14. Sep 2023

Progër - Kapshticë

Today was the shortest stretch of all of Snail-Trail 2, just under 9 kilometers. I planned it that way to have mostly a day of rest today, and so my walk on Sunday to Greece would not be again more than 40 kilometers. Monday I will then have a complete day of rest in Kastoria, Greece. There is really not so much to write about today except that the hotel I walked to and where I was planning to stay, was not in operation. There was only a coffee bar across the street. I hoped that maybe they might have a room. With the cooler, rainy weather recently I did not want to put up my tent. Also I needed a food and water source and had counted on the restaurant from the hotel. What do I do? I went over to the coffee bar and asked two men sitting outside whether they knew where I could stay the night. I pointed at the closed hotel and they knew what I was wanting to say. To make a long story short, the one man offered to take me to a different border crossing where there was another hotel. It was about 5 kilometers down the highway. I looked at my hiking app and saw that there was a footpath into Greece once I crossed the border. I showed two men the instagram news clip about my walk through Albania. Their faces beemed. They were so happy to help me. The lift would not shorten my hike the next day, just change the starting point. For the rest of the day I rested... and worked on my blog.

Photo: The one town I passed through today.