Kosovo Calling

As I write I’m high up in the mountains of Kosovo. The border with Montenegro so close that Juliet and I walked there a little earlier. It’s a beautiful place to be on this day that marks the half way point of our journey – we have now been on the road for 90 days and have roughly 90 until we reach home.

While we don’t like to admit it, the only benefit of Brexit that we can think of, is that it forced us out of our comfort zone and meant that we’ve had to push the boundaries further than we probably would have.

In the early days our thinking was to travel around Western Europe, safe and secure in the familiarity of what we knew. How wrong that thinking was. Before Brexit and this six month journey, countries such as Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia were off the list. Much of that stemmed from a position of ignorance and negative perceptions that these places are either unwelcoming or dangerous. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are friendly, safe and incredibly hospitible.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been touring around Bulgaria, Macedonia and Kosovo. Places that we mostly knew little about. We still don’t know that much, however we have come to learn that they have some fantastic scenery. As the temperatures have risen so have we, seeking places that are higher and cooler. Inside our tin can when it’s 37-40 outside it’s even hotter inside.

Some highlights over the last three weeks are

The mountains south of Sofia in Bulgaria – on our first night, having crossed in from Greece, we tried to wild camp high up. Unfortunately the track we needed to drive up, had sections that had been washed out by the rain and were just too bumpy and rutted for us to want to risk it. We had a hot sweaty night low down in a campsite in someone’s back garden, but it made us realise that getting high is the thing to do. That said we travelled further north and nearer to Sofia and camped on a site in the Rila national park. Absolutely wonderful. So beautiful that I was carried away with my drone and I ended up hitting a branch as I was over the river.

There are some great walks in the valley amidst the beach trees. There are a number of churches and caves used by hermits of yesteryear. Further up you can walk up to some lakes – we didn’t get that far but it looked wonderful. Bulgaria is definitely a place that we feel has a lot in the cupboard and a place that’s now firmly on our radar. On the list to explore in more depth.

Leaving Bulgaria we headed into Macedonia on a hot afternoon and ended up sweltering in a campsite that was low down. From there moved over to Lake Ohrid – surrounded by mountains and it’s easy to understand why it’s a tourist magnet. Around to the far side it is possible to get away from the crowds. While cycling we came across a couple of snakes, lots of birds and insects. It’s a beautiful habitat which hopefully will be preserved as it would be easy to over build given the income the tourist industry must generate. Further north we headed into the Mavrovo national park – the french cyclist that we’d met a few days back told us it was beautiful. Wild camping beside a river was bliss, in the midst of trees and the rocks that rose steeply all around us. We felt very safe in our small van until about 1am when there was some coughing just outside the van. Inner voices going crazy about all the bad things that would happen. The sensible voice reasoning that we were so far from any towns or villages it was more likely to be an animal. In the morning rising early for my run, a beautiful stray dog asleep under the van. Gingerly he came out, happy when he understood I was his friend. Up for anything I was doing, we ran up the dirt track in the beautiful morning light with the mystery of the night before explained.

Currently camped in the mountains in Kosovo. On our second night and having learnt a good lesson on not judging and jumping to conclusions. Over the last few days Juliet and I have noticed that there are a lot of new buildings here, and very few old ones. The conclusion that we jumped to was that tourism is being pushed. However earlier today we decided that we would stay another night in the area as it’s so lovely and that we would cross to the other side of the valley. Park4Night had a guest house that accepted campers so we headed there. Winding up some of the steepest hills we’ve encountered anywhere we arrived to a very warm and generous welcome. We sat for half an hour or so with the family, the son, Martin, speaks excellent english, so impressive that he’s taught himself. Drinking coffee and eating some breakfast that we were offered.

Later in the afternoon I was sitting reading by the van and the cousin of the owner came over to talk to me about the football. His name Armend Qorraj. He started telling me his story. A policeman for 22 years in the town just nearby, he has a property just next to where we are staying and he comes up now only in the summer. Father of a 22 year old and 18 year old twins. Also speaking good english he then told me more about what happened back in 1998 when the war erupted, Serbian police and Yugoslav military, came. The inhabitants were forced to walk over the mountains into Montenegro for their own safety. When they returned after the war was over, they found their village had been burnt down and the buildings destroyed. The cattle and livestock had all gone. There was nothing left and no means of making an income so many of the people that had lived here for many generations left to live in the nearby city. After being told this I walked around the village, understanding why the few stone buildings that are left are all ruins and uninhabited and the rest of the village along with the mosque is all new.

While tourism maybe a thing here, it’s understandable given the beauty of the land and its’ people. But it’s not the reason why so much is new and as I walked back to our van, I made a mental note to keep my mind open and not jump to conclusions. Often the reasons things are as they are are not as we think.

The people of Kosovo that we have met are so friendly and kind. They will be supporting England this evening in the football and many of the children born since the war are named after Tony Blair. Martin, the son of the owner of the guest house told me that it’s not uncommon for someone’s first name to be “Tony Blair” so that their full name would be something like Tony Blair Hoja son of Armend. We all had a good giggle about it before saying our good byes.

We are really enjoying our tour of the Balkans. Much like Turkey, we are being surprised and our sense of wonderment and affinity with the place grows day by day. We wonder why we are not seeing more people from the UK in these beautiful places and friendly places. Possibly it’t because like us many people from the UK simply do not know how beautiful and hospital the balkans are.