29 July Oviedo – Barcelona Departure from Oviedo at 9 am. After stopping for a snack in Olmillos de Sasamón (Burgos). We continued our route to Tudela, we ate some vegetables at the Iruña Restaurant, quickly to continue the route quickly. We arrived in Barcelona around 8 pm. Difficulties in finding access to the entrance to the pier where to board, which was finally practically in the Plaza de Colón.
Great tumult for check-in and departure due to the crowd of people and the delay of the boats. We tried to change boats and take the one that was leaving for Livorno, but it was about 6 hours late. Our boat set sail for Civitavecchia around 11.30 pm. Dinner and go to sleep.
July 30 Barcelona- Civitavechia – Venice The whole day of sailing that becomes quite monotonous, especially because of the eagerness to arrive and start the adventure, around 11.30 we arrive at Porto Torres. Breakfast and lunch on the boat. The arrival scheduled for 6.30 pm is delayed until 7.35 pm, but around 8.00 pm we were on the road.
We started the journey to Venice, with a stop for dinner around 10 am and arriving at the Hotel in Macon around 4 in the morning, after more than 500 km in a night of lightning, thunder and intense downpours. It was made heavy by night and bad weather (the next morning from the news, we heard about major flooding in Lazio). The traffic was very intense with cars and trucks and we traveled half of Italy in the direction of Ravenna without major incidents.
July 31 to August 2 Venice – Padua – Verona – Lake Garda. After taking the opportunity to take a sightseeing tour of Venice, Padua, Verona, Lake Garda… we returned on the 2nd to the hotel, to meet our colleagues who have also made the same route as us and who mostly come from Catalonia, except for one Valencian, others from Zaragoza, the two of us from Oviedo and another Asturian companion who lives in Madrid. In total, 12 cars and about twenty-something people whose ages range from less than 2 to 67 years old. In the group there is everything, from quite expert people who have already traveled through Africa on several occasions, to some without any experience.
Albert Margarit gives us the first explanations of the route, they give us a “very worked” dossier with information on each stage and a Territori 4×4 shirt that we will all wear on the first day. After this first briefing, dinner and sleep because tomorrow we leave at 7.30.
August 3rd 1st Stage Well, after so many preparations, today we finally start the route. We divided ourselves into two groups. The group of the “Guaypoints” of five cars and the one that would be called the “Carchano Team” of the other seven cars. Most of the vehicles are Toyota except four: an MB G, a Terrano, a Wrangler and our Montero. We leave at 8 and go by highway to Slovenia, when we cross the border we are already surprised by the intense greenery of the whole country. After a road trip, we enter the long-awaited tracks; we do about 40 km, through forests bordering a lake.
Our first picnic was in a beautiful meadow surrounded by fir, oak and pine trees. Timidly, we placed our tables separately but immediately began the exchange of food and drinks, Josep delighted us with a glass of cava and we reciprocated with cider and coffee. In the afternoon, we went to visit Lake Bled, a beautiful place where Slovenians spend their days off, with a castle on a central island. The place seems to be taken from a fairy tale. While there, a downpour fell while we were quietly having a beer all together on a covered terrace. We continued our route to reach the capital, the Hotel, and although there was another downpour, we took a walk around the city, with a very quiet atmosphere through the pedestrian area full of terraces that gave us a very pleasant feeling. Dinner, briefing and sleeping.
August 4th: 2nd Stage We went to the caves where we had planned to enter at 10. The curious visit, in a little train that took us about five km into them, then a guide in Spanish accompanied us throughout the tour giving explanations of the formations of stalactites, stalagmites, white room, spaghetti room,… Later we passed by the castle belonging to the local Robin Hood who distributed among the poor what he stole from the rich and immediately began our tour again through the thick Slovenian forests. The route was through the green Slovenian meadows, similar to Tyrol or Switzerland. We crossed the Croatian customs and stopped to repair a small breakdown that arose in Antonio’s HDJ that suffered a leak of fluid from the power steering. Balbino and Albert initially and finally Sergi repaired the breakdown and finally without another incident, we arrived at the Hotel was very well located on the seashore and I took a swim in the Adriatic as the hotel was next to the sea Dinner, briefing and … birthday of Dani de los Guaypoints.
August 5th: 3rd Stage We leave the Hotel, we ride on some tracks that are also very green, but different from Slovenia. We visited a beautiful natural park, with its waterfalls and lakes. Beautiful but too crowded. Albert’s recommendation allowed us to avoid the long queues, as we have done the tour in reverse. We cross the border from Croatia to Bosnia and arrive at our destination today, inside Bosnia-Herzegovina. We arrived at the hotel, had dinner at a nearby restaurant, briefed and went to sleep.
