“Hunny River” outside Baracoa in the eastern part of Cuba. Unlike the rest of the island this region has many rivers and there is almost a sense of rainforest.
Tag Archives: Nature
Clean breathing in Theth.
The hard to reach Theth valley in northern Albania. June 2013
Ten Island Race 2
One of the rules in the race was to run to the highest point at each of the ten islands.
Ten Island Race
At Öckerö and surrounding islands outside Gothenburg today. 27 kilometers of running, canoeing 18 km, and swimming 1,24 km. Tough day for most of the participants..
Where the eagles fly 2
We had experienced three fantastic days in Thethi with adventures and surprises more than we could expect but we were open for more. Heading back to Tirana partly by walking the 16 kilometers over the impressive mountains to Valbona valley was a very tempting idea..
The doubt presented itself the night before our supposed crossing via three Polish alpinists that arrived the opposite direction from the same trail.
They looked exhausted and haunted. The man was injured in the foot and described three dangerous sections with very steep snow-sections.
Yesterdays post explains what made us go anyway: https://hakanronnblad.com/2013/06/27/where-the-eagles-fly/
Led by Marash, our local guide we set off June 11 at around ten in the morning . Thethi valley has an altitude of more than 800m and in about 4-5 hours we would climb another 1000 meters before reaching the summit and then start to descend towards Valbona.
The climb was breathtaking both physically and esthetically but not dangerous…. so far!
In these sparsely populated parts of Albania the habitat is ideal for bear, wolf, mountain goat and of course the national bird the eagle.. as a surprise for me also for the schakal… I could definitely feel the presence of one during the entire walk.
An hour or so before the top we took a break and admired the mountain cliffs around us…. suddenly I saw them.. two eagles, majestically gliding around in the sky at about 300 meters distance . My long lens was clearly not long enough for a decent picture but it´s an eagle in one of the images.
After a short sleep we reached the top between the two valleys (panorama pic).
The descend resulted much more difficult especially with our not so professional equipment.
Several very steep snow-cowered passages demanded complete concentration. Luckily Marash knew the best places to put our feet and without his experience it would have been hard to get to Valbona. But after almost 9 hours we were installed at our destination in a guesthouse eating a well deserved dinner.
Thank you Erisa Cakalli and Marash. I would say you were ideal walking-companions..
Thethi valley, a forgotten world
Isolated from the rest of the country during six months each year, due to the snow, the locals of Thethi valley have to do some serious planning for their survival. There is no shop and no electricity available, so do not forget to buy your own toothpaste before you cross the mighty mountains surrounding Thethi.
Time seem to have frozen in this part of northern Albania. The land is cultivated by hand or behind the horse.
Some decades ago a large part of the male population died by the 500-year-old “kanun” family feud tradition implemented by Lek Dukagjin. The last blood revenge according to a village woman, happened five years ago!
Luckily these dark age customs lately seem to have been reduced considerably and as a guest it is hard to find a place where you will be treated in a better way.
At 2 kilometers..
out of 21, before the finish line. It´s a tough race today at Gothenburg marathon, very hot at the beginning. I heard ambulance sirens from different directions, hope it was not because of stressed hearts. Later on the sky opened and an epic thunder weather presented itself with some almost frightening hailstorm on top of it. The last runners has not finished yet as I post this photo.
Ticking over 30 000 thousand visits
Perhaps my most frequent theme is pictures from Cuba, a country in which I have travel around six times.
Here´s another image from Viñales in the western part of the country.
Wet wait
No umbrella and the rain is pouring?
I took that photo but I kind of stole the scene. 10 meters to the right the fire brigade is producing some nice rain. The soaked man in the suit is a hired model. Above me in a crane is the photographer Håkan Ludwigsson (Conde Nast Traveller) working.
The whole thing added up as an advertising for Göteborgs Posten (on his head) the biggest newspaper in Gothenburg.
Another wet ride
Trough Havana in the pouring rain. January 27. 2008.
Håkan Rönnblad 