Rising high

We found a large and hotel at the end of the road of the valley. At first I wanted to hike from there over the Valbona Pass to go to Teth. Fulvio wanted to climb a peak and although I was still taking antibiotics and not completely fit I of course used that chance.
In the hotel they only had one! hiking map of the valley which was glued onto a table and which was obviously outdated. But OK, one can take a picture of the map:

House 15 in the map is our hotel and the red triangle number 5 was our goal. One can see that this map is not very helpful but we thought that there is only one path so one cannot loose it. There is indeed only one path but it was sometimes very hard to find it. There are only very few way marks and especially in the upper part the track is not visible. Obviously there are not many hikers.

You might continue while listening to

The Sound Stylistics - Polariser

The sun is rising

The farms in Kukaj

The weather was perfect. The way up is nice since one has always great views and the beginning is not very steep. At 1700 meters altitude is a small mountain farm where we met a hiking group from Germany and Austria. The old lady in the farm served them Turkish coffee and I wanted to refill the water bottles. There is a tarn behind the farm and when I arrived it a viper came out of it. Wow. I was so shocked! I read that the vipers are poisonous but I did not know that they are so big.

The old Germans at the farm

Although it was hot these days there is still some snow

Some of the tourists joined us a few kilometers and then we were alone and the path was invisible. We often just climbed up the hill as we think. Although the images imply that that the surface is very rocky, it is not. There are so many flowers. Even more impressive was the amount of insects and how large they are. So many bumblebees, beetles and the like. While swinging the arm, it was impossible not to hit some insects. They don't bite or sting so you can enjoy this.

Now you can imagine how many blossoms there are.

Some of the flowers

After reaching the saddle (border to Montenegro) of the valley the track becomes very steep. Fortunately this last part has many trail blazings thanks to the Montenegrin alpine clubs. Eventually we made it to the top of the Maja e Rosit. From the top you have great views because this is one of the highest points in the entire Dinaric Alps. I am still a bit proud that I made it up to the top.

This is the saddle to Montenegro

In the steep section below the peak

The beginning of the Valbonë valley.

View into the valley of the Lim and the town
of  Gusinje in Montenegro.

View to the north-west.

The highest peak in the image is also the highest
one in the Dinaric Alps - the Maja Jezercë.

The Valbonë valley once again

While descending I accidentally kicked a larger stone down the hill that almost hit Fulvio - the steep section was not that easy to climb. Further down in the mentioned farm I met the grandchild of the owners who was learning German. I wondered that he told me that German is the first foreign language at his school. Now I know, see the next blog post. His grandmother told us to hurry up before the dawn begins because that is the time when the bears awake. With the last sun rays we reached our hotel - after about 10 hours and 3000 meters of altitude. Respect to Fulvio who made the tour with normal athletic shoes leading to blisters.

Looking back to the peak.