Shkodra Lake, Albania, Camping, www.RTWbyBIKE.com

Hey long time no hear… sorry for that! One reason for that probably is we are planning already our next trip: about 12 month from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, starting May 2018. Another exciting period we are looking forward to! Kerstin’s motorbike was pimped during this summer: a big tank, a proper engine-protection and brand new aluminum cases; besides the usual maintenance. Ready to go for the next lesson: On and off-road in Albania, let´s go first to Theth!

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From Hamburg to Montenegro

We took the car-night-train from Hamburg to Austria, Vienna and Kerstin was woken with a kiss from Sascha and got a birthday present. What a wonderful start of the day and the trip! For the evening we planned to meet Stefan and Christina in the west of Austria, 2up on an BMW 1150GS ADV, to spend the evening celebrating Kerstin’s birthday and as well to spend the next three weeks together on the road. Stefan we met already two years ago in Montenegro and we had a great time together.

25^th August we started all together driving south. Via the Wurzen-Pass we passed Slovenia and spend the 1st night somewhere at the Croatian Coastline between Rijeka and Zadar. Our goal was to reach quickly a place called `Piva Monestery´ in Montenegro where we were stuck 2 years ago, when Sascha´s motorbike was suddenly out of power. At that time we stranded in this wonderful place next to it there we met wonderful people which we wanted to meet again.

The coastal road was crowded so we picked a route via Bosnia-Herzegovina. A good decision traffic wise but the last 40 km in Bosnia-Herzegovina towards Montenegro was more off than on-road; the border crossing was just a tiny oneway wooden bridge and we reached our target just with the last day light. (Sascha: That was a crazy ride, Kerstin in the front then me and then Stefan with Christina. The “street” got worth and worth, only some asphalt every 10 meters, in between big potholes, all in all maybe 3 meters wide. And Kerstin? Kerstin was giving it a go, unbelievable, she went up to 80km/h, Stefan and I had a hard time to follow. Busses and Trucks in every direction. What happened, suddenly she was going much faster than on any highway before? Ok let´s follow, I kept it quiet on the intercom to not disturb her concentration, but then I just had to ask:” Is your acceleration wire stuck? What happened? She answered: ”I need to keep close to that local driver in front of me, he knows the way and it looks like that he knows each and every pothole here! ME: ”Hmmmmmm, Ok, I will switch the intercom off again, give it a go baby!”

Note: just when we arrived at our accommodation we got a phone call from Joachim with whom together we spend the night in the car-train cabin. He had a business appointment in Vienna and the plan was to meet with his son Jannik, they had the plan to explore Croatia on their motorbikes. We told him how beautiful Montenegro is and spontaneously they decided to come to Montenegro. He called with a fevered voice: “They asked for a green card!!!! I do not want to settle or work here!!!” We were a little bit irritated. In fact they both had no green card and Jannik even did not have his motorbike title with him! Now they were stranded at this little border cross and Montenegro’s customs did not want them getting in and Bosnia’s customs did not want them back… What to say?!? Finally they made it and we spend three days together in this lovely place. We toured Durmitor National Park and joined once more the yearly celebration of the `Piva Monestery´. It is the largest Serbian Orthodox church constructed during the Ottoman occupation in the 16th and 17th centuries and noted for its frescoes.

From Montenegro to Albania

Now it was time for Albania. We said good bye to Zelnik and his family as well to Joachim and Jannik and drove to Plav, close to the Albanian border, where we camped next to a lake looking at the Albanian Alps. From here we wanted to go to a camp site at the Shkodra Lake next day. The same route we took already 2 years ago. We remembered that about 500 meter after the border the gravel road started and we reckoned to reach the camp early evening. But hey! It was a perfect tarmac road now and so we had a nice afternoon at the lake.

The Theth Round

The plan for the next day was to make the well-known `Theth-Round´ which is about 145km in total and approximately 45 km off-road – this is what we thought… and estimated that we will need about 6-7 hours. Everybody was excited in his own way. Sascha was just looking forward having a day full of fun. Stefan and Christina I guess were just animated and I, Kerstin, well I was not really sure how to feel about this up-coming exercise… Actually I do like off-road but I had no real experience with alpine off-road tracks with serpentines, cliffs and honestly I do not like going down-hill that much. But hey! I was intent on doing my best and that I will be able to make it.

