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Mt. Olympus Range Day 2 Refuge A (2100m) - Skala peak (2866m) - Prionia (1100m) Distance: 12km Elevation Gain: 766m Elevation Loss: 1766m Time: 6.25 hours Total Distance: ~18km Total Elevation Gain/Loss: 1766m We had the best sleep one can have at a mountain refuge. Ashleigh and I woke up around 5.30am, had breakfast and got ready to go. It was slowly getting light out so we didn't need any headlamps to hike. Everyone else was still sleeping (families + kids), but we wanted the best weather conditions and hiking early is the best! It was a beautiful morning and we were the first ones on the trail towards the summits of Mt. Olympus. We felt energized after a good dinner and a long sleep so we hiked up the first 400m of elevation at a quick pace. We did have a slight case of summit fever as well, since it had been so long since we reached an actual peak. The second half of the hike was quite a bit more difficult, the sun had come up, the temperature was dropping with elevation gain and the wind picked up considerably. Furthermore the trail became very steep and consisted of lose scree. The wind gusts (forecasted winds were in the 40-50km/h range + gusts) made the trek up a lot more work than it should have been, and we had to be careful. Luckily we had our jackets, gloves, mittens and a decent layer on, so we weren't that cold. I put the daypack on Ashleigh to give her some more weight, so she wouldn't fly of the moutain. After two hours we had finally reached the first summit of Mt. Olympus: Skala peak at 2866m. It was crazy windy up there, but there was a small wall that someone had built, providing us with some cover so we could rest for a bit and take in the amazing view. Most clouds had moved on due to the strong winds and the view behind the peaks was breathtaking. A Spanish lady had come up as well and took our picture with the flag. Now we got to wave it on two peaks, one on each continent: Africa and Europe. The other Olympus summits were a bit farther away one to the left a good half hour hike, the others to the right. Mytikas, Greece's highpoint at 2917m looked like it was within our reach. Unfortunately it was still some distance away and would require us to scramble down a treacherous ridge an then scramble up through some scary cliff sections. We were advised to watch out for rockfall there as well and with these winds and around zero degree wind chills, we decided not to attempt the other peaks (which were only a few meters higher anyways) and would instead be happy to successfully having reached one of them. After a quick break we started to head down and met many other hikers coming up. The Spanish hiker also came down after a quick attempt on Mytikas, it looked like she was going to approach it from a different route. We made our way down, had a nice lunch at the refuge and continued down the mountain. The temperature rose, our feet were hurting and after 4 hours of going downhill we were glad to reach the cold springs near Prionia. We soaked our feet for a bit, filled up our water and waited by the road for our ride down. One Greek couple took us half way and then a Bulgarian family the rest of the way. They stopped at a canyon so we could take some pics and we had some good chats. After a long day we were glad to be back in the town and we grabbed an early dinner as well as a celebratory brew. The clouds were, as promised, moving in and were filled with some heavy rain, so we hitched a ride back to the beach town in the box of a pick up truck (something Ashleigh apparently always wanted to experience). At night we relaxed, showered and prepared for the next day. Day 1 Prionia (1100m) - Refuge A (2100m) Distance: 6km Elevation gain: 1000m Time: 2.75 hours We left Trikala early in the morning to catch the train to Litochoro. We had to change trains at some random station which we didn't know about, but luckily a friendly lady told us that we need to change trains. We arrived at the station, there were no buses so we tried hitching a ride into the small town outside of Litochoro, where our hostel was. We were unsuccessful and had to walk the 6kms in the heat. We arrived soaking wet, dropped our bags and went for Gyros. Since the weather forecast on Mount Olympus was only decent for today and tomorrow we decided to head up as soon as possible. We reserved a spot in the refuge, repacked our stuff to "essentials only" and headed for the bus, that was going into Litochoro. We arrived there, picked up some food for the hike and started walking towards Prionia We started the hike in Prionia (1100m) after we had hitched a 17km ride up from Litochoro (330m). It was already later in the afternoon but still very hot. I was carrying Ashleigh's big backpack and Ashleigh had the camelback. The trail was very well maintained with many steps and some railed sections. It was moderately steep for an hour before turning into steeper switchbacks. Most of the trail was in the shady trees but the last part before the Refuge A (2100m) was in the open, with small shrubs and tons of switchbacks. We could see the refuge from far below so it made us push hard to reach it in time before the sun was setting. We only encountered some rain showers and had checked the weather before. It was looking favorable except for a lot of rain the day after tomorrow, so we used this window to climb up. Otherwise we would have probably been stuck in the small town for a while. The hike up went smoothly, we met many families that were poorly prepared and struggling to get up with the poor kids. The refuge is amazing, basically a hostel with a restaurant. We had a full meal, a greek salad and spaghetti for a decent price. It was cooling down quite a bit, so we crawled into the blankets. Lights were out at ten, but we passed out before then. Today John and I caught the bus to Meteora to see the many monasteries. We took the bus