I´m on Mars... 2/4-2013

I left Corovode with knowledge of a few things. Nasho Vruho had, and I quote, called the roads "Catastrophe". I also knew it was raining and I knew the first part (first 30-40 kilometers) of my plan for the day, to reach Gjirokaster, was the tough one.

I prefer the hard parts in the start when your energy is at least fairly high.

The road out of Corovode was shit and it became worse, it was more or less same as the road between Maliq and Gramshi with one major diffrence. This was uphill a lot more.

At the end of the day I noticed a record bad average speed for the day due to me having to push the bike most of the way. It was mud, construction sites, rocks, water up to the middle of the wheel and just when I am hoping it will get easier and I am about to clear all them climbs and reach the easier part along comes Mr Mountain. A 1000 meter mountain on roads that made you wish this country had as much love for roads as they do for cars, gas stations and car washing establishments. After what felt like hours I reached a magical place, despite that I was soaking wet, freezing and tired I shot some video of it and did a small video diary up there - below is a screen capture.

A beautiful mountain lake with green water and clouds at the same height as me.

Shortly after I continued on and I reached a place where one road went left and up and another went down and right, no signs and since the road swirl around so much on mountains the compass is just useful as a guide for a bigger perspective. I chose the one that went up because it looked more used than the other.

It turned out I was right, it rose additionally and after a while I was above the clouds, nothing was visible except a couple of car lengths ahead of you and down the slopes of the mountain the clouds obscured any visibility. I felt a bit worried, if something happens here not only will I get too cold very fast but there is none around so it could take time before I could get help.

A few hours passed with me just forcing my way onward and suddenly the road started going downhill, the brakes wore out fast due to all the mud and stuff so I had to stop and tighten the cables. I also shot a long video of the downhill ride and I am very proud to say I managed to do it without falling over, it was as close as the Downhill discipline for Mountainbikes as you can come but with a touring bike and 35 kilos of gear. I have a screenshot here.

Some beads of water on the waterproof housing, I used the GoPro chest harness for the movie.

I can't for the life of me understand how the bike holds together, much less how the panniers doesn't break. The later got plastic things keeping the firmly clinging to my bike and considering how much shaking that took place only on this descent alone, not to mention everything I've encountered before this day, it's a f-cking miracle they are still with me.

Also, my bike hasn't had a puncture yet, that too, is a miracle on par with Moses splitting the Red Sea.

Anyway, once out of the hell that was the first 5-6 hours of this day I reached a conclusion that I was gonna stay the night in Kelcyra. After coming onto tarmac I paused for the briefest of moments and I felt my body heat leaving me rapidly so I got angry, I psyched my self up as if I were to do a max attempt in a powerlifting competition. I snarled and felt the adrenaline rush through the veins and pedaled in a fury the last 15 kilometers to Kelcyra.

It was a nice town, they had rooms in the hotel and a older gentleman came up to me and asked me to follow him with my bike as he drove just a bit out of town to store my bike on their yard that had fences and a big metal gate, two kids helped unload the bags and then he drove me back to the hotel. I shook the mans hand, nodded and said thanks and the two kids got some candy I have had with me to distribute to kids.

After a scalding hot shower I went down to find some place to eat, it's weird this country, many places to eat at and nothing but good to excellent food so far but never any customers. I chose the spot closest to the hotel and wouldn't you know it, empty except a guy sitting with a bored expression on his face. When he saw me he shined up and after coming to an understanding I wanted meat, potatoes and beer he started to prepare this.

Garlic bread, wonderful fries, a salad that had something like feta cheese in it that was amazing , two pork chops the size of an elephants ear each and that lovely sourcream with olive oil - oh and Korca beer.

I'm in heaven.

Since I've had stomach surgery I couldn't finish anyway near all the stuff he put on the table but when I was done he offered to wrap it up for me. Really amazing guy and outstanding food. The place is called Restaurant Zagoria in Kelcyra, Albania and it gets all thumbs up for effort, service and quality of food.

After that I slept like someone shot me with a tranquilizer dart with a sedative dosage enough for a herd of rhinos.