August 6th: 4th Stage We leave at 8.30 am from the hotel in Bihad. It was raining, we took a tour of the mountain on tracks. It was planned to go rafting, but in a democratic decision it had no followers. From the moment you enter Bosnia, you can breathe a different atmosphere. We pass through tracks surrounded by minefields and destroyed houses. The most shocking thing was the selectivity of the destruction, because you can see houses that have been demolished and others that are perfectly preserved. The “choice” is overwhelming. When you go through the Bosnian Serb area all the signs are in Cyrillic. Today we had another brotherhood meal, in which our Catalan friends invite us again to select cava. After drinking coffee, we follow a very beautiful route through forests, although it is quite surreal to go through minefields. In the middle of the afternoon we arrived in Vitez and stayed at the hotel. We took the opportunity to take a walk around the town, go to the supermarket next to the hotel and rest a little. The facades of the houses with traces of shrapnel are striking, constantly reminding them of their recent past.
August 7th: 5th stage Departure from the hotel. We make a quick visit to Sarajevo and go up a very broken track to what remains of the facilities of the Sarajevo 84 Olympic Games, some completely destroyed in the bombings and others, like the one we visited, now converted into a weather station. On the way down, with the occasional scare, we stop for lunch, and then continue to Mostar in the middle of the afternoon, we make a visit of the city that surprises us with its rebuilt bridges, its pleasant atmosphere full of stalls selling handicrafts and terraces that with the pleasant temperature invites us to have a beer. After dinner, we take a walk through the city, with people “thrown out on the street” and an incredible atmosphere of young people who turn around to look…
August 8th: 6th Stage We leave the hotel around 9am and head to Dubrovnik where we arrive around 12 in the morning, after doing a road trip and stopping for a long time queuing to cross the Croatian border. Before crossing the access bridge to Dubrovnik we pose for the photograph with the background of the port. After lunch on one of the terraces of the Hotel which is on the outskirts of the old city in a very beautiful area; We rest a little and some of us take the opportunity to take a swim in the sea, and then take the bus and go down to the old city. Dubrovnik is a walled city, with its monumental interior being very pleasant to walk and “get lost” in its narrow streets. The port area from where boat trips depart to see the city from the sea, is full of charming restaurants where you can dine, terraces with live music, … although some considered it something too touristy without the natural charm that breathed in Mostar.
August 9th: 7th Stage. After breakfast, part of the group engaged in “commercial activity” in Dubrovnik and the rest left for Montenegro. The exit allows us to see spectacular views of Dubrovnik from above. After crossing the border they charge us a fee of 10€ and the toll I think is more expensive in the world 3 € for a few meters of highway, anyway… We walk along an old train track, now converted into a track, which takes us to visit abandoned villages that were literally razed in the war, finding Kalashnikov cartridges in the vicinity. We continue along a track up and down through forests and finally we reach the easternmost fjord in Europe, a new surprise of landscape that is impossible to describe, with the church of Nuestra Señora de la Rocas in the middle of the fjord. We take a tour along the fjord to take a ferry and return by road to Dubrovnik After dinner on the terrace of the hotel some of us go to sleep, while others go to investigate the Croatian night…
August 10th: 8th Stage Today we got up early and had breakfast at 7.00. At 7.15, Albert was already with the briefing. Border stage: we leave Dubrovnik in Croatia, cross Bosnia and Herzegovina to reach Montenegro, all in less than 60 km. Shortly after crossing the border we take a track that runs along the tracks of the FFCC that leads us to a lake of the Pyrenees. It is a bit repetitive to explain it in words, but each landscape is a different surprise that leaves us amazed. Our colleagues from the Guaypoints are delayed at the start to carry out a repair and leave around 11.30. The “Carchano Team” has prepared a small surprise for them with a stone obstacle in the middle of the track. On this route, and as an anecdote, the head of the group finds a car in the middle of the track with a couple in a compromised situation… We continue the route and after reaching an area full of small lakes and we skirt a reservoir with an intense emerald green color and we stop to eat in a group under a huge walnut tree. Then the other days, what if cider, what if good wine from Ribera del Duero, what if a glass of cava at ideal temperature, to finish with a coffee and of course the shot of malt and today as a novelty ice cream herbal brandy… After picking up the camp, we return along the edge of the reservoir and ascend until we enter the Durmitor National Park. In these places it seems that scenes from the James Bond movie Casino Royale have been filmed. After a stop on the ascent we reach the top where numerous mountain huts, which make us want to stay here. We continue, until we reach our hotel today, where we take a dip in the pool, relax in the sauna, Turkish bath and jacuzzi, and at 9.00 a.m. go down to dinner, where by the way we coincide with the Italian national basketball team, against whom we all look like dwarfs (some more than others). Dinner, briefing and sleeping.
