Trip to Sarande

I think I should say something about our adventure last week.  It was certainly something out of the ordinary and never (I hope) to be repeated again.  I wouldn't want to wish this on anyone. 
We started out Thursday on our way to a Couples Conference in Sarande - a resort town on the Ionian Sea in the southern most part of Albania.  It was our intent to drop off some missionary supplies to the Elders in Fier, inspect an apartment in Berat and then drive on down to Sarande.  The map shows a state highway going south out of Berat towards Girocaster which is just over the hill from Sarande.  We'd never been that way and decided it would give us an excuse to see some of the mountains and interior of the country.  It certainly did that.  I should know by now that the road maps they print in Albania show how the roads are going to be when they are finished with constructing them not as they presently are.
About 1 mile out of Berat we started climbing a fairly steep hill and about 2 miles out we ran out of pavement.  Repentance is knowing you're on the wrong road and turning around and getting on the right one.  We decided to press on.  The map was clear and the phone GPS was working well and we could tell we were on the right road to Girocaster but the roadway got worse and steeper and narrower.  Well, we met a 4 wheel vehicle coming from where we were going so we decided to press on knowing that there are other people using this road and so it must be alright.  After passing the first village there were no more vehicles coming our way and we soon discovered why. Nothing but a goat or a burro could have made it where we traveled in our little,  low to the ground, city car.  You know it is really scary to be driving through the middle of nowhere bouncing off rocks and scraping the sides of the car with bushes knowing that if anything should happen to the car we'd have to spend the night there.  They'd have to send in a 4 wheel drive wrecker to pull us out.  Well, we thought that surly this state highway would get better soon and where we were was just a short section that they hadn't finished yet.  Besides the map shows that there is a town just up ahead so people must travel this road all the time.  Wrong again! The town was a ghost town with one sheep herder a couple of dogs and a mule. 
Some of you may have driven the road up out of Eagle Creek Beach down on the Salmon River.  That is a "piece of cake" compared to what we were on.  The level parts were torturous enough but when we started going straight up the side of the mountain or following the switchbacks. Looking over the side at the top it was heart stopping.  Oh my how I feared driving over that land slide even if it had been dozed out just wide enough for a wagon.  The whole thing looked like it could slip again at anytime and it was a very long way to the bottom of the canyon.  And nobody in the world knew where we were,


It was a very long drive

The view is beautiful from on top




Very rocky and narrow

State Highway 74

The full moon is just coming up over the mountain

you know how you mind plays tricks on you when you're in a bad situation.  But obviously we lived to tell about it so... all's well that ends well.   right?
After 3 hours we thought we should turn back because according to the GPS we really hadn't gone very far (we were doing about 10k per hour) after about 4 hours of this insanity we stopped making jokes about the situation and the road and the beautiful mountains and the goat herds and decided it wasn't fun any more.  After 6 hours and a couple of impassable mud holes and washouts we were getting weary.  After 7 hours the car was developing some distinct rattles and scary jolting noises.  After 8 hours we finally hit pavement again and actually saw a few people.  We pulled into Sarande about 10:00 that night checked in to the motel, had a prayer together and passed out on the bed.  Now that's what missionary work is all about - right?

This is an Albanian pickup truck - very creative

Dixie's Birthday party