Adele’s Birthday Present:Mountain Climbing

What do you give a lady on her 77th birthday? A hike up a mountain overlooking magical Lake Bovilla in Albania.

Rather than taking our own vehicle, we hired a driver, Endrit, with a four–wheel drive. On the way up to the mountain from Tirane, we learned about life in Albania and its history. More on that later.

Bovilla is an artificial reservoir which reflects a rich turquoise, especially when it's sunny. It's a good thing we didn't take our rental vehicle. Halfway up the mountain, it's a rough dirt track with rocks and potholes. At the top, there is a restaurant with a parking area. The next step was to hike up to a lookout platform.

Platform

The views are terrific, and we managed to get through some of the steep inclines with large rocks, which were a bit slippery thanks to the morning rain. The footing was at times treacherous, but thanks to Endrit, he made sure we didn’t go off the edge.

Success!

View from a cave

On the way back, Endrit told us a lot about Albania. It is a separate and distinct culture with its own language. It was never part of the old Yugoslavia. The people are believed to have descended from ancient Illyrians but have influences from many groups, including Slavs, Turks and Italians.

Today, most of the income is derived from construction and tourism. In fact, there are three times as many tourists annually as the country's population. While you see many mosques and churches, society here is very secular. Religion is very moderate, with a high degree of tolerance.

Albania prides itself on taking in those in need. During the Second World War, the country actively hid Jews fleeing the Holocaust and suffered greatly for it. The land was devastated by the Nazis. Then Communism took over for several decades with its form of repression. There was no revolution ousting the communists, just a reversion to freedom.

After a great day, we finished with a dinner of traditional Albanian food of meats, cheeses, salads and unique sauces, tasty with all-natural ingredients. There is little processed food and certainly no Mcdonald's or Pizza Hut.