This 119-mile Mountaineering Path Crosses 3 International locations — and A few of Europe’s Most Untouched Surroundings

On the summit of Kosovo’s highest peak, nothing stirred. Starkly elegant mountains stretched out on all sides, towering over glacial lakes and fields of wildflowers. As we lay on the rocks, recovering from a punishing ultimate push, it appeared like we’d fallen out of time.

The 8,714-foot Gjeravica mountain — the one we’d simply climbed — sits within the Accursed Mountains, which straddle the borders of Kosovo, Montenegro, and Albania. For a lot of the previous century, this embattled a part of southeast Europe was a no-go zone, however vacationers are actually coming in rising numbers to find its wilds.

That’s partly all the way down to the Peaks of the Balkans, a long-distance transnational mountaineering path that was launched in 2012 by a German improvement group and runs for 119 miles, crisscrossing the three international locations’ borders. Drawn to distant locations, I’d wished to discover it for years — and so, dragging alongside my sport operating companion, Cristina, who’d by no means finished a multiday hike, we set out in mid-August for a seven-day loop of the path.

Our journey had begun 5 days earlier in Albania’s capital, Tirana. From there, we’d hopped a bus to Shkodër, and the subsequent day, took a minivan to Theth — a touristy village identified for the Blue Eye: a preternaturally turquoise pure pool. It’s attainable to do a guided tour, however we opted to go it alone, carrying all we would have liked and downloading offline mountaineering maps so we wouldn’t go astray. The journey was shockingly low-cost: Our common each day finances all in was $40 per head.

The primary day of mountaineering was a baptism of fireplace. Not solely is the favored Theth-Valbona route one of many path’s steepest, however temperatures additionally hit the mid-90s, igniting wildfires. After many strenuous hours rising via darkish forests, we emerged onto the dazzling Valbona Cross earlier than a protracted descent hopping out of the way in which of horses bearing hikers’ baggage. In Valbona, there was a dried-up riverbed filled with rocks to navigate to our guesthouse, the place we promptly collapsed after restoring our spirits with wine and freshly caught trout.

To keep away from the searing warmth, for the remainder of the journey, we set out simply after daybreak, arriving at our vacation spot early afternoon following 5 to eight hours of mountaineering. Owing to the comparatively low altitudes, past the odd scramble, the path is inside attain of the reasonably match. And barely have I seen such numerous landscapes whereas mountaineering — the surroundings reinventing itself every day, as forests gave approach to fields of cabbages, pristine lakes reiterating the clouds, and outdated navy tracks with no firm past flocks of sheep.

More often than not, we have been by no means precisely positive after we’d crossed a rustic border. The shortage of management posts was much more exceptional given these frontiers have been a number of the most contested on this planet through the Yugoslav Wars within the Nineteen Nineties. Now, we felt a uncommon sense of peace as we lazed within the grass over picnics or reduce alongside slim ridges with views for miles.

Lodging on the path are simple, although there’s no scarcity of hearty meals. We stayed in A-frame cabins, conventional fortified dwellings referred to as kulla, and — our base for Gjeravica, a standard add-on to the official path — the type of putting guesthouse I’d by no means anticipated to see in Kosovo, the least developed nation on the route.

Having stumbled upon it by likelihood on Google Maps, and tracked it down on Airbnb, we have been so eager to go to that we hiked the same old 9.5-mile path that day — and carried on for 3 hours over a vertical hill to achieve it.

Cabin on a Rock’s proprietor Sali Shoshi, an architect, had finished all the things by hand, working with reclaimed supplies and putting in an off-grid photo voltaic system. We have been out within the sticks, however a shepherd delivered a banquet: salad, spiced hen, mounds of bread, and a vat of sheep’s milk. In an expensive contact, there was a minibar and a positive terrace for stargazing.

“This a part of Kosovo is one thing actually particular,” Shoshi informed Journey + Leisure. “The landscapes are untouched and peaceable. Plus, it’s a spot the place the traditional traditions of the highlanders are nonetheless very a lot alive. Right here, welcoming company isn’t only a well mannered gesture; it’s virtually sacred.”

With a background in heritage and tourism, Shoshi witnessed a sea of change for the reason that 1998–1989 Kosovo conflict. Locals had emerged from it filled with solidarity and a love of freedom. “At present, while you go to Kosovo, you gained’t discover despair,” he stated. “You’ll discover a zest for all times.”

At guesthouses all alongside the way in which, that zest for all times was palpable. One hostess tried to refuse cost for lunch when our money ran low. At one other, in a scene out of a movie by Emir Kusturica, well-known for capturing the larger-than-life Balkan folks, our hostess’ complete prolonged household referred to as for a go to, endlessly circling the property on a brand new off-road buggy. Having tended to us — and them — late at night time, she left to make the drive again to her child.

As Virtyt Gacaferri, co-founder of tour firm Balkan Pure Journey, informed T+L, the path has been a lifeline for locals. “It has reworked a mountainous, pastoral, poor area right into a mannequin of tourism,” he stated. “There’s some huge cash coming in, and all people’s profiting.” His firm loaned one household funds to launch a guesthouse within the rural Albanian village of Çerem, and three years on, they’ve already repaid it. “It actually makes me fairly emotional. They have been poor and now they’ve obtained pleasure, they work, they make their very own cash.”

After British and German hikers, Individuals are actually Gacaferri’s third-biggest market. Because the path has grown, the adventurous trekkers of the beginning have ceded to a extra numerous clientele, a few of whom miss the mod cons. For others like us, the simplicity is magical.

After a strenuous final day largely downhill — at simply shy of 16 miles, the longest of our hike — we emerged in Montenegro above the lakeside city of Plav, retreating to a candy stilt cabin with personal lakeside entry. Tacking on every week of R&R post-hike is widespread. Due to its pristine seashores, Albania is being touted as Europe’s hottest new vacation spot, however Montenegro isn’t far behind — and we opted for a street journey throughout the nation.

From the second we arrived in Durmitor Nationwide Park, we have been below its spell. Mountaineering the lunar terrain (the place we bagged one other peak, Bobotov Kuk), then staying in a geodesic dome on a winery close to capital Podgorica, we noticed many international locations for the worth of 1. The journey led to Perast, a shocking, traffic-free coastal village the place we lunched at oyster farms for a pittance and dived off the concrete into the ocean.

Perched at considered one of its bars, as cruise ships from the close by vacationer hub of Kotor plied the bay, I puzzled how lengthy the area might keep below the radar. With Montenegro getting into the final part of talks to hitch the European Union, not lengthy — however till then, it provides a glimpse of a Europe I assumed had gone. An getting into it on foot was a voyage to recollect.

Exploring the Peaks of the Balkans

The Peaks of the Balkans is finest walked from June to October, and hikers can be part of the path in Albania, Kosovo, or Montenegro. Border permits are important and might be purchased via Balkan Pure Journey, which provides a spread of self-guided and guided excursions (many individuals additionally camp). For extra info, see the Fb web page devoted to the path.