Travels!!: The Road to Theth

You never know quite where the day will take you. My day at the school in Boga, Albania started off with sheep poo all over the doorway and ended with me spending all my Albanian money going to Theth!

OK...the road to Theth is not exactly a road. Halfway through Boga you get a gravel road, and as you proceed north to Theth, gravel turns to rocks and bigger, sharp and jagged rocks! (And I have such admiration for Land Rovers now! There really is no substitute!) Theth is only 26km from Boga, but it takes about 2 hours to get there. They are working on the road, but from the looks of it, who knows when it will be finished.

My guides to Theth were Elona (my student from the class) and her Dad, the best driver for the occasion. In addition to having a small farm and a cafe, his other side business is a “taxi” service. So for 600 Leks, I was on my way to Theth!

The road was treacherous, but as long as Elona’s Dad had cigarettes (he was a chain smoker), all was OK. I didn’t worry about the perilous cliffs and the little memorial markers along the way for people who had fallen.

Two hours of winding around the mountains on a one-lane “road” more than rocky path passing by adventure travellers on motorcycles and riding in SUVs, we finally got to Theth. And Theth is smaller than Boga and much more isolated, but a perfect place for hikers, eco-tourists, and people looking to really be isolated in a beautiful and strange place right in the middle of a national park. Beautiful, breath-taking mountains, family farms & the “blood-feud” tower, which we got to go into. It was like nothing I had seen before. And I was so happy to finally get there and see another part of Albania.

Over Turkish coffee (for me), beer (for Elona’s Dad) and soda (for Elona), Elona told me a little bit about the place. It’s totally isolated in winter and there is no real way to get there. So the people work very hard in the summer to get them through the winter, but they’ve been doing that for centuries. A lot of young people now, though, have moved south for post secondary education & broader opportunities.

I couldn’t quite get over how quiet & beautiful it was. And that more people should see it, but then “therein lies the rub”: more people may inevitably alter its simple splendour.