Leaving Corfu was bitter sweet, but we were ready for another change. To reach Montenegro you have 2 options - stay out at sea travelling for a few days to avoid the Albanian coast, or, travel via Albania which requires you to check into the country before proceeding further. Both have their pros and cons. The main deciding factor is the weather... we had a small window of opportunity which made option 2 the better one for us.
So first up, check out of Greece - requiring us use up most of our 10,000 steps per day while negotiating officialdom at customs, port police, and harbour master who were either having a very long lunch or didn't want to deal with 2 sailors when they had huge cruise ships of tourists on day-trips. You need to have patience for this process. We sat at the last office for such a long time that they were shutting up when they remembered us, and rushed us through so they could leave.
Next morning we set off on the long voyage to the port of Sarande in Albania, the first place we could check in. A long voyage of... 15nm, or about 3.5 hours. Seriously. It takes longer for us to sail from Hillarys yacht club to Rottnest Island.
However, it is miles apart when it comes to culture. Albania was the first country we visited that had previously been a communist country. Tourism is an important but developing source of income for Albania, but there are few services or marinas to cater for visiting yachts. The coastline is also similiar to Western Australia - not in appearance of course - but there are few options for safe anchoring, and only 1 marina in the country. Port facilities are improving, but can be a little challenging for small boats such as ours. It is compulsory (and advisory) to engage an agent to assist with checkin and subsequent checkout, and they like to know where you are. As we were time poor, we approached sailing into and out of Albania purely from a functional viewpoint, to stop and shelter from coming storms (which plagued Italy, Greece and Adriatic countries from this time on).
But what a great opportunity to visit a country we would never have seen. I kept wandering around saying I'm in Albania! ( I did the same in Montenegro, except it was I'm in Yugoslavia!). After checking into Sarande, which is part of the 'Albanian Riveriera', paying fees, handing over reams of paperwork to the lovely agent, who makes a pittance from this service in the hope you'll stay and book a car or take a tour, we stayed one night and sailed on. How rude....
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| Sunset lighting up Sarande, Albania |
A quick stop for one night at the rocky and rolling anchorage next to Vlore, stretching our legs and provisioning. We admired the colourful architecture of the old town, where unfortunately we had the only 'local food' meal we've had anywhere that we pushed away from us as politely as we could. We had a stroll around the wide boulevards and checked out the Independence Monument in Flag square commemorating Independence from the Ottomans in 1912, the 16th century Ottoman Moradie Mosque which is the oldest building in Vlore, and the very pink Vlore City Hall.
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| Independence Monument |
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| Vlore Old Town |
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| Moradie Mosque |
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| Vlore City Hall |
A storm was predicted in 2 nights time so we booked into Orikum Marina, deep into Vlora Bay, first anchoring outside the marina in the supposedly milder weather. Of course, the storm came early didn't it! Taking anti-lightning precautions, which are mainly putting spare electrical devices in the microwave and crossing our fingers, we bobbed and strained in the wind, rain, lightning and thunder, while we watched the masts of boats already in the marina vaguely sway. Hmmf.
So we belatedly moved into the marina, where we stayed for 3 days, providing us with the opportunity to take a road trip (not to mention meeting new friends Vandy and Eric, who's company and friendship ever since has been an unexpected blessing). So far the vibe in Albania had been just a little strange and new, the remnants of a communist culture and system of government still in place. We are being very disrespectful of course, but we're quite certain a few KGB officers have retired in Orikum to run the car rental office or coffee shops.
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| Change is coming..... |
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| Our view from Orikum Marina, after the storm |
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| Glorious views of the coastline near Vlore, the city port jutting out into the bay provides limited protection |
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| The small but calm marina in Orikum |
The big surprise - how lovely Albania is. Stunning. The steep hills behind and around the marina were like the peaks in Scotland, lighting up at sunset ( and presumably sunrise, but who's awake then??) and just glowed. There are a few outstanding places to visit in Albania, there several UNESCO World Heritage Sites in this small country. While waiting for the swell to go down, we decided to visit one of these, Berat Castle, a couple of hours away.
On our way, I spied a small sign pointing to the 'Apollonia Archeological Park'. Let's have a quick look I say... and doesn't Mike just love a deviation! It won't take long, it's just up a small dirt road, through a small village. Expecting maybe a stone wall or two, maybe even a tower, we were astonished to see a complex of ruins spreading across fields and slopes. Apollonia was an ancient city covering approximately 81 hectares, established by the Greeks in 6th century BC, first called Gylakeia, but changed to Apollonia after our good mate Apollo. The site has been recognised by UNESCO as a site of oustanding universal value, and includes the Temple of Apollo, cisterns, storehouses, Odeon (theatre), bouleuterion (city council), Triumphal Arc and Temenos (sacred area).
