Tam & co the great winter escape

[Littlewheels]

There's a stray mum and 3 pups here

I always think if you’ve got two you can make space for three

 

[L' Hobo]

Have driven over to the coast now...parked up at the beach at a closed beach bar ....mario the owner has told us we can use the tables , chairs , toilets, shower etc if we want. He's also a mechanic and owns a garage in town so he has had a look at the ivevo and thinks it might be the non return valve someone has fitted before ...hes going to see if he can get one and try it ...he will come back later.

I found the spot on park4night and came here because lots of reviews saying how friendly and helpful he is ....i expected someone older but hes only around 30 i think . There's a stray mum and 3 pups here .... she's given milo a right telling off for chasing one of the pups.

park4night - (4503) Bar Ledh, Kune Shëngjin

Great beach bar 5☆!!! Boat trips/laundry/car repair/food/service... anything is possible! Mario is an outstanding mechanic, do not hesitate to ask him for help, his garage is 10 minutes away by car! Great prices, pure hospitality, we will definitely be back! Dogs allowed Good access to the beach...

park4night.com

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Love the Turtle, guess what Christmas decoration theme is going on my fence this year? (AND it will get rid of some of the old branches)

Great pictures Tam, keep 'em coming!

 

[namwaldog]

This place looks so lovely for you, dogs and Jackie Been following your great thread, you certainly go to some, erm... very different places that we go to. Sometimes wish I was younger and braver too.
I(Margaret) would have been in panic tears and probably bailed out and walked up that twisty, narrow mountain road that Jackie videoed. Our mh is probably too big for those roads anyway. Thankfully. Whoa!!! Well done both of you. Respect for your brilliant travels.
Glad you are both safe and have found a lovely welcoming place. Looks like paradise. Relax and enjoy. Stay safe and well and hugs to dogs. Love their photos , the scenery looks awesome too.
Thanks and looking forward to more of your adventures.
Regards Margaret.

 

[Al n Val]

brilliant photo's Tam and what looks like a proper adventure

tell me, would a nearly 9mtr van get to where you have been so far do you think

Al

 

[gus-lopez]

off topic slightly but have just seen slovakia is locking down for 2 weeks from midnight tonight.

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[Northernraider]

brilliant photo's Tam and what looks like a proper adventure

tell me, would a nearly 9mtr van get to where you have been so far do you think

Al

Hmmmm im not sure id even attempt to take it to many of those stops ...not just length but width and height . Remember this was a 3 grand van with a poor paintjob. I can be a little more reckless with it

 

[Northernraider]

off topic slightly but have just seen slovakia is locking down for 2 weeks from midnight tonight.

Yes ive also read of some restrictions coming in to holland and austria

 

[Phill D]

Yes ive also read of some restrictions coming in to holland and austria

You need to make a run for Greece Tam just in case you get locked out!!

 

[Northernraider]

You need to make a run for Greece Tam just in case you get locked out!!

They better not start that nonsense again this year

 

[Phill D]

They better not start that nonsense again this year

you could be in Greece tomorrow in less than 5 hours.... Job done

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[Northernraider]

you could be in Greece tomorrow in less than 5 hours.... Job done

I could but i want to spend another 5 days outwith shengen so im delaying that.

 

[Northernraider]

Moved on today after lunch to Tirana ...that was an interesting drive. The drivers here are the worst ive encountered anywhere. No lane discipline...and some of the vehicles have to be seen to be believed ...no lights on many off them , scooters passing on both sides ...people and various animals in the roads even the main roads ...there was a man today on a scooter leading about 30 turkeys on ropes behind him on a dual carriageway with a 90kmp speed limit on it ...cows , goats you name it .. one big stretch of road outside Tirana at least 5 miles long is just yards selling car parts ,building materials and loads of hand car washes ...like bo exaggeration there must have been 40 or 50 in the one stretch of road ...a few miles on and its gridlock ...only moving half a car length at a time ...bendy busses like youve never seen they have 4 parts to them so twice the length of a normal bendy and driven by psychopaths ...scooters and cyclists going the wrong way up the road filtering between cars .... absolute madness. Diesel is very expensive at €1.83 and above and they only take cash ... Cash machines charge for every withdrawal ...and only give lek ....3000 lek is around £20 but it costs you £23.85 to withdraw it. Badly need a supermarket now. And ive heard many of those only take cash too. Still lots of very dodgy looking characters around . But the people we have spoken to all seem very friendly so perhaps its just perception. Took us 3 hours to drive through Tirana ...2 places we looked at stopping were dirty and smelly so we are about 5 miles south now in a hotel carpark as it got dark. Not going to bother attempting to go back in to the city. Rain forecast for the next week so im hoping it's wrong. Possibly head for berat tomorrow once i have found another bank and filled up with diesel and found a supermarket. ....we will see.


The one and only photo i took today was milo posing

 

[Al n Val]

Hmmmm im not sure id even attempt to take it to many of those stops ...not just length but width and height . Remember this was a 3 grand van with a poor paintjob. I can be a little more reckless with it

thanks for the feedback Tam

tbh with your last post regarding bendy busses, turkeys, rip off atm’s and what have you i’ll stick to other parts of the EU to travel to

Enjoying reading your journey though

 

[Northernraider]

thanks for the feedback Tam

tbh with your last post regarding bendy busses, turkeys, rip off atm’s and what have you i’ll stick to other parts of the EU to travel to

Enjoying reading your journey though

All of that aside though it is an interesting country and well worth visiting... Montenegro is the same its just different from what we are used to but in a way thats the whole point isn't it.

