This day hike in Northern Albania is one of the area’s most celebrated trails and we were giddy with excitement as we bid farewell to Valbona village this morning to start the journey. For centuries this trail has connected the glacial valleys of Valbonë and Thethi, crossing over the 1800m high Valbonë pass, which is only accessible during the summer months due to heavy snowfall. It’s a moderate hike which should take you around 6-7 hours to cover the roughly 9km-12km distance depending on where you start, rewarding you with spectacular scenery almost the entire way.
Rewarding our first uphill section, the Simoni Kafe appeared like a mirage around a bend in the path with its shaded bar and offering of cold and hot beverages.
I went for my usual extra strong Turkish coffee which has been fueling up my hikes these past few days and making me wonder how I’ve trekked without them for so long… (hiking destinations of the world please take note!).
From then on the trail got steeper, leading us towards a large bowl of alpine meadows, framed by rocky slopes that were to take us up to the Valbonë Pass.
About halfway up the valley started appearing to our left with clear, magnificent views as far as the eyes could see.
At times a bit vertiginous, the trail hugged the ridge for a little while, adding a bit of scrambling to our route.
Reaching the Valbonë pass at 1,812 meters under the blazing midday sun was simply glorious.
Views opened up all around us with opportunities to go slightly higher up a few craggy peaks for even better perspectives. Time to take it slow and let it all soak in… accursed or not, these are some breathtakingly beautiful mountains we were lucky to be trekking through.
The Albanian Alps were nicknamed the “Accursed Mountains” supposedly by the Slavic soldiers trying to cross them a while back.
From the pass, it’s now down, down, down all the way to the village of Theth. We passed horses carrying luggage which is the common thing to do here seeing as there’s no direct road between Valbona and Theth – only the pass.
Much of the way down is amid shaded forest with scenic openings appearing with a cafe or sloping meadow to admire the changing vistas.
Soon we got a glimpse of our destination for the night, the famous Theth (or Thethi) village down in the valley.
Theth is legendary, the kind of places you can hardly believe still exists today. In the heart of Theth National Park, the small village stands as the most well-preserved alpine village in Albania and was declared a Protected Historic Centre.
Only a few original families still live in Theth in the summer and a few outsider Albanians are slowly coming up here to open businesses as tourism is slowly starting to grow. The setting is just outstanding. You feel like you’re in this protected little bowl of natural beauty and totally forget for a moment that this is indeed the 21st century.
We walked around the village to explore its unique setting, stone-walled terraces dating back to the Bronze Age, little farmhouses growing veggies and grapevines, glacial streams…
…and a blood feud tower. I had read about them prior to coming here and standing right in front of one was seeing medieval history come to life. This region was famous for blood feuds which have slowly disappeared from modern Albanian life although some other areas have seen this tradition return since the fall of Communism.
It’s totally worth learning more about it but in a nutshell, protecting one’s honor is an essential component of Albanian culture even at the cost of one’s life. Committing a serious personal attack on a member of any family (failure to pay a debt, seducing a woman, violating private property, killing a guest, etc.) could only be redeemed by the killing of the offender or a member of their family in order to salvage one’s honor.
These fortified towers were used as safe haven for men engaged in blood feuds. Males from the family involved would be able to lock themselves in the tower, until some relative had been killed and it was then safe to come out. It is believed that there are still about 700 Albanian families affected by blood feuds which are passed down generations if the debt is not paid…
The stone-built Catholic Church stands proudly in the middle of it all. Legend has it that the villagers moved here in order to worship in the Christian faith undisturbed. It’s as iconic as the village itself and looked even more stunning as the light started to fade and we settled in for a celebratory dinner, still enchanted by the most perfect of hiking day.
