Susu has a new friend

Have you ever said never and then made a 180 degree change? I have today.

We make our way to the restaurant for the fourth time in less than a day. We are going to have breakfast before we climb the peak of M. Roshit (2,522m), which Catherine recommended us last night.

The Argentinian girl brings us a big basket of lovely yummy home-made bread, with strawberry jam, fig jam and butter.

Then two pancakes.

Then she brings the proper breakfast menu! How are going to be able to drag ourselves up the mountain?

I must say, everything about this place is excellent: we have a luxury room, luxury shower and luxury breakfast. All for €30! Very good value.

Me to the Argentinian girl: How is your first day at work?

Her: It is good. Catherine is very nice.

Me: Where is your friend? I thought you both volunteered.

Her: He is asleep. He went to bed late last night, watching a football match.

Why doesn’t that surprise me? I hope that she realises by the end of their trip together that she can do better than him.

We finish breakfast and start the route. The walk starts four kilometres up the road. Today is a day of playing. Catherine warned us that there are still tonnes of snow where we are going, we are too early in the season. So we are just going to see how it goes.

Trekking at this time of the year is quite challenging. The snow is just starting to melt. Walking on soft snow is quite tiring. Moreover, under these conditions, the summits can be tricky to reach, if not totally inaccessible. The snow covers the paths, so occasionally we end up going off-piste. Because you don’t know what you are actually stepping on, the chances of slipping or sinking in holes are much greater.

However, any frequent trekker must be able to walk on snow. In Europe, mountains over 3,000 are likely to be covered on it all year-round. Walking on snow requires a different technique, which we are getting better at.

After fifteen minutes walking on the road, we realise that someone is following us. A dog! The second one in a week! The first one in Mikros Papigo. They must be attracted to us. Or, most likely, they must just be so bored. Truly attention seekers!

We call him DogDos (‘dos’ is two in Spanish).

Our mountains suddenly appear in the background.

We turn right and cross a wide river. The bridge stops half way. To finish crossing, we have to walk on wobbly stones. Someone is going to get wet fees.

Only DogDos gets wet feet as she doesn’t bother with the wobbly stones.

We have only climbed 100 metres and the snow starts to appear.

The snow is easy to handle, as it is thin and crispy being that it is early in the morning.

Even DogDos handles it well.

Suddenly we see a cemetery on our left, with only one grave. Maybe they have just built it , and this unlucky fellow has christened it.

The path now goes through the woods. The snow has disappeared, as it is more sheltered below the trees. The green colour of the leaves is so intense…

We soon leave the woods. Lovely mountain scenery appears in front of us. Although these mountains look very close, they must be at least eight hour away from us. Luckily, we are not going that way.

DogDos is still with us. I am starting getting interesting in her. I wonder how many times she has been on this walk, what she will do when we reach the snowline. If she doesn’t follow us, would she remember the way back?

The views are getting more impressive by the minute. Mountains make me feel so insignificant, a feeling I like. Mountains remind us that we are so trivial. They are so powerful, we are so vulnerable…

The climb through the woods is turning out to be steep and strenuous. From the top of this mini-ridge, we can better appreciate the zig-zagging path we have just been on. Beautiful pattern.

Three people are in front of us: the Belgians we met on the ferry who also stayed in the same hotel as us last night. Good on them for doing this walk, they may be in their seventies. However, we can only see three of them. The fourth, the chatty one is missing. Maybe he is not an outdoors lover or he has decided to stay with the Argentinian girl, who he got on so well yesterday.

We pass them.

Finally, our peak reveals itself. We think our route goes off to the left through the pass (blue arrow), along the ridge and to the top (yellow star). There seems to be lots of snow on the top of ridge. My only hope is that the snow is not so soft at that altitude.

We have passed the snowline and DogDos is still with us. I actually quite like having her around. She has been quite entertaining.

The pass from here, looks intimidating but incredibly beautiful.

We have walked on soft snow for about 45 minutes when we reach a crossroad. To the left, we can get to the top of a ridge which is part of Montenegro. Catherine has strongly recommended this place because the views, “and you can illegally be in Montenegro. You would have visited another country. How exciting is that?”

We were going to go up, see the views, back down and continue our trek but we decide not to for various reasons:

The conditions are not particularly good, the pass looks challenging, so we better reserve our energies.

I am sure the views are also lovely from our peak.

We are going to go to Montenegro to trek in a few weeks time anyway.

