Cycling UK Forum

Thanks, that's good to hear. The Elbasan route does look nice, but it's not on our intended line. We're going to Skopje then south towards Thessaloniki, but slightly west of there. But may detour to visit it, will see how time allows, and if it looks worth visiting.

Re trucks in Macedonia, I don't recall problems in 2009 - but it only takes one!

Rob D wrote: ↑14 Sep 2024, 10:40am Thanks Richard. At present, I'm leaning towards giving it a go. We have the hotel booked, although we can cancel that. It's not a huge detour off our route, with only a 20 m climb over 7 k, so weather permitting, we should do this quite quickly.

We'll let you know when we know more!

Just heard from the hotel we'd hoped to visit: 'Unfortunately, you can’t cycle on the main road, so I suggest to go in smaller road.'. So it looks like the sensible option is to cancel the hotel. Shame, it's in a nice location, has excellent reviews and is extremely cheap.

Thanks very much, Andy. I'll read your blog again. Trucks do bother me, having been nearly wiped out by one in a tunnel between Mostar and Sarajevo.

I'm quite looking forward to leaving Tirana behind and heading for Skopje. But Macedonian truckers might be worse!

Thanks Richard. At present, I'm leaning towards giving it a go. We have the hotel booked, although we can cancel that. It's not a huge detour off our route, with only a 20 m climb over 7 k, so weather permitting, we should do this quite quickly.

We'll let you know when we know more!

Thanks Chris. The Balkans do seem to have a fairly relaxed approach to putting bikes on buses. We used them twice in 2018, once to get us up a long hill out of Sarajevo, avoiding areas where landmines were still uncleared, making wildcamps dodgy. It was a case of just getting them in anyhow. Another in Montenegro, helping us gain time up a long hill. We put them in amongst crates of oranges, the driver giving us some. All with good humour.

PQ, thanks. Asking has been our approach too - especially in areas of possible landmines!

Nealc, thanks too, that's reassuring. It's interesting that Cycle Travel just will not allow travel on this short section of road. Looking closer on GE, it looks like the road adjacent to the A1 here is a dirt road, so I'm inclined to do the whole 6.5 k on the main road. We want to get-to Tirana in reasonable time the next day, too.

Hi all. We've found a nice hotel, east off our route, halfway between Shkoder and Tirana (The area is fairly intensive agriculture so wildcamping could be tricky). I checked how to get there on Cycle Travel but what should've been about a 7 k level ride turned into a major diversion into the hills. Eventually I realised that a small part of my intended route necessitated going on the A1, which I now know to be a motorway, albeit with only 1 - 2 lanes each side. It's the E851 / A1, going east from Milot. The difficulty starts 5 k from Milot.

I have Googled this and found that whilst there are signs up approaching motorways, prohibiting bikes, scooters and tractors, everyone ignores them. 'This is Albania, what do you expect?'.

This is an important route, so I can't see tractors etc deviating many k into the hills, so suspect they run along the motorway for a short distance before they can get back onto the side roads.

Question: apart from potential safety concerns, does anyone have experience of such issues? I don't fancy tangling with the Albanian police, either, but suspect it's accepted?

Thanks,

Rob

That's just weird! Do you put butter on top of jam too?

To claim that there's no smell problem with purple meths is strange. I don't think a posh titanium stove will cure it.

I don't have any purple meths right now to compare because I don't use it for anything due to bioethanol being superior in every way.
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Well, what can I say? In extensive use of meths over 5 years, I really can't think of a time when we've had a 'smell problem' with meths. Yes, there's a smell, burning or not, but it's not in the least bit unpleasant. I'm sorry you find it so.

That's odd. We've used purple meths almost all the time for 4 years, on and off before that. Never experienced gumminess or unpleasant smell. The only problem is if the get it on your fingers, then touch food/get it in your mouth - v unpleasant, as intended.

We buy it in 5 litre drums from a farmers' shop. I've calculated that being so cheap, it saves us about £1 every night we use it compared with gas. The stove is a titanium Sidewinder, which cost £85 to import from US. It's paid for itself many times now. It can also burn sticks but I've not tried that yet.

+1 for Cycle Tramp's idea. I volunteer at a reserve, 1 day/week. Gives some structure to my week, with a nice bunch of people.

Thanks. I think one needs to get 90% or more alcohol? I vaguely remember seeing 80% somewhere. I wonder what Spiritus is?

What a fascinating thread. My longest trip so far was 3 months in N Norway, Finland and Sweden 2 years ago. Mostly walking, with a fabulous 11 day hike at the end, on the Norway/Sweden border. The whole trip was just wonderful and I really didn't want to go home...

Luckily we live in a beautiful part of Devon, Dartmoor nearby for camps and walks, so this does help. But all our tours have been great and I'm quite sad when they end. For me, thinking about the next trips, getting out on the bikes or walking and camping do help. But I'm aware we're lucky to be where we are and I suspect it's harder if you live in a city.

Thanks all - again!
Andrew, I think those are the adapters we used in 2018. But they require the use of a hosed stove due to their combined height and stability issues. Worked fine, but we now use a Sidewinder meths stove, total weight inc windshield/support 62 gm. I sometimes take the tiny gas stove as a backup, but it may only be of use in Greece, where upthread was said to be available in Greece, where the bulk of our time will be.

Roubaixtuesday, that's interesting. I don't recall exactly what we did in 2018. I guess we'd have checked FCO pages for such info. I'm sure we never had a pass for any borders crossed, going through 6 countries, Montenegro twice. In 2009, we went through 7, again no passes required. Blissful ignorance perhaps?
This was as part of my son's ride to the pyramids. He'd have researched these issues fairly well.

Interesing, thanks. We did this in Nov 2018, to Peja - which we loved, having camped at the top of the pass. We don't recall any border issues at all - I don't think there was anything there?