Day two of a thru-hike on the Peaks of the Balkans route is a proper test of legs and patience. One hiker's account of the stretch between a high ridge camp and the village of Theth in northern Albania reads as a warning and an invitation in equal measure.
The day began at sunrise on an exposed ridgeline, with a long descent ahead and water already running short. A planned resupply from a mountain lake came up empty — the summer had been so hot and dry that the lake had shrunk to a muddy puddle. That set the theme for the day: in an abnormally dry year, water sources marked on the map cannot be trusted.
Down in the valley, the trail passed through the hamlet of Zarunica — where a pack of curious guardian dogs trailed the hiker the whole way through — and on to Oko Skakavice, known as The Eye. This spring-fed lake, a startlingly clear pool of blue water, is one of the route's photogenic stops and a good spot to swap notes with day-hikers and section walkers.
Then came the hard part: a climb through birch and beech woods into open grassland in 34C heat, followed by a steep granite pass with no reliable water until nearly reaching Theth. The lucky break was a spring pipe jutting from the mountainside near the top of a rocky ravine — the kind of undocumented lifeline that makes talking to other hikers worthwhile.
Theth itself proved a mixed blessing. The village sits at the end of the day's epic descent, but resupply is limited: one shop stocked camping gas, and only in canisters far larger than a long-distance hiker wants to carry. The practical workaround is topping up on food and pushing on to camp — in this case, a flat meadow a few hundred vertical metres above town, shared with stray dogs, a couple of German sisters starting the trail, and a sunset over the peaks behind Theth.
Why does this matter to travellers? The Peaks of the Balkans is a roughly 192km circuit linking Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, and it has grown fast in popularity while staying raw. Theth is now reachable by road and increasingly touristed, yet the mountain passes above it remain remote and genuinely demanding. Anyone planning a summer trek here should expect heat, carry serious water capacity, filter from anything flowing, and not assume shops will have stove fuel. The reward is world-class ridge walking, alpine lakes like The Eye, and a trail community that chats all the way down the mountain.
For fit hikers comfortable with scrambling and wild camping, this is one of Europe's great budget adventures. For everyone else, Theth and the surrounding national park make a superb base for gentler day hikes into the same scenery.
Story via The Trek.
