Lake Komani Ferry
Rather than hiking the 19 miles back to Theth and then driving back to Shkoder, we wanted to spice up the trip with a little something different and opted to go down Lake Komani. Lake Komani offers passenger ferry rides down the lake. We purchased our ferry tickets at Legjenda when we booked all of our travel prior to the hike.
After our beautiful breakfast spread at Villa Dini, we boarded our next Jeep van at about 0900 (9:00AM). The Jeep-van was already fairly full with other travelers. Villa Dini is fairly far into Valbona so we thought we would be the last pick up for the van. To our surprise, we made two more stops and had run out of seats. Our driver, clearly not new to this, pulled out a bucket and a stool and made additional seating for our newcomers. It was evident that none of us had experienced anything like this before and we all got a good laugh out of it, even the poor people subjected to this unconventional seating arrangement. To make this amusing experience even better, our driver then put on popular American hip-hop songs from the 2000s. Think: Snoop Dogg, Ja Rule, 50 cent. Classics. Some of the people from Germany knew the songs as well and we began to bond and make friends very easily. Music, a universal language. We were headed to the village of Fierzë (Fierza) to catch the ferry and we arrived there in about an hour.
Upon arrival at the lake, we knew we made the right choice in taking the ferry. The hazy, turquoise water was stunning. We had some time to kill and grabbed some fruit and espresso at the little ferry shop. We sat with our new German friends and learned a lot about the culture and politics of one anothers’ countries. Andrew and one of the guys became fast friends and spent a majority of the ferry ride chatting.
We boarded the top level of the ferry. We were privileged to be a part of another welcoming group. Maybe everyone in Albania is just that friendly...and everyone that travels there is really friendly too? Whatever the case may be, we relished in this affable way of life. The ferry crowd was a good mix of hikers and locals looking to spend a gorgeous day on the lake. As was also the case with the Alps, no photos or description would do this beauty of a voyage any justice.
Our ferry ride down Lake Komani was about 3 hours in total. We took in all of the stunning views of the lake, which was surrounded by the Alps. We couldn’t have had better weather. The sun was shining and we frequently switched seats with other passengers to see all the encompassing sights. While switching seats, we were able to talk to most of the other passengers and it really made for a lovely trip. I even met two girls we saw when we were hiking. I recognized one of their jackets and they were in the background of one of our photos. We got to talking and exchanged emails so they could have the photo. It was so cool to have experiences like this along our trip.
The trip flew by and before we knew it, 3 hrs had passed and we were docking at Koman, the ferry destination. From there, we said goodbye to all of our new acquaintances and boarded another van to travel the rest of the way back to Shkoder, about 1.5 hours away. This van was a bit more spacious and everyone was in a normal seat to themselves. The driver dropped us off right at the entrance of Legjenda. We decided to spend another night here because we had enjoyed our stay so much and it was already about 1600. We checked in with our lovely host and set up our car for the following morning to take us to our last destination in Albania, the coastal town of Durrës. Immediately after setting up our transport, we headed right back over to Restaurant Legjenda because we were starving! Dinner did not disappoint yet again! We got the house red wine, two large salads, kebabs, and pasta. I may or may not have also shared some kebab with the garden cat sitting underneath the window. We don’t have to talk about that. We finished off the night by heading over to the cafe for some dessert before going back to our room to shower and relax before leaving this little village oasis.
