We wish you merry x-Mas and an exciting, healthy and perfect year 2012.

We have currently set up our camp at a beach in the South of Valencia, are enjoying the nice Spanish sun and have done our review of an exciting year 2011.

Since we’ve left Germany in July, we have visited 13 countries, got a new travel partner – our dog Blacky -, organized some financial funds in Germany, have driven more than 15.00o km and are still not tired of travelling.

Our first part of the journey led us via Italy and Austria to the western Balkans which were supposed to be a quite interesting area:

Slowenia: We really liked it there. We did some nice rock-climbing in Kotecnik and Osp, discovered some caves and enjoyed nice drinks in the city center of Ljubjana.

Croatia: Peak of the summer and high season – we think this combination isn’t the perfect one to visit Croatia. But we really enjoyed the islands Rab & Hvar and we met nice people in Paklenica, with whom we travelled to a quite unknwn travel destination.

Albania: You cross the border and you’ll find yourself in another world. If you would like to describe it, many people would say “It’s like Asia / Latin America!”. Wild mountain ranges which you only can reach via unpaved and bumpy roads – the intermediate speed is around 10 km/h. Albanian hosts one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world. There are tons of rock which let the climber’s heard speed up. We’ve met great people there – Albanians, Austrians and Suiss – and found our dog Blacky in the only existing animal shelter over there – Thanks, Maria, for your power and engagement towards the situation of abimals in Albania!!! Albania also became our homebase for trips to the Kosovo, Macedonia and Greece.

Kosovo: It seems to be the cheapest country where you can pay in Euro. We went rock climbing in a natural park close to Peja and stayed a few days in Prizren. When you travel from Albania to Kosovo a sign on the Albania side just says “Good Luck”. The Kosovo actually has surprised us in a positive way, but we think that Prizren doesn’t count for the whole country.

Macedonia: Somehow Macedonia didn’t want us to climb its rocks. We tried it twice, but thunderstorms made climbing impossible. But we learnt a lot about the country while spending interesting hours in conversations with the different Macedonian populations. Skopje, Demir Kaija, the Mavrovo Valley and Lake Ohrid are definitely worth a visit. The most interesting thing we exprrienced in Kosovo and Macedonia was the Balkan interpretation of the Islam. We’ve seen girls in mini skirts, in the bars girls and boys are enjoying alcoholic drinks and in a few regions they even eat pork meat. Extremism seems to be a foreign term to them and we really hope that this will stay like it is in the upcoming decades! And now the second part of our journey has started a week ago and we are in Spain. Before that Jörg spent six weeks in Germany to raise some funds for our trip and Kris stayed in Sicily and enjoyed nice weather, rocks and the small dog there.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t follow the initial plan as the Greek border was closed in October for ten days and we couldn’t go down to Kalymnos. Instead of heading to Kalymnos we took a ferry from Albania to Italy. Sorry, Peter, that we didn’t made it. We really hope that you had a great time on Kalymnos.

And last but not least we would like to thank all those people who supported us during the last year – especially our parents and closest friends -, furthermore we thank all our sleeping possibilities – Caro, Katja, Stefano, Albina, Remzi, Rino, Preparim, Alex & Christina-, all our travel- and climbing partners – Dani & Tobi, Gebi & Kathrin, Peter, Sara & Roland, Judith & Bruno, Stefan, Christoph, Ruben, Alex – and we would like to thank all of those, we met during our trip and who made this trip very special to us

Again, enjoy the X-Mas time and have a great start into the next year!

Jörg & Kristina

Here is a short documentary we shot last week in Albania.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Finally we have updated our camps section. Here is the photographic documentation of our last 54 domiciles.

Zurück in Albanien ging es erst mal in Richtung Tirana. Um genau zu sein nach Bovilla, nördlich von Tirana. Dort gibt es einen hübschen Stausee und rings herum ganz viel Fels von recht guter Qualität. Vor einem Jahr wurden die ersten Sportkletterrouten hier erschlossen. Es gibt zwei Sektoren, einer mit plattigem grauem Kalk (schön wasserzerfressen) und einer mit rotem, versintertem Kalk. Es sind eigentlich nur die ersten Meter in nähe der Straße erschlossen. Hier können noch ganz schön viele Akkus leer gebohrt werden.

