“There’s a storm a brewing”

 This morning was perfect. Clean and fresh after the torrential downpours of yesterday afternoon. We got up in time to have breakfast (a tub of yoghurt) and catch the bus to Butrint. The UNESCO archeological site a few kilometres down the coast. Crispy must have been more excited than I first imagined at the prospect of more rubble as she was very fractious during the night. I stood it as long as I could but in the wee small hours I had to rummage in the back pack for my ear plugs. She was grunting and groaning like a young heifer during a breech delivery.  

On the Saranda bound side of the road there are recognisable bus stops. On the Butrint bound side of the road there are not. It’s a case of pick your spot and wave insanely at every bus or coach that passes in the hope that one will stop. Several coaches past us by but eventually the tactic paid off and a bus stopped for us. We boarded it and set off  to see some more marvels of the ancient world. It’s not far in the scheme of things from Ksamil to Butrint but far enough that we were happy that we had decided not to cycle in preference to the bus.

Butrint , like Durres, was incredibly important to the ancients. It was an important strategic port and staging post to the ancient Greek, Roman and later Byzantine civilisations. I shall not expound further for the fear of boring you senseless but if you are interested, which I doubt, there is a wealth of information about Butrint on google.

It is a large site that occupies most of a forested hill.  Acres of forest hiding incredible well preserved relics of the past. It was hot as we trudged through the forest trails up the hill to the castle and site of the ancient acropolis. The skies were clear and neglectfully I had forgot to pack any drinks. It is  still outside of the main tourist season here and nowhere was open to buy any. Crispy was soon spitting feathers but soldiered on past the decaying ruins like a Trojan. Feigning interest and a wry smile at my snippets of limited information. She’s a good old bird and humours my interest without complaint.

There were several large organised tours here that had arrived on the coaches that Crispy and I had tried to flag down on the Ksamil Main Street. You can book a day tour here whilst staying in Corfu but the tours are expensive . We tagged on to a few groups in the hope of broadening our historical knowledge but soon realised that their guides were being somewhat liberal with the historical facts and we soon decided to free wheel it by ourselves. 

We have paid for tour guides in the past and other than one young guy in India they have always been disappointing. Unless your captive audience are “in the know” the guides can tell you anything and no one would be any the wiser. Personally I have always found the minutiae of history far more interesting than the epic stories of great battles and major events. Our favourite piece of history comes from a small wax tablet that was found on Hadrian’s wall. It’s a letter home, that never got posted, from a young legionary to his mum in Sicily asking her to send him some new underpants and socks as the ones he had were getting a bit worse for wear. We tend to think of the ancients as different to our modern selves. When you realise that their wants, needs and hopes were exactly the same as ours history becomes much more interesting. 

After a while trudging through the remnants of the past Crispy needed a drink and we made our way back to Ksamil. The skies had darkened once more and a storm was brewing. Leaden skies heralded the onset of another fantastic downpour. This time more dramatic than the previous. Any hope we had of kayaking around the islands this afternoon soon dissipated. We returned to our accommodation to sit out the approaching maelstrom. The heavens opened and it poured down. Warm rain but rain non the less. 

I took the opportunity to plan our onward journey through Greece towards Athens. Initially we hoped to stay on the mainland but transport through various regions is proving elusive. We have decided to take to the high seas and avoid the areas where overland travel is difficult by island hopping. Our onward journey will now see us use the Ionian islands as stepping stones to move south. We have visited these islands before, Corfu, lefkas, kefalonia but it was a long time ago and it will be interesting to go back and see them again. 

This evening the skies again cleared and we had dinner sat in a taverna overlooking the sea watching lightning illuminate the heavens as  the storm moved north. We sat drinking a glass of local wine after dinner watching the storm play out it’s light show over the sea. Too far away to hear the thunder but the lightening was spectacular. It looks like the weather is poor for a couple of days due to the storms but should improve rapidly as we move south.

 We have cut our time here short to get us back to Saranda to be closer to the ferry to Corfu. This is a beach resort and if the weather isn’t playing ball there isn’t much to do in the way of adventuring. Crispy’s glass bottom boat experience will have to wait for better sea faring weather.

Bare and Crispy signing off, wet and windy Ksamil, Southern Albania