Wild Albania – The Clymb

  My words and photos were recently published on The Clymb, a website that continuously features writers and photographers who inspire me. Check out Wild Albania: The Allure of the Accursed Mountains and see why we fell in love with this lightly-traveled region on our bike tour. From the story:

Ever since my hus­band and I started ped­al­ing our bicy­cles east from Ger­many, we’ve been advised against vis­it­ing Albania—from well-meaning fam­ily and friends to the Balkan country’s clos­est neigh­bors. None of which have vis­ited them­selves, con­ceiv­ably because the Alba­nia of today is worlds apart from the Alba­nia of even the 1980s. Until his death in 1985 and begin­ning around World War II, Albania’s fierce com­mu­nist leader, Enver Hoxha, beat the coun­try into a recluse state, killing com­mu­nist party oppo­nents and ban­ning reli­gion, among other atrocities. These days, Alba­nia has emerged from iso­la­tion and the post-communist coun­try offers a host of incen­tives for vis­i­tors, not the least of which is an abun­dance of unspoiled nat­ural beauty. But rep­u­ta­tions die hard.

 Read the whole story on The Clymb.