Qestorat

June 13, 2018

News flash! It looks like we may not be ending our tour in Macedonia after all. We’ll be ending in Severna Makadonia (Republic of North Macedonia). The leaders of Greece and Macedonia agreed to drop their 25 year old dispute over naming the new breakaway republic yesterday, paving the way for its entrance into the EU.

Meanwhile, back on the tour. We have a layover today in Gjirokaster, and decided to make a semi-rest day out of it so that we would have enough strength and energy to explore the city later in the day. This post is just about the same ide, so you’ll need t9 wait a bit to see anything of Gjirokaster and why it is a UNESCO protected site.

We started out with the idea that we would bike across the Drino and climb up the massive mountain range to the east toward Zagori National Park. The pavement continues for fifteen miles and climbs about three thousand feet, and our thinking was that we would just climb as far as we felt like we had legs for.

That’s not what happened though. After crossing the river and experiencing some wonderful, flattish miles along the river, we decided to take a spur road to a few of the tiny villages that dot the hillside. We got as far as Questorat, where the road ended, and turned back. You can see the entire ride in the photo below, taken from the walls of Gjirokaster castle.

This view from the castle across the Drino Valley shows today’s route. We followed the paved road that angles up and left through the middle; bent around the small ridge; and then climbed up between it and the larger ridge (Bureto Mountain, elevation 1763 meters) to Quesorat, just visible as a whitish blotch abov the ridge.

The ride as a whole was fascinating, and had a different feel than anywhere else we’ve seen in Albania so far. The interior is of course much different than the more touristy coastline, and once you leave the main road you regularly pass agricultural scenes that feel like they were taken from thirty years in the past: families scything and stacking grain by hand, lone shepherds walking their goats through the heart of a village, horses saddled and waiting to be ridden.

And very beautiful. The Drino valley is truly spectacular, with a huge scope. There’s a broad arable plain along the river, and mountain ranges rise thousands of feet up along both banks.

A new mosque, in Valare. We’ve seen four new mosques here, all blindingly white. Interesting.

We followed the road to Zahori Park until it bent past the ow frontal ridge; but after that, just past Valare, we changed course and decided to explore a semi paved lane that went east for as long as it seemed rideable - which from our GPS looked as though it would last maybe two miles, to the village of Dhoksat. The road was paved at first, but gradually deteriorated to a surface similar to,what we found on our road yesterday.Climbing steadily, we reached Dhoksat and then we’re surprised to find a very well paved lane leading out the other side and continuing to climb. The road feels like it was just newly paved, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. A bit mystifying.

We followed this to its end at Quesorat, eventually climbing about 1,300’ off the valley floor. At Quesorat we were high enough for some great views across the Drino Valley, invluding across the top of the small ridge between us and Gjirokaster.

The pavement, and the road, end at an odd spot - at a paved parking lot, striped for parked cars, in front of an old abandoned building with a bust in the front of Koto Hoxhi (1824-1895), whoever he was. We would later read of him in our tour of Gjirokaster Castle. He is something of a hero to the Albanian people, who helped to develop the Albanian alphabet and advocated teaching Albanian at a time when it was forbidden while under Ottoman rule. He taught in this building, then a university, and taught Albanian in secret. For his efforts, he was eventually imprisoned in the dungeon of Gyrokaster castle, until his death.

These mountains really speak to me for some reason. I can’t quite make it out since they’re speaking Albanian, but I think they’re advising me to get an eBike.

Looking up to Qestorat with Bureto Mountain behind, rising about six hours and feet off the valley floor.

By this time the day was heating up, and we felt like we’d had our ride. We enjoyed a wonderful coast back down the new road, and soon were back in Gjirokaster, seeking lunch. Afterwards we retired to our room for a few hours until the day cooled off again, and walked out to tour the city. But that’s a story for a different page.

I don’t know what this weevil-like bug is. It’s not the best picture, because of exposure and access problems - it was atop a five foot tall thistle growing up a crumbly slope. I went to enough effort to take the shot though that I might as well include it here.

Sheet metal is a common roofing material on the out buildings here.

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Ride stats today: 20 miles, 2,200’; for the tour: 1,599 miles, 140,600’

Today's ride: 20 miles (32 km)
Total: 1,513 miles (2,435 km)

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