to the top and walked down. All the monasteries are built into rocks and are quite big. There used to be 26 of them at one point, many no longer exist. The rocks looked like the hoodoos in Writing on stone park in Alberta, just about 100 times bigger! We didn't go into any monasteries because we had to be covered top to bottom and there were about three tour buses at each one and well, we just didn't want to deal with that! The outside is the most impressive draw to the monasteries anyways. It only took us about three hours to walk around 10km and the heat today took everything out of us. So we came back to the hostel, had ice cold showers and finally cooled off. And I bet you guess what we had for dinner... Gyros! Not that we haven't had them everyday for the past week, we just can't get enough. Today John and I were up quite early to catch our 6:45 am bus to Greece. A thunderstorm was looming over us so we waited for the downpour to subside before we walked to the station. Luckily it was an actual coach bus and no more mini buses, makes for a much comfier ride! The ride was good, quicker than expected. We had heard from other travelers that the Greece border crossing took three hours, but we got through in 1.5 hours! And when we had to change buses we thought we had a 3 hour wait, but we made it just in time for a bus leaving in 10 mins! We arrived in Trikala, Greece around 2:00pm and headed for our hostel. It is very hot here and humid, about 35+ degrees. We hung out at the hostel for a few hours and then went for a walk around the city. First we stopped for a souvlaki and then walked up a clock tower in a fortress to enjoy the view over the city. Since it was so hot and we were running out of water we went back and just relaxed all night. There's not much to this hostel. It seems like the more pricey hostels don't have air conditioning, breakfast or even a full kitchen, while the cheaper ones have it all! I guess that's the advantage of being the only hostel in town. Our holiday was over and we started our trip back to Sarande. A young engineer with excellent English gave us a ride back to the city. We got to hear a lot about his life here, the projects he is involved in all over the country and the point of having a "difficult to deal with" boss was brought up. We had previously discussed this topic with the friendly staff from the hostel in Sarande, which had all quit their positions to work somewhere else, since their boss was unwilling to learn from them in order to improve the hostel and was only concerned with profit margins. It seemed to be the case here a lot, that all focus was in trying to "only" make money and neglect the suggestions from their knowledgeable working staff to get them further. So instead of going back to the hostel, we boycotted the owner as well and found Kelly & Paul, the former hostel workers at their new place, a beautiful villa with an amazing sea view. The place is still in its developing phase to be opened up as a hostel/apartment. They gave us a room and we hung out at the hostel. In the afternoon we went down to the water to jump in one more time, before we head further inland. We ordered food in for dinner and chatted most of the night about the hostel and other random things. We both really enjoyed Albania and the people we met, the travelers, workers as well as the locals. Finally Ashleigh and I had our relaxing vacation that we both needed. Our mornings consisted of sleeping in, eating a pile of fresh fruit and wandering down to one of the many beaches to do absolutely nothing. We would lay in the sand, swim, snorkel, read and eat. Sounds amazing right? We do apologize for not posting for a while but we had no wifi or hotspot in this small town, something that was ok with us as well, so we could get away from the internet, research and checking Facebook. The beaches in Ksamil were amazing, sandy and packed with mostly domestic vacationers. It's still a somewhat hidden gem, and in full force to develop into the next Croatia. One does not need to leave the beach, food and drinks as well as board games are sold by the kids and local people right on the beach. There are many small islands around the peninsula and we swam to one of them to get our workout in. We also enjoyed our time apart and I walked 6km to the Unesco World Heritage site of Butrint, an amazingly well preserved ruin site dating back to the sixth century BC. I enjoyed the peaceful ruins for some time before walking back to Ksamil. Ashleigh in the meantime, had her quiet time to read and tan. Overall we are now well rested and ready to hit the road again. After another amazing pancake breakfast Ashleigh and I said our goodbyes to the hostel group and walked to the road that leads to Ksamil, a small town a few kilometers south of Sarande best known for it's amazing sand beaches. We found a ride in a few minutes and got there just before noon. We had lined up an Air BnB for three nights and were excited to have our own place for a few days. The owners sister showed us the small apartment and we gave her our laundry that needed to be done badly. After lunch we walked down to one of the beaches ten minutes from our place. It had a very nice sandy beach and clear water. Kids were playing everywhere and it was fairly busy. We found ourselves a nice spot right by the water and relaxed, swam and read our books. In the afternoon we stocked up on groceries, had dinner and went for a walk to the other beaches to scout out the best one. We watched the sunset along the beach walk and called it a day. Ashleigh and I had planned to see the famous blue eye, so we walked to the edge of town to hitch a ride. We had no success and wandered back to the bus stop. We met six other people from the hostel, who had the same plan as us, so we decided to get a bus instead and I haggled us a deal. For two bucks each the bus would drop us off by the entrance. We got there after