Kris hatte im Vorfeld Gerhard Duro über Facebook kontaktiert, den wir auch direkt nach unserer Ankunft am Fels trafen. Gerhard ist so etwas wie der Kopf der Kletterszene aus Tirana. Diese besteht aus sieben aktiven Kletterern. Wir schliefen in der Nähe des Sees und schauten uns am nächsten Tag den plattigen Sektor genauer an. Die Routen liegen hauptsächlich im Bereich 6a bis 6b. Name und Bewertung sind liebevoll am Fels angeschrieben.

Am nächsten Tag trafen wir uns mittags mit Gerhard in Tirana. Er war recht begeistert, als er erfuhr, dass wir eine Bohrmaschine mit uns haben und wollte uns zu einem noch nicht erschlossenen Gebiet im Dajti National Park führen. Leider versperrte uns recht früh eine Schranke die Weiterfahrt und auf einen langen Fußmarsch in der Mittagshitze hatten wir keine rechte Lust. Also fuhren wir weiter ins Brrar-Tal „wo man auch klettern kann“. Der untere Teil des Tals ist recht deprimierend. Hier wird überall im grossen Stil Kalk abgebaut. Ganze Berge sind schon verschwunden und die Gegend sieht nicht so recht aus, als wäre sie auf diesem Planeten. Weiter oben ist die Welt zum Glück noch in Ordnung. Beim ersten Anblick des Gebiets verschlug es mir erst mal den Atem. Hohe Wände, fast durchweg überhängend mit schönen Sintern. Ein paar wenige Routen sind eingebohrt. Die leichteste davon 6c, die härteren wohl irgendwas im 8. Franzosengrad. Der Fels ist extrem rauh und scharf. Das Gebiet muss vor nicht allzu langer Zeit von Italienern erschlossen worden sein. Mehr konnte ich leider nicht in Erfahrung bringen. Ich hoffe nur, dass diese Ecke in naher Zukunft nicht auch noch weggesprengt wird.

Am Abend sind wir dann wieder zurück nach Bovilla an den Stausee gefahren, wo wir auf Katrin und Gebi aus Innsbruck trafen. Sie waren gerade angekommen. Wir tranken zusammen Bier und kletterten am nächsten Tag ein wenig. Kletterten noch ein wenig mehr, bohrten gemeinsam eine Route ein (Hochhofen, 6c), aßen lecker und hatten eine super Zeit zusammen.

Weil die Chemie stimmte, verbrachten wir noch einen Tag gemeinsam am Meer, wo wir auf einem verlassenem Campingplatz direkt am Strand schliefen, und versuchten noch, uns ein Klettergebiet in Mazedonien anzuschauen. Es regnete wie schon lange nicht mehr, und so schauten wir uns noch gemeinsam Skopje an, wo sich dann unsere Wege trennten.

Wir entspannen uns jetzt am Ohrid See bevor es wieder nach Albanien geht. Und im Oktober werden wir noch einen Versuch mit Mazedonien starten. Dann gibt es dort ein Kletterfestival.

Back in Albania we went to Bovilla in the north of Tirana. There is a nice artificial lake surrounded by lots of rock of high quality. In 2010 the first sports climbing lines were bolted here. There are currently two sectors at Bovilla lake – one with grey limestone (mainly slabs which are nicely made up by water) and the other with nice tufas. Currently only those sectors which are easily accessible via the road are bolted, but you could still drill and discover new lines for ages.

Kris had contacted Gerhard Duro via Facebook before their trip to Bovilla whom we met on our first day there as well. Gerhard is somehow the head of Tirana’s rock climbing scene, which consists of seven enthusiastic climbers. We slept close to the lake and started to discover the slabs next day. Most of the lines there are between 6a and 6b – No worries, name and grade are written down on each line.

