Albania is not the first place on most people’s must-see list, but it should be. In the second of four posts, Getaway‘s Peter Frost reports back on the famed Accursed Mountains.
READ: Is Albania on your bucket list?
Mountains of pain and glory
The Accursed Mountains, Albania’s western fortress against the rest of the Balkan lands (and the world), is part of the Dinaric Alps, the steepest, deepest, most southern Pleistocene glacials after the Scandinavian fjords. The limestone and dolomite gorges, cliffs and peaks rise vertically in some areas to 1000 metres from the valley floor, carved some two million years ago by ice sheets that have long since retreated.
It’s like the Norwegian fjords without the water – elemental, archaic and well off the tourist grid. Fully 70 percent of the range simply hasn’t been explored because it is so inaccessible.
How do you get there?
From the northern city of Shkodër there are two roads into the Accurseds, the spectacular SH20 and the busier SH21.
What’s to do up there?
Visitors go for the jaw-dropping vistas and to explore by car or on foot. Hiking, scrambling and wellness are high on the list. The valleys are epic, the rockfaces like nothing you’ve seen before and it’s special just to spend time up there. In the small communities there are chalets and campsites set aside for hikers and visitors.
Where’s the epicentre?
There are two separate routings up into the Accurseds. The town of Theth near the Valbona Valley National Park is the best-known spot, popular with backpackers and the international hiking community. But for a much more authentic and less busy experience, head up the SH20 in the far west, on the Montenegrin border. The village of Tamarë is the centre of things here. It will be familiar to anyone who is a Tintin fan (King Ottokar’s Sceptre); terracotta tiles, stone walls, small windows against the winter cold and, invariably a vegetable garden and a battered old car out front.
More about that epic road!
The SH20 is worth the trip to Albania alone. Built in 2017 with EU money, it winds up through the mountains for 50km to small communities that time has forgotten. There are over 300 switchbacks on the road, most with extraordinary views up and down the valleys. There are plenty of places to stop and walk off into the mountains, or just stop and marvel at the cliffs and the Cem River.
Where to stay
In Tamarë, Sofra Kelmendit is run by Luçie and her son Angelo. Rooms all have astonishing views of the surrounding mountains and there is a family restaurant downstairs serving local speciality meals. It costs R700 a night for two, sharing. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/32423652?guests=1&adults=1&s=67&unique_share_id=36bb3534-946f-44c2-a764-011720c5a11d
The car
BMW X1 sDrive18d
The Balkans is a demanding test landscape for any car; broken backroads in Bosnia and Herzegovina, steep mountain passes through Slovenia, Montenegro and Albania. BMW’s latest X1 sDrive18d acquitted itself well; the supple suspension saw off the worst of the ruts and the perky 1.8-litre diesel engine pulled well on the passes. The new car is bigger than the previous model but still manageably compact in the tighter alleys of Shkoder. Inside materials are much improved and it’s a comfortable place to be, even after 900km stretches. The raft of aids are welcome, as is the excellent fuel consumption. The final figure for the 4000km trip was
a commendable 5,0l/100km. The marque will bring the full electric to our shores and, on current evidence across the rest of the range, it should be a cracker. But there’s no getting away from the real-world advantages of the diesel sDrive18d. Handsome, practical, frugal, decent enough to drive and sporting plenty of badge appeal. The X1 is now exactly the right size and should sell like hot apfelstrudel up a cold Austrian Alp.
Details
Price: R790 617
Engine: 2,0-litre, 4-cylinder, turbodiesel
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Power: 110 kW
Torque: 360 Nm
0-100 km/h: 8,9 seconds
Top speed: 210 km/h
Fuel Consumption: 5.0 L/100 km
Rivals: Mercedes-Benz GLA, Audi Q3
Pictures: Peter Frost
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