After a night plagued with fever dreams for Antonio we decided to stay another night in Kujtim’s Guesthouse, allowing a full rest day before making a decision. His fever broke in the morning but was replaced by a pounding headache and a swollen and sore throat. In the afternoon we went on a short walk around the village to try. It was not good. Even walking slightly uphill on a track without packs left Antonio…
After a hearty breakfast we are trudging ourselves uphill. It’s 8:30am. The first meters are fine, on an old track leading to a cellphone tower. The next 500 vertical meters that follow are steep, switchbacking over rocks, small forest, loose gravel until it finally flattens out a bit across a meadow. Antonio spots a snake, which later turns out to be some kind of viper, the most venomous snake you can encounter here. Luckily it…
I lost my hiker legs. That was entirely expected after a year since any serious hiking (even running fell mostly by the wayside) but damn, it still got me by surprise. There’s expecting and knowing that you lost them, and there is the very real feeling of the burn and the pain and the sweat of lugging your pack up a steep hill asking yourself why you are doing this again. That was our first…
There are two types of countries in this world: orderly ones and chaotic ones. Upon exiting the airport in Tirana (Albania) I was immediately reminded that we are now back in chaos country. Although I guess it’s really not that black or white. Countries are not orderly OR chaotic but rather exist somewhere along a continuum that stretches out from one extreme end to the other. But Albania definitely leans more towards the chaotic side…
It has been just over a year since I completed my Pyrenees (GR11) hike in 2022. A day full of emotions: proud that I did it, sadness that it was over, excitement about going home and meeting up with Antonio again, and above all a deep sense of fulfillment. I walked almost 900km through the mountains. From coast to coast. Alone. A few days of relaxation in the coastal town of Cadaqués, a visit to…