April 25, 2023
Shëngjin to Shkodër
We had a relative sleep in until 6am this morning, so everyone was in a better mood getting out of the apartment. Our host came to check us out at about 9am. We were certainly grateful for the inside accommodation while we watched the lightening storm from the balcony at night.
We had to backtrack a little bit into Lezhë then turned onto a busy highway for about 6km. It felt a bit like riding on state highway 1 in New Zealand, but with more traffic. There was just 1 lane in each direction and cars were travelling pretty fast. There were also lots of trucks, but the worst was the 20cm wide channel in the seal, about 50cm inside the white line. Sometimes it was flush with the seal, but other times it crumbled away into something as treacherous as a tram track. With the trailer it was impossible to keep right because you could suddenly lose a wheel in there. If there was nothing coming against them most people gave us plenty of room, but if there was something coming they wouldn't often slow down to pass so we got buffeted around by a few big trucks which is unnerving with a kid and a trailer. Not that Tobias seemed to be at all conscious of the danger. He sat up front saying "more truck, more truck".
Eventually we turned off onto a wonderful calm road where we could ride side by side through the farmland and enjoy the view. We got off route a few times and ended up on some pretty rough roads, but we could find our way back okay. The predicted rain hadn't materialised and we enjoyed the sunshine, though the potholes showed evidence of last night's rain. A tailwind meant we managed to cover about 20km before we stopped in someone's driveway for a coffee and to give Tobias a break.
We weren't long underway when we met 2 cyclists going the opposite direction to us. A British couple on their honeymoon bike trip which seems like an excellent idea. We enjoyed chatting with them for 20 minutes while Tobias ran up and down the road. Another 3km down the road we stopped at the small village of Gramsh for lunch. There was one very small store where we could by some bread and tomatoes then we sat out front to eat. There was a digger parked out front so we thought we were surely going to be able to sit and eat our food while Tobias watched that, but unfortunately it moved on so I ended up scoffing my food then following my child following it all the way through town.
Eventually I got sick of the digger (I think Tobias could have watched it all day) and we got underway with him in the trailer. Just after he fell asleep we came across some more cyclists, two guys riding from Paris to Istanbul. They were super enthusiastic and we loved comparing notes and talking about our trips. It's a good thing we don't have big distances planned each day, because we keep meeting so many interesting people to talk to.
It was another pleasant 10km on the backroad with very little traffic and interesting views over the farmland until we joined the busy highway for the last 10km into Shkodër. And it still had the annoying channel. About 5km from the end we heard Tobias in the back making ambulance noises "doo dah doo dah", perhaps mimicking the horns, or predicting our fate. He didn't seem to mind being in the trailer so we left him there to cover some ground. It's fun having him up front, but chatting with him takes a bit of focus and if he gets bored he starts banging on my knees or wriggling around a bit more which is fun unless there is a truck zooming past 1m away. I'd downloaded a 2.5hr playlist of audiobooks for toddlers incase it rained, so we put some of them on for him.
By some miracle we arrived in Shkodër at exactly 3pm, the time we'd arranged to meet our host. Also just as it started raining. He helped us with the bikes and trailers upstairs and we showered before getting outside with Tobias on his bike. We've had amazing luck because it decided to stop raining again all evening so we could enjoy a stroll through Shkodër. We sat outside for dinner on a pedestrian street even though it was a bit chilly because it meant Tobias could blast up and down on his bike while we enjoyed a beer. He is still learning traffic etiquette so we cringed a few times while people were trying to get past him. We also had to set some boundaries for distance for the first time. On foot he won't normally get very far away from us, but on the bike he seems to just put his head down and stride off out of sight without much thought.
After dinner we took the long way home through the center of town. It is an interesting city and it feels very people friendly with wide footpaths and lots of people on bikes. Tobias was getting pretty tired and took a few big crashes, including hitting his bars on a pole while going full speed. He really didn't seem to mind and dusted himself off each time and carried on. Back at the apartment he then crashed off the very unstable coffee table and crushed his wrist under it which both James and I thought might have been a serious injury, but he was touching it and using it fine once he got over the tears.
We're hoping for another good night's sleep because tomorrow we tackle a bit more elevation than we've faced so far once we get across the border into Montenegro. The weather is also looking dryer so we are planning on getting out the tent and camping.
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Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 392 km (243 miles)
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