A Hidden Beach on an Albanian River

September 22-23rd. 2019

Shkodra is a base in Albania from which travelers and backpackers embark on outdoor excursions. The main attraction is the Theth-Valbona hike, which is supposed to be a breathtaking slice of the Albanian Alps.

When I arrived in Shkodra from Kosovo, the bus dropped me off on the side of the road 45 minutes from my hostel. I ignored the opportunistic taxi drivers, who no doubt have the bus schedule memorized. I split up my walk with a stop at a local restaurant.

I stayed at Mi Casa es Tu Casa, a great hostel in Shkodra. They offered a trip to Blini Park, a resort on the Shale River that could either be done as a day trip or overnight. I thought it would be cool to stay overnight so that’s what I decided to do. It was also only an extra 20 euros to stay over.

I was picked up from the hostel the following morning. The road from Shkodra to Komani Lake was windy, and as we circled the lake, I experienced a rare case of motion-sickness in the car. It was miserable, but once we arrived, I felt much better.

This man at the front of the boat was a local guy who hitched a ride on the boat and was dropped off at a random place on the lake.

I boarded a ferry (A medium-sized motorboat) with the other passengers from the hostel. We spent about an hour on the boat, snapping pictures of the landscape. The sound of the boat made it difficult to talk to anyone, so I put in my AirPods and listened to music. The land around the lake was largely undeveloped, so had the feel of being untouched. Back in the US, a lake like this would have houses surrounding every inch of it. There were barely any other boats, except for an actual ferry that had cars on it.

I lost service as I got closer to our final destination. I didn’t worry, feeling certain there would be wifi at the lodge. As we entered the Shale River, the water got shallower and the boat went as far as it could before we were forced to disembark. Across the river was a beach on the river. This was Blini Park. There was a beach bar with people sitting out. It had the feeling of a gorge, so even though it was nearly noon, the sun wasn’t fully out, and it was cold in the shade. The only way to cross the river was to get on an even smaller boat that a man pushed a short distance. An unfinished bridge straddled the river. They were in the process of disassembling the bridge since the season was over.

For lunch we were served fish that was probably pulled right out of the river. More boats came and dropped off more people. It seemed like a popular place to come or the day for Albanians. Some guys were smoking hookah while others played volleyball. As I talked to the other people I came with, it turned out that none of them were spending the night. I wondered what this place would be like at night. Would there be a bonfire? I had a small room to myself, which was a pleasant surprise.

I walked around the river, checking out the area. There was a small farm where the lodge grew the vegetables they used in their cooking, which was simply more practical than shipping produce. A couple arrived on their own boat and were shooting wedding photos. If you ever find yourself somewhere people are taking wedding photos, take a moment to appreciate the fact that you are currently in a place someone thought was so beautiful or important that they decided to dress up and take pictures announcing their eternal love there.

As the afternoon wore on, the day-trippers left, and then around 4 or 5pm, the entire beach emptied out. It became evident that this was last call. I sat there watching crowds of people catch the last ferry out. I started to laugh to myself as a I realized that nearly every single person left. The only people staying at the lodge that night were staff, an Albanian family of four, and an Austrian couple.

The area was isolated; the only electricity came from a generator that was turned off at specific times to save energy. There was no wifi. I took this forced internet detox as a time to sit, write, and watch episodes of The Crown that I saved on my iPhone. The sun quickly went behind the cliffs adjacent to the lodge.

In spite of traveling for 5 months at this point, there hadn’t really been a moment where I was cut off from service like this. Even in Kosovo, where I didn’t have roaming, Wifi was readily available everywhere.

It was super relaxing. I was served a nice traditional dinner and headed to bed shortly after. The generator went off around 9:30pm and it felt like camping where you go to bed super early because it’s so dark.

I have no doubt that those chickens provided my breakfast that morning.

The next day I ate breakfast and sat on the deck. It was pouring outside and the timing couldn’t have been worse as I left my rain jacket in Kosovo. I had made a good decision to come here instead of doing the hike; I later found out that hikers had been stranded in Theth because of the rain.

I was supposed to leave in the early afternoon, but the rain delayed me for a few hours. When I finally left, I converted a trash bag into a poncho for a trash bag and braved the rain. I got in a boat with the other guests leaving, which took us to the edge of the river where we waited for another boat.

It turns out we weren’t actually waiting for a boat, but we were waiting for our captain and his family. The boat had been there the entire time, marooned on a the rocks and filled with water. The captain had three teenaged children who got to work bailing the water out of the boat. One of the sons was taking a 5-liter water jug of which his dad cut the top off and was furiously trying to remove the water. The daughter was rather futilely taking a large sponge and ringing out the water little-by-little.

Even after most of the water was removed, but boat was still too far out of the water and too heavy to push into the water. It became a group effort to get the boat into the water. We all pushed at the same time, but no dice. The only person not helping was a little girl who looked to be about 5 years old. I didn’t begrudge her for this, but I also would have preferred that she not be sitting in the boat while we were trying to push it. The captain grabbed a plank as a way to gain leverage to push the boat. After probably 5-10 minutes of pushing we finally got the boat into the water and began our journey back.

My shuttle back to Shkodra ended up being the captain’s car. His kids piled up in the back. He was nice enough to stop for a scenic pic of the sunset. They dropped me off at the hostel and I met back up with familiar faces at the hostel.