Matthias Holzinger has written up a nice little article on his May 2018 Canyon expedition to Albania, and allowed me to post it on the Latest Rave…
Albania is actually close by Switzerland and is often so far away for tourists. Until after the war in Kosovo there was actually no tourism in Albania, this changed with the end of the war, but only very hesitantly. Albania is on the move, because the country offers a lot to tourists. Beautiful beaches, wonderful mountain landscapes and remote regions to explore, as well as nice people who are mostly very helpful show the country from its sunny side. Also for canyonists this country is still rather new territory and there is still a lot of potential for new tours. In 2010 the first expedition by a Spanish group took place, which showed the potential of the country. Since then things have become a little quieter around canyoning in Albania until then in spring and in autumn 2017 a French (Guillaume Goquin +….) and an international expedition (David Ov, Pascal van Duin +….) with many top first descents took place.
However, the potential of canyons was far from exhausted after the previous expeditions, so by chance both groups started an expedition again at the same time in May 2018. Sacha Gaillet and I from the canyoning association bachab were able to join the two Albanian experts for canyoning David Ov and Pascal van Duin. The “competition” of the two groups then led so far that we could descent and set up a beautiful canyon only 2 hours before the French group. This was then our running gag of the trip and from then on it was agreed among the two expedition groups who went where, so that one did not have to follow the drilling dust traces of the other group.
In the seven days we made a total of six first descents in Albania, two more canyons were already set and done to complete the topos. Equipped with a 4×4 Jeep with extra-large off-road wheels and extra high for more ground clearance, we had no problems to move around in the terrain, because many canyons are remote and can only be reached by 4×4 vehicles.
The rock is mainly limestone, but its shape and colour vary greatly depending on the area. Our geology specialist Sacha Gaillet was able to determine up to ten different types of limestone in Holta Canyon.
VillainousTurtle
That’s a stunning canyon! Thanks for sharing.