Albanian Highways

Our recent trip to south Albania ended with Cindy exhaused from the constant vigil of driving on the highways.  The roads are bad and the drivers are worse, as she's explained.  

The top two pictures are headed north along the Ionian Sea from Sarandë to Dhermë.  For a good bit of the coast there is no "sand" beach, or even a pebble beach, just sea meeting mountains.  In some places there are little beaches accessible only by boat, and some others  accessible by auto.

Pictures three and four are looking south over Dhermë.  This is probably the "deepest" indentation along the beach, and it is building up quickly.  The pictures are taken from the top of the mountain shown in picture five, which is about 1100 meters, or 3600 feet.  That is a pretty steep climb, as you can literally see sea level.

Sarandë is close to the Greek border, and there is a ferry and hydrofoil from Corfu to Sarandë, so it was the first town to start developing.  Durrës and Vlorë, because they're closer to Tirana, I suppose, are also developed and developing.  Dhermë and Himarë are still fairly isolated, and the road is bad, but they are building up fast.  The highway starting at Sarandë is under construction and/or in  various states of disrepair all the way to this summit.  Some places were paved two lanes, some paved one lane, some compressed crushed rock, and some we drove over five inch broken up limestone.  It was an interesting mix.  

When the road is finished it will be nice and smooth, but still dangerous, since the local drivers don't mind passing up a hill and around a corner past which they can see nothing and know nothing.  There are many, many roadside monuments to accident victims, but they seem to make no impression on the drivers, whose motto apparently is, with apologies to John Dunne, "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it will never toll for me."