Officially our last day (or half of one) in Albania!
Had a great start to our drive and made it nearly 3 hours to Pogradec as our first stop, which is on the shores of beautiful Lake Ohrid. Said to be one of the oldest lakes in the world! After the kids shared a pizza for lunch we filled up the car as Jesse wanted to use up some LEK before crossing the border and into Denar territory. This wasn’t hard to do at a petrol station as just a tank of fuel costs $150! Thankfully our little VW Jetta has been really fuel efficient.

No dramas with either the Albanian OR North Macedonian border patrol which was a bit of a relief after reading a few negative google reviews about corrupt officials working these points. First stop was the Eastern Orthodox Monastery of St. Naum. Established roughly around the year 900 I think. We still didn’t have any local currency but I think the staff liked the kids and let us in for a look anyhow. The grounds were so beautiful surrounded by crystal clear waterways running into the lake.

Spotted this cute squirrel eating a nut on our hike through the Monastery surrounds. There was also heaps of peacocks which the kids were very taken with.

Drink break!

Wild blackberry foraging break!

This big boy is lovin all the baby wearing action.

Painted bunker. I need to research if perhaps this was built by Dictator Hohxa and the borders have since changed.

Last stop before checking in at our accommodation was the Bay of Bones. There was once a settlement called “Sojenice” they think between 1200 and 700 BC. Originally it’s thought to have spreadover a total of 8500m2 unfortunately it was just closing as we arrived but we still got a good enough look and given this is only replicated and just a few buildings at that – I didn’t feel I had missed out too much. Seemed to have a bit of a Maldives vibe over that gorgeous lake though!

Just after this a terrifying stray bulldog rounded the kids up which had me ready to make tracks at any rate. Up until now all the strays have been really harmless we just keep our distance and the kids know not to touch them.

Onwards to the township of Ohrid for the next 2 nights. Our host was really lovely and had lots of toys for the kids and a portacot for Amadeus. The location is super central so it should be easy enough to cover all the sites we wanted to see tomorrow on foot before hitting the road again on Sunday.