Central European Rally with added bits and bobs.

[Cossie]

OK, best pull my finger out! After Shkoder, which I would like to go back to, I considered the SH25 but as said previously it's pretty much a dead end unless you have a proper 4x4. Looking at the map there were other roads I could take, first to Vau-Dejes, built around a lake and hydro power complex, which as usual caused problems for displaced families. Vau i Dejës - Wikipedia
The history of these seemingly nothing towns, still boggles my imagination, the old city centre was established 1127.
I must admit that I was surprised by the rubbish about, on par, if not worse than any 3rd world country I have been to.
There is a small castle up on the hill but with no easy way of getting there, I can only read about it. Dagnum - Wikipedia
St Mary's church is an important part of the area's history, it's had a rough life, being demolished and rebuilt, all locked up when I saw it.
It features on an Albanian currency note as I read here... St. Mary's Church, Vau i Dejës - Wikipedia



Other photos of the area show a fairly bleak landscape, but it is the end of summer and I was told later that there hasn't been must rain.
The grapes in the trailer had just been picked and I was given quite a handful, very sweet with seeds.



Screenshot of the area.



Continuing along the SH 5 to Puke gave me the windy twisty roads I wanted. Very little traffic, but that was good, overtaking on a blind hairpin? no worries, someone will stop, no point getting upset, we all have things to do!
Along the was I stopped to take a few photos, this is when another person is handy, but I did do on occasions what the locals do, stop, hazards on, duck into the shop, or whatever....
The colours of autumn made it the perfect time to be here imo, bee keeping is big business, which is good to see.



There were many monuments like the one above, but as in parts of the former Yugoslavia, not looked after, I'm guessing the relate to Hoxha's period of rule.
Kastrati is an interesting one which when I first saw the name made me cross my legs.... The name has a lot of history, Kastrati (tribe) - Wikipedia

As an aside, I have donated to wiki, so I don't feel too bad about quoting them...

 

[Cossie]

I love driving, that is what me and her do when we go on trips, but with her being in Vancouver, I'm happy to drive by myself. Getting lost, easy as, even with google maps, waze and a gps.

More of this road, I came round a corner to this little town, there had been many semi trailers which I thought was unusual given how few towns there seemed to be. Nothing pretty about this place!
The main construction site is a mine, when asking about number plates I asked what they mined, minerals was the answer. Anyway, it's a copper mine and this town seems to be the dormitory hub for it.
Not much further out of town, I came to the place where the trucks were going to and from, a water bottling plant, the largest in Albania, apparently.




Wanting to know more about the mine, I came across a few article highly critical of it, the water company is building a new plant further along the road, not sure if what is mentioned in these articles has anything to do with that!
Been concessioned to a Chinese/Turkish group for years, wot me worry?

The copper factory in Fushë-Arrëz pollutes the present and the future

Author: Merxhan Daci The spilling of waste from copper enrichment is harming the residents and the environment of the areas that...

acqj.al

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Satellite-view-of-the-Fushe-Arrez-plant-area-with-location-of-water-samples_fig1_354279659

The Chinese and the Turks "joy" the copper concession in Albania - Citizens.al

Author: Entela Bajramaj Citizens.al | Tirana Luan Lleshi has not worked the land he has by the Fan river in Fushë Arrëz for years. The water they use for irrigation is polluted by the copper factory, making the products unconsumable. "I don't even keep the cattle, because it is a cow that goes...

citizens.al

 

[Cossie]

Foot down, well maybe not, but I had to press on, still enjoying all the different colours. Again, something surprising around the next bend, well maybe a few bends later. This construction site appeared, same company as in the previous post, I wonder just how much this has cost to build in the middle of nowhere. Spoke to one of the workers through translate, he lives in the town mentioned above and commutes each day.

 

[Cossie]

Kukes was the aim for the night, originally a town of about 15,000, when Kosovo happened they took in over 400,000 refugees.
However prior to all this the town had to be relocated following another hydroelectricity dam being built, the lake formed is way down, so low that you can see parts of the original town. Nothing too exciting about this place except for the police seemingly stopping every other car on the road outside my hotel. I asked why the dam was so low, and was told summer, little rain and the owners continued to spill water to generate electricity to be sold.
You can see the newish motorway in some photos, I took the scenic route into town.

Kukës - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

As said earlier, main road, park anywhere. Not sure of how it all works, but this was the largest number of UK registered vehicles that I have seen in one place outside of the UK. Maybe they were all working there, I spoke to a couple of people with strong midlands accents!
Bunkers, because of his paranoia, Hoxha had thousands of the bunkers built, apparently one for every male.

Bunkers in Albania - Wikipedia obviously you can still see a few.