Collage of a long lovely day

We’ve had 12 hours on the go today as we had to leave the Valbona Valley early to drive back down the twisty valley road to get the ferry from Fierze for an amazingly scenic 2.5 hours down through the gorges of the Drin River. Last year we thought the Iron Gates and Danube gorge was stunning but even with the rain today this was even more spectacular. It took the captain a lot of shouting and gesticulating to get safely docked and getting the vehicles off was quite a feat of driving as there was a tunnel almost immediately and vans were queuing up to get on for the return journey.

For the first time here we encountered a really potholed narrow road. Just as well it wasn’t busy as a lot of bits of road on my side had crumbled hundreds of feet down to the river below with only a few white painted stones indicating the danger. The views were spectacular which made up for the long slow drive to Rosafa Castle. We had a nice salmon and spinach risotto for €4 each before climbing the steep path up to see the castle which had its origins 3rd century BCE with numerous additions especially in the times of Venetians and Ottomans. Its main attraction was the stunning views in all directions including Shkoder our base for tonight.

Our hotel is traditional style and I’d charming though I’ll need my head torch to read in bed. Tedi took us for an hour's walk around the town which has beautiful old building and quite a cafe culture. Many people get around on bikes. We saw a new mosque paid for by Saudi. We went into the 1864 St Stephens Cathedral just before a service. The singing was lovely. There’s a lot of statues to Mother Theresa.

By the time we got back we’d walked 6 miles in total so we’ll just have some soup for dinner as we move on to Durrës tomorrow.

Last night #2 daughter kindly organised a Moonpig card for me for Nathaniel’s first night tomorrow as our wifi kept cutting out.

The collage is the gorges from the ferry, the dramatic road and the view from the castle.