70.5km
4 hours 24 mins
1,013m elevation gain
We had the steep climb this morning up to the lake and we agreed it was better to arrive in the morning light. We enjoyed our cycle along the lake - there was even a path for us, however, on the path many obstacles stood in our way such as drains, gravel sections, cars and fruit or fish sellers who had their stands the whole way across the path. It was still nice to be closer to the water and we could even see fish as we cycled along the route, so we were happy.
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| Up the hill we go... bye bye Prrenjas |
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| Over the top and we see Lake Ohrid!! |
Pogradec
Just as we approached Pogradec there was some more "moving roadworks" we were flagged straight through but cars seemed to still be going both ways. This time there was a few posters with their new plans which included a very fancy looking bike path - I'm not sure that will happen. We did see a lot of local cyclists though, so a bike path is definitely needed. You could also hire bikes along the lake front beach. This is where we headed for lunch and we had pizza at a restaurant right over the lake water, which was peaceful.
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| View of Pogradec beach from our lunch spot |
Afternoon ride
After Pogradec we headed due South along a main road which this time had a sort of bike lane which was nice. It was a side lane that fit us more comfortably, unfortunately they lay a pipe there so there's a bump in the middle most of the time but it's not so bad. As we came out of Pogradec we had another steep climb up over another mountain, but after that the road was mainly a gradual incline so we seemed to get to Korce pretty quickly.
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| Me and my shadow with the mountains in the background |
A surprise in Korce
We randomly checked into a hotel we found by the city centre and headed to an online recommended restaurant which was great - restaurant Alfa. They had live music from an Albanian duo who were playing what I know as Greek wedding music, so that was fun. Then lo and behold, three men walked in - who were the cycling Brits from yesterday!! So we were reunited once more and we had a drink with them to again share notes and discuss next plans, they are even staying at our hotel so we should see them at breakfast!
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| Live music at the restaurant |
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| View from our hotel room of Korce |
Sights of note
- At the lake, two boys and their grandpa catapulting rocks at some unsuspecting ducks who were having to dive down into the water to save themselves
- Many people out harvesting the corn in the fields
- More donkey carts
- We stopped for an afternoon drink of Fanta and some guys were heckling their friend who drove by on a tractor, we think pretending there was something wrong with it and then laughing at him when he checked it out
- My wonderful tea cup at breakfast in Prrenjas (restaurant Botanika - where we also had a yummy dinner last night)
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| More donkey's bottoms |
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| Breakfast tea mug |
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