a short ride and walked the few kilometers to the sight. The blue eye is a small hole with crystal clear and freezing cold water. It's a spring that goes as deep as 55meters. The Kiwis and I decided to jump off a platform into the blue eye. It was pretty cold, but refreshing at the same time, the strong current pushed you up instantly. Afterwards we relaxed by the river, had lunch and socialized with our multicultural group. We were all ready to leave and had planned to hitch back to Sarande, when all of a sudden it started to pour. We were all drenched while running back for cover. To warm up we had some Rakija and then we played cards for a few hours until the weather cleared. The New Zealanders found a cab that would take us back for 50 euros total, a ridiculous price for 22kms. Ashleigh and I decided to hitch a ride back instead, while the rest took the taxi. We found a ride within minutes when we got back to the main road. A couple young guys in a fancy Beamer picked us up and drove us back in less than 30mins. At 8pm most people and some of the workers from the hostel went out to a nice seafood restaurant. We enjoyed some great food and had good chats. Afterwards we all went to a small local pub to enjoy one dollar beers. The night was young and so we wandered down to the beach and all went for a night swim. The water was surprisingly warm. By the time we got back to the hostel it was past 4am and our Kiwi friends packed up to head for the 5am bus, whereas I went to bed to get some sleep before the new day would start. Ashleigh and I had planned to see the famous blue eye, so we walked to the edge of town to hitch a ride. We had no success and wandered back to the bus stop. We met six other people from the hostel, who had the same plan as us, so we decided to get a bus instead and I haggled us a deal. For two bucks each the bus would drop us off by the entrance. We got there after a short ride and walked the few kilometers to the sight. The blue eye is a small hole with crystal clear and freezing cold water. It's a spring that goes as deep as 55meters. The Kiwis and I decided to jump off a platform into the blue eye. It was pretty cold, but refreshing at the same time, the strong current pushed you up instantly. Afterwards we relaxed by the river, had lunch and socialized with our multicultural group. We were all ready to leave and had planned to hitch back to Sarande, when all of a sudden it started to pour. We were all drenched while running back for cover. To warm up we had some Rakija and then we played cards for a few hours until the weather cleared. The New Zealanders found a cab that would take us back for 50 euros total, a ridiculous price for 22kms. Ashleigh and I decided to hitch a ride back instead, while the rest took the taxi. We found a ride within minutes when we got back to the main road. A couple young guys in a fancy Beamer picked us up and drove us back in less than 30mins. At 8pm most people and some of the workers from the hostel went out to a nice seafood restaurant. We enjoyed some great food and had good chats. Afterwards we all went to a small local pub to enjoy one dollar beers. The night was young and so we wandered down to the beach and all went for a night swim. The water was surprisingly warm. By the time we got back to the hostel it was past 4am and our Kiwi friends packed up to head for the 5am bus, whereas I went to bed to get some sleep before the new day would start. Ashleigh and I got up early to catch a shared taxi to the bus station at 7.30am. There were six other backpackers going the same direction and the minibus filled up quickly. Luckily everything fit in somehow and we were on the way - 225km to Sarande. The road was pretty bad as usual with the small towns in between, where locals were selling basically everything from animal feed to random metal parts. The road got pretty bad at one point and huge boulders as well as rocks were randomly laying around forcing the driver to swerve around them. After six hours we arrived in beautiful Sarande right on Albanians southern coast. We could see a big thunderstorm building up so we rushed to the hostel just in time to enjoy the show from the 8th floor balcony. The views were amazing even without a lightning show, in the near distance we can see Corfu, the Greek island, and we have the beaches right in front of the doors. The storm was building up and we got to see a big water spout over the Ionian sea, followed by a lightning and thunder show. Afterwards we strolled down to the beach and relaxed on one of the many lounging chairs. At night we played cards with the cool people at the hostel. Well today didn't exactly turn out the way John and I had hoped but we managed. Originally we were going to check out a waterfall to cool off from this 35 degree weather. We wanted to catch the 9:00am bus but since we didn't get to sleep until 3:00 am due to the loud people in the hostel, we slept in a bit. We knew there was another way to go to the falls so we went to a bus stop and waited for over an hour for the bus to come. After it didn't, we walked to find the bus station to catch the next hourly bus. But there was no bus station in sight and we walked a couple of kilometers. There isn't much structure for Albanian buses and we knew that coming here. Unfortunately a bus ride was impossible to find so we picked up some ice cream bars and refreshed ourselves with a beer. There's not much here to do to cool down, so we just sat in the shade and loved when the breeze came through. At 4:00pm, when the sun was lower, we walked up to the fortress on the hill. There are still families living inside the fortress and the ruins surround them. We had a big dinner at the hostel, consisting of salads, potatoes and chicken skewers. We chatted a bit then headed to bed before midnight since another early morning is awaiting us. |
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