So we turn right towards the pass.

Fifteen minutes later, we bump into a person resting on a rock. It is the fourth Belgian. He is just too fast for the other three. He now has to wait for them.

We chat with him for a while, whilst enjoying the views.

Him: This is the dog which lives around the village. I saw her last night. Has she been following you?

Us: Yes, all the way.

Him: Amazing, she must be really tired.

Us: Well, she hasn’t given up yet. Moreover, it has been quite entertaining having her around.

I cannot see her. I look around and there she is, rolling in the snow and eating it, as she was so hot. She is so funny, we all burst into tears of laughing.

Me: See what I mean?

The other three Belgians turn up in the distance. He goes and speaks to them. He comes back on his own, they are going back to the hotel, they’ve had enough.

He was going to take a shorter route but he likes the sound of climbing M. Roshit. Besides, black clouds are quickly building up on the sky, there may be a chance of a storm. He decides to stick with us.

On the way up, he tells us he is a trekking fanatic. His last trek was in Ethiopia. Really? I want to know everything about it but suddenly, a thunder clap in the sky. We should leave the chatting for later, we must press on.

The snow is really heavy. It is time to put our snow shoes on, which we borrowed from Catherine this morning, as we left our crampons back in Dora.

I don’t like snow shoes. It is quite awkward walking in them, I feel like a clown. They are not as good as crampons on steep slopes, which is what we are climbing on.

Gary and I decide to take them off.

We hesitantly continue to walk for another ten minutes. The thunder is now quite frequent. One important rule when you are in the mountain: get down pretty damned quick if there is a chance of storm.

However, we are so close to the pass. We estimate only 20 more minutes. Maybe if we increase our pace we can get there and come back before the storm starts.

A lightening followed by a strong thunder eventually decides it for us. Yeap! It is definitely not looking good. Let’s turn back.

It is a wise decision. We’ve had a nice walk, plus free entertainment. What has DogDos been up to all this time?

There she is. She has taken the lead. She is sliding down the snow. The first time, she slipped, she is now coming back up and throws herself down the slope. She is really having a good time.

 

She is so cute, so funny.

.I have just realised something and I tell Gary: “I think we should have a dog”. “No way, I think you should sleep on that decision tonight”

He cannot believe his ears and tells the story to the Belgian guy. “Susana doesn’t like dogs. She is scared of them. And she is now saying we should have one”.

They are very loyal animals and they give you good company. I have been honest, I have developed some sort of feelings for this one, what sort of feelings? I don’t know. However, Gary is right, I should think about it.

We stop for a quick lunch. Our Belgian friend has to head off, the other three are waiting for him, probably quite bored. We exchange addresses, he gives us his name: Jean Matton. We give him our website address and promise to talk about him on our blog.

We share our lunch with DogDos, bit of sausage, bit of ham, bit of cheese and a bit of bread. She devours the first two, she is not that keen on cheese, she leaves the bread. We don’t give her any more so she eventually eats the bread, reluctantly.

We drop down to the valley pretty quickly.

The clouds have passed. The storm never really happened. Never mind, turning back was still the right decision.

It is 15.30, we are quite early. Should we do a detour back to the hotel? It means going up to the end of the tree line of an adjacent mountain and picking up the parallel track to drop down directly to our accommodation.

DogDos is not happy about it at all. She thought she was finally being taken back home.

However, she devotedly sticks with us. I like to think that she likes us. What is going on with me? Why am I feeling like this about a dog? My mother will be really surprised when she reads this.

The thunder comes back and it starts to rain, although very lightly. We could continue. On the other hand, it could get worst. We are quite tired and we’ve had a nice walk today anyway. So we go back to our hotel.

We cross the river before reaching the road to the accommodation. DogDos finds the bridges over the river before we do. She now knows where she is, perhaps she has known all the way, who knows!

We get back to the accommodation by the road. A car stops near us. The Belgians again! They are now leaving Valbona.

Jean looks at DogDos: “She still with you!”.

We get back at 17.00, relax, read, have a nice shower and walk to the restaurant for a nice dinner.

When we leave the room, guess who started following us? Yes, DogDos. She was waiting for us all this time.

Me: “Did you have a nice walk today? Did you get the chance to rest?

Gary: “Yes, I did”

Me: “Sorry, I was taking with the dog”

Gary: “Oh, I see. You have a nice friend. How quickly I have been replaced!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SM