Day 212 Tues 15 May 2007 Saranda to Vlore, Albania

Starting early to avoid the german tour groups who we are advised come over from Corfu we head south to world heritage Butrint, a little peninsula at the mouth of a coastal lagoon which has been a settlement through the ages from the Greeks in 4CBC to the Ottomans in C19. Its a lovely experience wandering around the deserted ruins in the forest including large Greek theatre and temple to Asclepius, god of healing, with a modern museum in a venetian fortress. The one hour stroll takes three before we reluctantly leave and head back up the coast to Vlore.

The roads aren’t quite as bad as the Greeks prophesied but they’re steep, very narrow and do have lots of potholes. The route climbs over cliffs and plunges down to little coves with fabulous views out over the Ionian sea at every turn. Traffic is fairly light for the main north south highway, with 90% of the cars being a mix of older retired and newer allegedly stolen Mercedes. We climb an amazing pass which ascends in a series of hairpins to 1100m where we picnic on a half built lookout before dropping back down again, reaching Vlore in the late afternoon where we find the incongruous New York hotel on the beach where we watch the sunset. As Vlore is the centre of mafia activity in Albania (car and people smuggling) we decide that it must have been built with Mafia money for mafia clientele.