 

[Al n Val]

All of that aside though it is an interesting country and well worth visiting... Montenegro is the same its just different from what we are used to but in a way thats the whole point isn't it.

very true

not sure i’d get the missus to go though tbh

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[Mikey RV]

Every journey is an adventure and makes a great story, thanks for the updates and keep posting.

 

[chaser]

Did the bloke have a look at your starter?

 

[Manic]

Did the chap at the closed bar sort your starting problems ( sorry if I’ve missed it)

 

[Northernraider]

Did the bloke have a look at your starter?

Hmmm not really ...despite many reviews on park4night saying hes a good mechanic he did not seem overly interested. It didnt help of course that both times he was there the bloody van started fine with no problems. There is however a non return valve been fitted in one of the pipes on this which has no hose clips on it and it may well be the case that is causing the problems. It's not standard thats for sure ...it may well have been fitted to try and fix the problem and it hasnt or it may have fixed the problem before but its reoccurring now ....i might have to try changing that valve and fitting it with hose clips and see if it makes any difference.

 

[dalspa]

Has the valve been fitted the correct way round? If so, is the flap seating properly?

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[Northernraider]

Has the valve been fitted the correct way round? If so, is the flap seating properly?

No idea.

 

[Northernraider]

So heres the mad currencies .


30 Croatian kuna .....thats worth roughly £3.36

Albanian lek ....3000 lek equals £20.85

Papery notes like our old ones .

Everything is in lek bar the fuel prices which are in Euros but the ATM machines only dispense lek .

Fuel stations seem to only take cash and i believe so do most shops .....i haven't seen any big supermarkets yet only what we would call mini markets or convenience stores.

The only places it seems that take cards are hotels and restaurants.

 

[Phill D]

its almost as bad as the old Turkish Lira before it got devalued, your pocket was not big enough for the roll of notes equivalent to £100

I remember paying 30,000 TL for an antique genuine Persian silver box in a small town at the bottom of mount Ararat. It was something like £20... I still have the box and it is Persian hall marked.

 

[spitfire]

And in Vietnam ! Only place I’ve been a millionaire lol

 

[Lenny HB]

Italy was 2500 lira to the pound.

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[L' Hobo]

Has the valve been fitted the correct way round? If so, is the flap seating properly?

IF it IS a non-return valve AND fitted the wrong way round, NO fuel COULD get through surely?? Is that not the USP of a NON-return valve?

 

[L' Hobo]

its almost as bad as the old Turkish Lira before it got devalued, your pocket was not big enough for the roll of notes equivalent to £100

I remember paying 30,000 TL for an antique genuine Persian silver box in a small town at the bottom of mount Ararat. It was something like £20... I still have the box and it is Persian hall marked.

I remember driving a coach tour down to, the then, Yugoslavia in the early 80's? and we had to change our money at the border near Klagenfurt (IF that's how one spells it) to Dinar? Dinar was okay IN Yugoslavia BUT on the return, at the same border, they would not change it back AND as the Yugoslav Dinar had NO value outside of Yugoslavia, ALL cross border drivers bought 'traditional' dolls from the only shop that was there OR throw it in the bin as no foreign money exchange would accept it .
I found out later, that the border guards owned the shop and stopped any competition from trading there.

PS. It also took a carton of American cigarettes to facilitate a reasonable progress of one's paperwork and passports. Those were the days!

 

[Northernraider]

I remember driving a coach tour down to, the then, Yugoslavia in the early 80's? and we had to change our money at the border near Klagenfurt (IF that's how one spells it) to Dinar? Dinar was okay IN Yugoslavia BUT on the return, at the same border, they would not change it back AND as the Yugoslav Dinar had NO value outside of Yugoslavia, ALL cross border drivers bought 'traditional' dolls from the only shop that was there OR throw it in the bin as no foreign money exchange would accept it .
I found out later, that the border guards owned the shop and stopped any competition from trading there.

PS. It also took a carton of American cigarettes to facilitate a reasonable progress of one's paperwork and passports. Those were the days!

Aye imagine if there were no borders between countries how easy and hassle free it would be .... someone really out to think that up.

 

[rolosroller]

Aye imagine if there were no borders between countries how easy and hassle free it would be .... someone really out to think that up.

Some say there are no borders in the UK just now

 

[Northernraider]

So a few interesting stories from mario from the few times he was down. He's 31 ....he inherited the land from his family 5 years ago ....its been in his family over 400 years but has been taken from them 4 times by the army ...once in world war 1 , again in world war 2 , the ostro Hungarian war and another i can't remember....his father claimed the land back in 1993 ....the sea has been steadily coming in closer and closer as companies have been taking the sand from the beaches to use in the construction of the apartment's you can see further along the beach ....he says when he was a boy there was a small forest where the beach is currently ....you can see the top of one bunker left from the war which is about 10-15 feet out in the water ....he says theres a second line of those bunkers about 400 yards out in the water but are now under the water so you can't see them apart from a boat.


In 2012 aged 22 he got in to the uk as an illegal immigrant hidden in a lorry and he worked in a bar in leicester square in london for 3 years ....but he said he didn't like it ...it was too busy and noisy so he returned to Albania. ....a year later his father gave him the land his bar is now on. The government only allow him to open it for 3 months of the year though.

He was telling us not to go up in to the mountains hiking at this time as the gangs who operate in Albania grow weed in the mountains and harvest it at this time ...there have been cases of people going missing and its most likely they saw something they were not supposed to see ....he was also telling us to watch out for the police in some parts as they were corrupt and would attempt to take money .


Interesting guy

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