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| A small part of Apollonia |
It is recommended to spend about 3 hours looking around, something I could have done easily, if only.... luckily Mike found a small cafe serving home made soup, which was dee-lish-ous. But wait, on our way back to the car I side-tracked again to have a quick look at a church on the site too.... oh no, it's the amazing Monastery of Saint Mary built in the 13th century, plus Museum of Archaeology with a collection of artifacts and sculptures from the city of Apollonia. There's only so much 'deviation' that Mike can take, so I was running around ooh and ahhing, trying to take it all in in 5 minutes. Such sweet torture.
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| Monastery and Museum... |
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| Artifacts from Apollonia |
For more information see: Unesco information on Apollonia
We finally reached the town of Berat, lying next to the Osum River. The town itself didn't particularly impress us, as by now it was a grey and rainy day, the buildings were grey and the water was grey.... but the castle and surrounding buildings, which are still inhabited, were redeeming. Berat Castle, established in the 13th century, is actually a citadel and fortress compound, containing the remains of both a Ottoman mosque - known as the Red Mosque - and Byzantine Churches.
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| Berat Castle |
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| No idea.... but pretty impressive |
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| View of the beautiful countryside from the Citadel |
The buildings surrounding Berat are the reason it is called The City of a Thousand Windows, due to the many large and decorative windows included in their architecture. We had a leisurely wander around, under a slightly grey sky, which only broke into rain when we were next to the 14th century Church of the Holy Trinity on the castle slopes - divine intervention perhaps? Mike tried to make friends with a horse nearby, I think it was his favourite moment of the day. The horse, however, was not easily impressed.
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| Minaret of the Red Mosque, possibly from the 14th century |
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| Church of the Holy Trinity |
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| Just a few of the thousand windows |
We returned to Orikim nestled at the base of the beautiful hills, very satisfied with our one day excursion in Albania. If you get a chance to go - do, and try the chicken and lemon soup.
As required by Albanian authorities we were not able to check out of the country and then sail up their coastline; you must leave as soon as you have checked out. So we made out way back to Vlore and then to Durres in the north, where we docked for the night in the middle of a very industrial port. Not far across from us, was a sorry looking yacht with a tatty sail tied up to a much larger coastal cargo ship, which was quite an unusual set-up. It was explained to us later that this would have been a stolen yacht used to smuggle refugees across to Italy, and then abandoned. Then it was found and claimed by the operators of the cargo ship, and they were waiting out the period so they could keep it under salvage rights.
However, we were free to continue our journey. Like Albania, Montenegro has strict rules about your whereabouts while in the country, and we could not continue onto our final destination without reporting to the authorities in the first port we came to. In this case it was the city of Bar. We were slightly concerned about this port, as the dock and large black truck tires used to fend off boats are not kind to small white yachts. In addition, not long before, friends of ours from Finike (extremely experienced sailors) happened to be in the process of checking in, when a freak 100-year storm hit the city, badly damaging surrounding buildings, and their yacht which happened to be alongside at the time. In fact, as I write this, they have only just completed the repairs in Tunisia. I wondered if this weather might have something to do with why there seemed to be so many Bars in town. I am such an idiot, I confused bar with Bar...
But after this enforced overnight stop, we were on our way again, and today was the day we would finally enter the Bay of Kotor. All was predicted to be well, and off we set in a jubuilant mood. Not long after, the skies began to darken, with rain coming in sideways and the visibility reduced. Vandy, who was making her way on a faster catamaran and headed straight to Montenegro, bypassing Albania and Bar, contacted us to say, don't leave now.... Vandy is a weather guru, and if she says don't go, don't. Ummmm... well, said I, we've already left, and yes it isn't looking so good out here.* The rain plummeted down, the lightning was impressive but waaay too close. Kirrikie pushed on through the waves and we "joked" about our imminent demise. Not far from us a yacht, just visible in the watery haze, battled on with full sails up - madness, and not, to us, the safest choice.
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| There's another yacht out there... somewhere |
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| Safely inside Bokor , Bay of Kotor |
Luckily it only lasted a few hours, and once we entered the Bay of Kotor about 2pm all calmed down, the rainbow appeared, we found a shallow anchorage in mud, and peace returned. We celebrated with bacon sarnies which for some reason seemed to be the ultimate comfort food, tidied up, ready to join long-lost friends the next day and start exploring Montenegro.
*In our defence, this really was unpredicted: the famous CAPE index we use to check for storms showed nothing. Vandy was also flummoxed, and ended up contacting her weather friends in the US to ask why/how these conditions were not predicted anywhere. In other parts of the Adriatic and down past Corfu, yachts suffered badly and we counted ourselves lucky.
