April 29, 2023
Day 73: Ohrid to Debar
Into the mountains
“Sprechen sie Deutsch?” asks the waiter after we struggle ordering in English. We arrived in Debar around 1pm and tired and hungry and go to the restaurant next to the hotel.
The sky is slightly overcast as we retrace the 12km along the lake back to Struga. Then we turn north up the valley. The road is very busy with most traffic coming into town. After we pass a junction and the last two bigger towns, the traffic lessens. We stop at a gas station and from a machine have a small cup of cappuccino. We stopped just in time, because after this there is not much until we reach Debar.
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We follow a pretty river that turns into a reservoir. The scenery is nice, but it is marred by the enormous amount of discarded trash and floating debris. We pass a dam with “no photo” road signs, then drop down and follow the river downstream.
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Our next stop is at a fish restaurant. Our cappuccino comes with whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate on top. Adjacent to the river there are three rectangle concrete tanks with rainbow trout. Some of the trout are genetically modified to be orange and yellow colored. We start to see rock cliffs and forests. The river shows signs of flash flooding, lots of plastic stuck to trees. The saddest thing though are several logjams made from plastic bottles. An amazing sight: thousands of bottles damming up the river. It actually makes sound as bottles get crushed by the water pressure. We have never seen a sight like this. Can this ever be turned around, or are we doomed to destroy every beautiful place?
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The road is relatively flat until km 36 then a downhill mostly flat until km 50 when we get the first of three hills. We see the reservoir that we will follow into Debar. At the start of the hills, Patrick becomes a Sherpa and takes the bag with the sleeping bag to carry instead of Rachel. The sky has dark clouds and we begin to doubt the forecast is no rain. We reach the top of the last hill on the edge of town.
While Patrick is checking in to Hotel Kolonja’s, Rachel sees two loaded bikes coming down the street and they are headed this way. It’s Todd and Luciana we know from a CGOAB journal Back to the Balkans. We knew they were in Ohrid but thought they would probably take a restday so we might be a day ahead. We can’t comment on their journal, so instead Patrick sent a message this morning to Michael and Joanna Kepinski asking if they would comment on their journal for us. “Fun running into you just before I got the CGOAB guestbook message,” Todd says after riding up. They check in also. Our bikes are stored in the garage behind the Hotel.
We go to the restaurant next door for lunch of goulash, salad and soup. Later, Todd and Luciana come over to our room and we have coffee and figs they share. It’s funny too how when we met the Kepinski’s in Morocco, we went to their room for coffee, and now we have the connection with the Scheuer’s. We compare route plans and talk about past and future travel.
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We all walk to the city center for dinner and later say good night. We will get our bikes out of the garage in the morning at 7am. So we will see them then before going separate routes.
They will spend a couple more days in Macedonia before crossing into Kosovo, we will cross back into Albania tomorrow and then into Kosovo. Our paths will probably meet again in Prizren.
Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 2,596 km (1,612 miles)
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