August 11th: 9th Stage We started early, as always, descended the gorge and arrived at Podjorica, which we bordered it, we made a stop in a marshy area with a bird watching center. Beyond the border, the guards always ask Barça or Madrid and we enter Albania, passing through quite humble mountain villages. On the way we met some neighbors who gave us the military salute. We assume that a group of 4x4s in the middle of an area practically without transit makes us think that it is the army. Traveling along busy roads, we skirt Skhöder and finally reach Tirana. The entrance into Tirana was chaotic, with some very ramshackle suburbs that gave us a rather negative impression of the city. When they arrived in the center of the city, the image was very different. At the hotel, swim in the pool and dinner. We are given a souvenir trophy to each one with some words dedicated to each one quite accurate. After dinner, a walk that revealed another Tirana, with numerous terraces and a fairly high level shopping area that contrasted with the rural area and the peripheral neighborhoods that had nothing to do with the area around what we called the “Plaza del Caballo” because of the sculpture erected in the center; that betrayed its Soviet influence.
August 12th: 10th Stage Relaxing day. We get up without haste, after washing the cars, we go to the old town, the markets, where we take the opportunity to buy souvenirs of Albania. We return to the hotel and with the cars we go to Durres to the beach. We stopped at a Toyota dealership to buy a light relay for Antonio’s HDJ 80 and after more than an hour they tell us that they don’t have it, you can see that here time passes at a different pace than for us. We continue to Durres, which is a crowded beach in the Mediterranean style. Some take the opportunity to eat a great seafood, we, after eating in a great restaurant, return again to Tirana.
August 13th: 11th Stage Today is the longest day, we do the “Albanian Central Trail”. We leave the hotel at 7.30 and after a few km on the road, we refuel to use the last lekes and we enter the track. Those of us who wanted a little more 4×4 had a good portion.
Climbing through beautiful forests and warming up with the occasional trial, but the hardest awaited us on the descent, crossing a stony area of the bed of a dry river encased in the forest. Descents of steep slopes, where the Albanian-style curves were traced, that is, to avoid turning, the zigzag was made one section straight ahead and the other reversed. The short cars turned without problems and the less “camperos” came out with the occasional scar. Stop for lunch, as always “luxury”. In the area chosen to eat, there was a large traffic of trucks loaded with firewood. The descent through small villages all on tracks took us to the border that we crossed at night the border between Albania and Macedonia and headed for Ohrid, Quite late, around 9.30 at night we arrived at the hotel in Ohrid, a sober example of the hotel industry of Soviet past where we had dinner and retired to rest after the busy days.
August 14th: 12th Stage We leave the hotel at 8.30 am and head by road to visit the sanctuary of St. Naum, on the edge of Lake Ohrid. In the vicinity of the lake people sunbathe as on the beach; There are stalls selling gifts, some at the top of the tacky gift and a lot of beach bars to have sausages, hamburgers,… People come to the Orthodox shrine with great devotion and we are struck by the fact that they leave alms within anyone’s reach. After the visit we ascend by road from where we can have a magnificent panoramic view of the lake and head to the Galicia National Park. We do a route of about 30 km along some very beautiful tracks through the grass. After a stony track, we head to Ohrid again to continue the road to Greece. We stop for lunch around 3.30 pm when our thermometers mark 38º, however, we don’t know if it’s because of the cider or the cava, that the feeling of heat is not too oppressive. After the usual coffee with shots, we continue by road to the hotel, after some confusion due to the existence of several hotels with the same name. They tell us that we have our clocks back 1 hour, so we have dinner quickly, shortly after dinner the Gauypoints arrive who had had a new breakdown due to a breakdown of the cardan of the rear transmission of one of the cars.
August 15th: 13th Stage Not to vary, we had breakfast at 8 and went to see the monasteries of the Meteoras at 9 so as not to get hot, we visited three a small one that of Poyganoy and finally the Great Meteoron, we stopped to eat in Kalambaca at the Polyzos restaurant and then road and highway to Igoumenitsa, It took us about two hours. We wandered a little through the village that was not of great interest, we enjoyed our last afternoon together because when we arrived in Bari some of the group continued by road. Finally, after 12 o’clock we embarked.
August 16th: 14th Stage After crossing Italy we embarked again in Civitavechia. The next day of sailing is also a day of rest, which helps some of us to make up for delayed sleep… and land in the reality that our Balkan adventure is over. In our minds the good times shared, in our retinas the very different images we have seen and the memories of the friends we have met and with whom we will undoubtedly share other adventures. Sadly we are going to miss Albert’s rush: Dinner at 9 pm, briefing at 10 pm!! and the rush after lunch with coffee in hand… A hug to all and… until next time, which we hope will be soon. Juan and José Fernández