To make the whole story short. We started late, around 10am and we were slow (Sascha: hmmmm was indeed a bit strange, I woke up at 5:30 to go to the bath room. I met the neighbors with their “Fully Adventure Stuffed Land Roved Defender for 40grant+”:

Sascha: “Hey what´s up in the middle of the night?”

Them: ”Just leaving for the Theth round!”,

Sascha: “? So early???”

Them “Yep, it´s a hard trip!”

Sascha: (wondering)”Yeaaah right”

They: “When do you leave?”

Sascha: “Don´t know, breakfast around 10 and then we go – I think – let´s see”

Them “:O”

Sascha (going back to sleep): “OK, C U on da road”.)

Me, Kerstin, I felt more comfortable with slower speed and Stefan as well asked for more breaks after a while. The track had very steep parts with big washed out rocks and deep gravel parts. Here and there Kerstin had a downthrown (but nothing too serious) and always jumped back on the bike with help from the others. After about 35km off-road at early afternoon we were all sweated and thankful that it will come to an end very soon when we reach tarmac again. At that stage we met another biker who was doing the Theth round the other way around. Actually we were asking the same questions each other like `Is the road becoming better this direction? Does it will end and becoming tarmac again soon? And probably we had the same thoughts: `You should better drive with us in our direction as the part coming now is horrible and you might turn late! ´ In the end we were all a little bit shocked that we still have to make another 40km off-road – no matter which direction; we wished good luck to each other and each one continued the planned direction. Now it was clear we will most likely having trouble to make it back to the camp site before it is getting dark.

In the end of the day we needed 12 hours+ for the complete Theth round, Kerstin crashed 7 times and Sascha and Stefan twice each. The last 3 hours we had to drive in the dark which had the advantage that you could not see the steep cliffs anymore and now oncoming vehicles were earlier visible thanks to their headlights… but truth be told, it wasn´t the plan to drive this track in the dark and we were all very happy when we reached the camp at 11pm.

We enjoyed the late dinner and a couple of drinks and the plan for the next day was: licking our wounds and fixing the motorbikes… Details will come soon.

Maybe one more personal thought here: Me, Kerstin, I am having days I am driving ok and others, well others… Or let´s say I drive Sascha crazy pretty often. Of course you have better days and such which are not that well; and often you know it from the first second when you hop on the bike. After that first week we had some discussion about my `driving style´. Hmmm, it is not that easy to evaluate. The expectation is high and Sascha as well is worrying about me if I will be prepared to manage the upcoming trip. And for him it is even more stressful not only managing his own way but as well looking always after me. It costs him a lot of energy and for example he would have made the Theth-Round easily in the planned time (Sascha: “Doable in 6-7 hours” without me and probably without any fall (Sascha: ”Don´t know about that one…”. I know I still have to learn a lot – but I started to practice driving motorbike when I was older already (42 in fact). And some things you just take that much easier if you are younger. Nevertheless I am really willing to make my way and as well to make Sascha feeling proud. In the end I have to learn to trust in myself and I only can hope Sascha will trust in me as well and he can imagine doing everything a tiny little bit slower – but doing it together with me. (Sascha: ”Will do!”)

I have to say `Thank you!!! ´ for all the patience help and motivating words (only sometimes I would like to ask as well to let me try finding `my way´:). As well I want to say THANK YOU A LOT Stefan and Christina – not only for the good time but as well for the patience – I know there were times I “drove” everybody crazy (except myself around the turns:).

Maybe another personal thought here: Me, Sascha, driving for 30 years plus all around the world in all conditions. It´s hard to adjust sometimes, even harder to understand why something looks that clear to me is not directly understood ;) It makes it harder when I have to look ahead what’s coming – plus I have to have on eye on the mirror at all times to see what´s happening behind me. But to say the least it has been done before and it will be done in the future. And I am sure after the first 10 to 20 thousand kilometers I don´t have to look so much in that rear mirror anymore! One of the most important tips is still, and will ever be: “GAS GAS GAS!!!” (Especially when off-road, I am not talking about speeding here. The right hand gives the stability on the bike in the dirt, it´s not the breaks it´s the acceleration! As soon as you learn this you got it all sorted! And the rest is just floating with the traffic… Theth showed us our limits, or better where we got room for improvement, but as always If you have to do it, you got to do it! And Kerstin did it just great, sometimes I thought “oh oh, what now – and she jsut said, let´s go ahead, we do not hava achoice anyhow! SO GO!!!!” Love you, my dear! ;)