We went to the Rodonit peninsula, which was about 100 km from where we were staying. It might seem close, but not in Albania. Here, traffic follows its own rules. Covering this distance took us 3h 15m, which gives an average of about 30km/h. And such a cruising speed must be taken as the norm in Albania.
In this country, traffic rules are generally not respected. For someone used to orderly traffic in other European countries, this is a kind of shock.
The most difficult are roundabouts and various types of intersections where there are no traffic lights or road signs. The traffic is chaotic, whoever is faster and braver has priority. It took us a while to figure out how to drive here and when we discovered that one rule applies – the bigger one has priority, driving became easier. And since we were traveling in a large van, we had priority over passenger cars, and let vehicles larger than ours pass. Simple, right? The only thing you have to change in your head is that yielding is something you can’t expect from other drivers. And you have to watch out for lunatics who seem to have gotten their driver’s license from a cereal box and drive centrally against the flow, or cut across intersections in the shortest possible path. Traffic lanes — what’s the point, if you can turn wherever there’s space?.
We drove part of the route on the highway, and it might seem that the pace of driving should be faster. But none of that, not in Albania. There, the motorway, despite its name, has nothing in common with what we know from other European countries. We were not surprised that the highway exits were roundabouts, that there is no fence along the route, and there are fruit stalls on the side of the road. The only thing that this route differed from the others was the fact that it had two lanes in each direction.
Access to the Rodonit peninsula was via local roads of poorer quality. We encountered potholes, gravel roads, and even cows walking along the road. At the very end of the road leading to the destination there was a barrier that was opened for a fee. We found a place to park in a clearing and went for a walk along the ridge of the peninsula.
The views were nice, in the distance you could see that people were taking a bath in the sea. After a while we reached the ruins of the castle. We walked for a while in the shadow of the old walls and went out to the beach. Everything would be fine, but suddenly the spell was broken by garbage — it looked like a landfill. We looked for crabs for a while, but you could forget about the bath.
Yes, it must be openly admitted that the ubiquitous garbage is a problem in Albania. The inability to deal with waste is visible everywhere. In places like the beach, it’s especially sad. There is a lack of awareness and proper habits among the residents. We saw people throwing food packaging out of the window while driving a car, there are no waste bins, no organization for recycling and garbage collection.
After returning home, we found out that the problem in Rodonit Bay is with the garbage that gets there from the Lumi and Matit river and settles from the side of the castle through water currents. Apparently, on the other side of the peninsula, the beaches look much better.
On our way back, to improve our mood, we shopped for fruit at a roadside stall.
We end the day in Durres at the Mali and Robot campsite. Durrës is a fairly large tourist city with a port. The seafront is lined with hotels that have private beaches. We went to one of the beaches for an evening swim. Thanks to the fact that the beaches are under the care of hotels, they are cleaned and there is no garbage here. However, there are crowds of tourists, beach umbrellas and deckchairs.
