This is a great time to visit. Nearly all the guest-houses have been empty even in towns. The only disadvantage is that spring rain is later than normal.

Having no trouble getting down to Lake Koman from the mountain, the boat man was late and the phone number I had been given had a digit wrong, but I got onto the ferry on time along with several German motorcyclists. (Motorbike touring is popular in Southern Europe. I long for an end to the fashion for Harley noise and the big quiet touring BMWs take over in Canada).

This donkey was unhappy in the rain until somebody found a plastic bag for it.

100 metres into their lake the ferry engine stopped and we drifted for 20 minutes or so before starting again for Fierze at lower speed. The crew of 3 relaxed with beer, and we arrived in 3hrs instead of 2.

At Fierze I was close to Valbona National Park and I saw my first signs of organized tourism - maybe 15 or 20 ?Italian cyclists lead by macho males in Lycra suites followed well behind by the others.

Thinking of the male/female issue, I have since met an Albanian who introduced me to his wife in the evening then his other wife next morning. They all work together around the house and various children come & go.

It was raining on & off so I planned a short ride from Fierze & found a lovely guest house in a quiet village in a dead-end valley near Valbona. For the next 3 or 4 days I woke to clear blue skies with snow on peaks and ridges around me.

I was told there was too much snow to do the walk from Valbona to Theth so I rode south to Kukes. There is lots of bird-song and cuckoos sound plentiful. A hum of unseen bees filled any hillside filled with May blossom. Villages were widely spaced & pretty.

Valbona to Kukes was a lovely but long day just inside the Kosovo border. Mostly, cars are rare & drivers courteous. However, I remembered reading about Kosovo being an entrepôt for drugs entering Europe with the sudden occurrence of various late-model black Mercedes, sometimes driven at extreme speed by young males.

My choice of route is sometimes determined by the hotels or B&bs on Air bnb, or Booking.com. This hotel in Kukes was a nice hotel but has no sign even to show it is a hotel.

65km from Kukes I found a little farm-stay which sounded just what I like. They advertised access to a washing machine so I booked for 2 nights to spend a day catching up, checking the bike, and relaxing. The first Pass after Kukes was on the paved road to Peshkope, after which I missed my turning off it.

It would have been quicker to keep on the road but my craving for adventure led me back then steeply down a valley-side past the school near Resk, where the children came out to cheer me (thereby loosing their football bouncing into the valley). I had not realized the following 45 km were all dirt road, sometimes steep & clinging to the valley-sides.

My bnb in Arras is marked on the wrong side of the river on Maps.me so I crossed an old wooden bridge, trying not to let a wheel dive between the planks, then had to back-track later. Once in the village I was not sure where to go so I telephoned my host who guessed, incorrectly, that I was arriving from the paved road in the opposite direction. His directions took me across the river again on a new bridge that is on none of my maps, then up hill for 5km where I found a group of youths and telephoned again...... all charming & friendly people, but not always correct advice!

The people were very friendly and helpful, but almost none of the advertised facilities worked, and I would have enjoyed a light & hand baisin in the "Turkish squat toilet". However, I've been told there is a strong tradition of hospitality in Albania & I've seen nothing to make me doubt it. The large diaspora of people earning higher pay in other countries left lots of empty and beautiful mountain country & farms back home.

There is seldom more than 1 hr of cycling between friendly cafe's where they always have tiny cups of black coffee, occasionally milk & medium cups too.

Today, mostly between rain showers, I walked up to Galicnik at 1400 metres where I was escorted to the only open cafe by a very large, good-natured dog, then sat out another hour of sleet.

Tomorrow the forecast is better and I'll ride south in N Macedonia to Ohrid.

Dave