The magnificent Çorovodë canyon

The Albanians I met were not only very friendly but were also interested that I see the best parts of their country. For example in the Berat castle an owner of a restaurant invited me. He seemed to be impressed that there is a person outside in that incredible heat and spent me cold beer. His wive came over with a map showing me several points that one must see. This was funny because I couldn't understand a single word and also didn't expect to get tourist hints. But if one wants to communicate one will always find a way and so we made lots of drawings on napkins. I liked a drawing of a canyon the most and so they wrote something on a sheet of paper which I gave a local bus driver. This is how I came to Çorovodë - what a great way of traveling and what a fantastic surprise.

The bus ride from Berat is about 50 km along the nice Osum valley. In the bus I met a guy who once worked for the German army in the Kosovo so that I got valuable information. Çorovodë had only 2 hotels and I got the feeling that tourists are an exception in the town despite its breathtaking surrounding with the Osum canyon and the Pirogoshi cave. In spring the Osum has enough water that one can make kayak tours and a few times during the year the water level is perfect for tours where one gets a special swim suit and drifts in the water through the canyon. In summer the water level is too low and this might be the reason why no one is visiting it. This is incredible because the canyon walls are up to several hundred meters high and only a few meters wide. I took a taxi to the end of the canyon and walked back to Çorovodë. What a tour!:

Let's turn on some music: Urban Cone - Sadness Disease

At the start of the tour I met people bathing in the unexpectedly warm water of the Osum. It was a family with 3 kids from Poland who was traveling with a pickup truck and without a plan. They drove from Poland to Macedonia. The people there told them that they should also go to Albania - good to see that my favorite style of traveling is also possible with kids.

At the end of the canyon. The bathing people are the Poles.

One of the very narrow parts of the cayon.

This is the most narrow point
- as one can see the width is only a few meters.

And now some photos to enjoy the landscape:

The canyon must be perfect for climbing. The road out of the valley was under pavement so that a construction site with a concrete and asphalt fabrication was built along the road. Not spectacular, but look at this:

Part of the large and noisy construction site.
Note the wooden pavilions behind it.

Unbelievable but true -
the pavilions are part of a camping site!

The camping site and the construction side is at the upper left.

Who wants to tent besides a loud and also dusty concrete factory? Moreover the soil of the camping site consists of pure stone so that one can even not use tent pegs. Despite that nobody was tenting the bar of the tenting place was opened and it was the beginning one of the most strange experiences I ever had. Looking back I can now laugh about it but this story is nothing for a public blog.

I loved the landscape of the whole valley - there are nice gardens, sun flowers etc. Even the cemetery was full of flowers:

Çorovodë itself is not that beautiful because many houses were built as "worker locker box" (as we say in Germany).

I am still amazed that I was the only tourist in and along the canyon. Maybe this was the reason why local people waved me over to their gardens. I am still amazed how people can be so happy. We have never seen us before and could not understand a single word of our different languages but they were so happy to have a guest. They don't have much. It was the time of fresh plums and so I was served 3 plums as the best they could offer. But the best they gave was their happiness! Therefore the plums could have had worms but would still be the most tasty plums I ever ate.
Yes I might sometimes seem be too sentimental but why not when one doesn't expect anything but gets so much?

Here are some photos of the valley around the town of Poliçan:

Along the road to Berat are several companies producing stones for floorings etc.: