Let's camp at Bovilla lake || Albania

Last December I took the ferry from Italy to Albania to explore what this yet unknown country has to offer. I heard about its beautiful nature, its cheap prices and the very few tourists. Albania was, and actually still is, a country where I am very curious about. The less you know the more there is to discover.

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Let's go to Bovilla Lake, Albania

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After I arrived in Albania it was just raining for some day's, which made me prefer to stick around the city. But when it got dry, I knew exactlty where to go: Bovilla Lake, A water reservoir which is about an hour away from Tirana. It is just a 23 kilometre drive but the traffic in the city isn't that good and the roads to the lake are even worse since they are not paved.

The Albanians I met told me that this are still the ''good'' roads!''

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I had a lot of doubts if I could get here with my van as we have no unpaved roads in the Netherlands (At least none I know about) so I know very little about driving offroad. I read the google map reviews and most complaints were actually about the road, like ''next time when I go here I will take a 4x4''. Which ment that they also did it with a normal car. Challenge accepted! If they can do it, I should be able to do it as well.

I felt quite nervous about the drive, scared to get stuck somewhere, but the road was actually easier to drive as expected. The road was bad but not muddy at all since I waited for good weather to come.
I drove most of the road in first and second gear since they are not paved. I had never driven over an unpaved road, and I didn't even have proper mountain driving experience as my boyfriend usually wants to drive in the mountains. So this mountain was actually the first place I practiced using the handbrake to go up. The van has a quite powerful engine so it helped a lot and was actually easy. I almost feel like I am ready to drive to Africa :)

Arriving at the lake there was a little parking place which happened to be also on the park4night app (Where you can find camper campspots for the night & more) There were 3 other camper vans parked there, A Dutch van and two other two German vans. It is really nice to have some cool neighbours sometimes while on the road.

Let's camp in paradise! This picture was taken early in the morning just after sunrise

I had a coffee with the Dutch neighbours, who took a year off to travel through Europe with their van. After the coffee, I decided to look for the viewpoint over the lake. There is a restaurant near thje lake and if you go from there to the left, there is a path going up the mountain, and a stairs connected to the mountain. You have to pay 1 Euro for the use of the stairs to the restaurant.

The stair to the viewpoint

I guess we just have to trust the connection... The stair felt a bit scary but many tourists are visiting here daily and it seems to be fine with them. But I wouldn't recommend it if you are already a bit scared for heights

The path up the mountain. Can you see the path?
Yah it was sometimes hard to see a path but there is just one direction you can go to anyway so it isn't possible to get lost at all

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before the viewpoint you can find a little cave

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Whenn you arrive upstairs, you can also climb on the rock or even pitch a tent somewhere and stay overnight as wildcamping is allowed in Albania. I of course decided to sleep in my comforatble van but I can imagine the view to be amazing up here when the sun rises.

The viewpoint!

Climbing to the viewpoint, It is quite easy to climb up this little rock.

I also met some cool people up the mountain where I had a chat with. They had a picnic with their family down the mountain and came up to see the view. The 16 years old daughter spoke English perfectly fine and translated, as the mother said they also live in a house near another lake and I was always welcome in their house. It is always so nice to meet sweet people on the way! The girl told me she wanted to be like me and travel to many places. I hope she will :)

The Albanian mom& Daughter

And Pogi, their dog! I am actually really surprised that the dog could make it up here as the path wasn't that good

*I didn't plan to stay here overnight as I was pretty sure that the internet would suck and I had to work the next day (online). Down the mountain where the camp4night parking was, the internet sucked indeed although it was good enough for netflix with my Mifirouter + antenna, without them I didn't even receive whatsapp messages.
But surprisingly, the internet was great higher on the mountain! I felt a bit sad that I had to leave my nice neighbours and park alone but I was happy that I didn't have to drive back.

The place where I decided to sleep the next days, A little higher on the mountain on the parking lot of the restaurant so I would have perfectly fine internet to work

*As I didn't plan to stay overnight, I didn't bring a lot of fresh food. I was lucky that I had some frozen pasta sauce in the freezer for two meals but I also bought this salad at the restaurant next door. As I bought it in my workbreak I brought my own plate so I could eat it in my van during work and they really tried to make the plate as full as possible for just $4,20. It was big enough for 3 large portions.

I really hope to get back here someday to drive this very same road further to the North of Albania

Thanks for passing by! Did you know that Albania was this beautiful? Well, now you know!

Regards,
Sascha