Thethi valley

After two strenuous days of hiking, we woke up in the beautiful room in Harusha guest house (50 eur incl breakfast and dinner and a private shower with hot water!) in Thethi valley.

The breakfast included honey from the family's colorful bee hives (we saw the family's uncle removing the honey from the bee hive- using some smoke - no other protection).

We started with a stroll in the village , which has no paved roads, and looks like a postcard .

The funny thing in these villages is that there are no shops at all. Everybody grows and bakes and cooks their own food, and you can knock on any door and ask to buy a loaf of bread (the fire oven was right next to our room, in the same structure in which the cows live), or vegetables or cheese etc. They are still not thinking of selling "stuff" to tourists, and even souvenirs are very hard to find. We were offered by two different women from the village ( one of whom was knitting socks as she was walking down the street) to come to their house and buy what they are knitting , but refused .

We visited two old buildings, one of which was used as a refuge for people who were running away from a ״blood revenge" that was very common in these areas ( and still exists in some, as it exists regretfully in some societies in Israel as well). By the way, everyone in this village is Christian! So apparently this "blood revenge" idea has nothing to do with a specific religion.

After having espresso and Turkish coffee just under the "refuge" tower and above the river, we continued along the river and reached the waterfall about an hour later.

We did bath in one of the streams along the way, but regretfully the waterfall pool was too cold for us...

We found out that Nikola, one of five children of our guest room owners, is a mountain guide. He speaks fluent English and is very knowledgeable of the mountains around us including the whole "peaks of the Balcan" trail.

We also learnt that the older children spend the winter in Shkoder while the parents stay with the younger children in the village to watch the farm and the animals despite very heavy snow.