The next day in Tirana we met Gerhard and one of his fellows, Klevi, a former trapeze artist,  climbs since three months, can „red point“ 6c. Gerhard was really enthusiastic that we have a drilling machine with us and wanted to introduce a non-bolted climbing area in Dajti National Park to us. Unfortunately, a bar blocked our way and we weren’t in the mood to do a one-hour hike in the heat of the sun at that moment to reach the crag. So we changed our plans and headed towards the Brrar Canyon. The ride tot he crag was quite shocking as the whole canyon seemed to be a limestone quarry. Entire mountains disappeared and the landscape seemed to be from another planet. But, fortunately, where the real crag started the quarry transformed into a nice canyon. The first view oft he crag took my breath – steep walls, mainly overhanging tufa. Only a few lines are bolting, starting with 6c, but the whole sector seems to be harder with a lot of potential in the upper 7th and 8th French grade. The rock is extremely sharp and craggy. Italians have bolted the area not long ago. Unfortunately, I don’t know more about the history of this jewel and really hope that the quarry exploration wouldn’t blast away this nice crag.

In the evening we went back to Bovilla where we met two Austrian climbers, Kathrin and Gebi. They have just arrived and we got along quite well, shared some beers, ate great Albanian food, discovered Tirana, climbed a few lines together and bolted „Hochofen“ (6c).  Actually, we had a great time together. So we also decided to spend some days on the beach after those exiting days in Bovilla and to discover a rock climbing area in Macedonia. But Macedonia welcomed us with a heavy thunderstorm. So we skipped climbing and went to Skopje, Macedonia’s capital. Unfortunately, Kathrin and Gebi had to head back home to Austria, so we had to say good-bye.

Currently we are relaxing at Lake Ohrid and will go back to Albania soon. Anyway, beginning October there will be a rock climbing festival in Demir Kapija Macedonia and we want to give it a try.

Leider gibt es für dieses Gebiet überhaupt kein Topo. Lediglich eine Karte, auf der man die Lage der Sektoren erahnen kann. Da auch keine Routennamen oder Bewertungen angeschrieben sind, dachte ich mir, dass ich dann auch gleich Neues erschließen kann. So tingelten wir den nächsten Tag recht lange durch die Gegend und schauten uns Fels an. Davon gibt es in dieser Schlucht reichlich. Hauptsächlich grauer Kalk, mit kleinen Leisten oder Rissen. Als ich dann eine schöne Linie entdeckt hatte, und mir auch recht einfach ein Toprope reinhängen konnte, rannte beim Putzen der Route ein aufgebrachter Skorpion vor meiner Nase herum – ich hatte wohl seine Behausung zerstört – und verschwand dann in dem Riss, in dem meine Hand klemmte. Recht spontan habe ich mich dann dazu entschlossen, diese Linie doch nicht einzubohren. Um ehrlich zu sein, hatte ich echt Schiss vor dem kleinen schwarzen Insekt und keine allzu große Lust, meine Hände noch mal in dem Riss zu versenken.

Wir aßen dann noch zu Abend und fuhren erst mal zurück nach Prizren, wo wir noch mal anständig gegessen und getrunken haben, bevor es zurück nach Albanien ging.

After a few days in Prizren we went to Peja to take a closer loot at rock climbing in Kosovo. In Peja we met Vyrtyt and Haki who gave us during a coffee a short update, where to find the climbing sectors in Rugova Valley. Later we went up the canyon by car. Most of the sectors are more or less close to the street and another two you could reach by a 30 to 45 minutes drive with a 4×4. There is no topo at all for this area – only a map that roughly shows the location of the sectors. As the route names or grades aren’t written on the crags neither I came up with the idea to bolt a new line. The next day we sneaked around and watched out for promising looking lines. There is lot of rock. Mostly grey limestone with small crimps or cracks. I found a well looking line where it was easy to put a tope rope in. While cleaning this line suddenly a black scorpion appeared -I think I destroyed his home. It ran around in rage in front of my nose and disappeared in the crack where my hands where in. Spontaneous I decided not to bolt this route. To be honest I was scared of the little black insect and my motivation to put my hand in this crack was completely gone.

Later we had dinner and then we drove back to Prizren, where we enjoyed good food and drinks again, before we went back to Albania.