rebuild nicely and becomes a fully paved mountain road and was closed when we had been at the start of our trip.

First we passed an artificial lake on very nice sweeping paved road towards the town of Shkoder.

There are almost no picture as we have ridden this section of the TET before.

Refueled in Shkoder and started the south trail towards Theth. The road began paved but became quickly rough gravel.

The view was breathtaking all the way. I let the pictures tell the story here.

We had arranged a place to stay the night. It was an traditional house where we enjoyed the well-deserved starters before the dinner.

Day 18

The morning was cold and rainy. We had no rush so we waited for the rain to ease and had a long breakfast. Leaving the village we hit the construction of the road and realized that the well maintained part will be soon all the way to the village. Further up the mountain the snow walls on the side of the road showed us why the road was closed not too long ago.

Then there was fog for a bit and of course snow.

The rest of the way to the Montenegro border was uneventful and after all this spectacular sceneries the past days a bit mellow.

Did I just say uneventful? Well I had another breakdown. The other bearing on my rear wheel had broken and so we searched for a place to stay and repair my bearing just past the border. Thankful I had a complete set of bearings with me. Sorry no pics here.

Day 19

We wanted to ride the TET of Montenegro as well, but to make it short, that was denied by nature.