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Bene of the Moutains
I travelled to Albania with little expectation. I had heard stories of it's beauty, especially in the North and hidden up in the Albanian Alps. This was where I headed first, arriving slightly bleary-eyed in the remote valley of Valbona.
The pictures here show the North's beauty but it's also impossible to ignore the amount of construction going on. I worry about the future of this place. I've heard from travellers about a hotel they plan to build which will host 500 guests. What will happen to the lovely homestay families or the only shop in the village that is run by a funny young man called Luan?
The next day I begin the hike to Theth. There's something beautiful about hiking in thunderous rain. In fact I was grateful of the rain. I thanked it for its sound and power. I thanked it for nurturing the earth and creating life. As I climbed I made conversation with a few families still living in the mountains. Here are their pictures.
At night I still had trouble sleeping. But when you wake up with the sun, sound of farm animals and in a valley surrounded by mountains, sleep doesn't seem that important.
Light rain continued to bless the earth outside as I readied myself for another day of hiking. Bene had promised to take me to see his wild dogs in the mountains and I felt adventurous enough to follow him.
At the summit I bumped into another solo traveller who was heading the opposite direction. Almost silently we took in the view at the top before heading off on our respective journeys. Sometimes words aren't needed to forge a connection. Experience is enough.
Bene of the Mountains
Bene was a talker and I liked that. It meant I could take a backseat and just listen to his story. A story which had brought him to live in the mountains as the leader of pack of wild dogs.
Bene was an Englishman and had been studying for his PhD in Theoretical Physics before making the move to Eastern Europe. During his tenure at university, the academic pressure he put on himself to be brilliant led to a troubled mind. The result was a hospitalisation from an eating disorder he developed from believing eating was an inefficient use of his time, time that could be devoted to his studies. He told me, without sadness, of giving up his PhD as his attention turned to nature.
Activity became his saviour. He began riding his bike day after day, slightly further each time, until one day he rode into Europe and didn't return. That was seven years ago. He had since been living all across Eastern Europe, sometimes with strangers but more often than not, living homeless or as he liked to call it, 'carefree.' For the last three years he had been living rough in the Albanian Alps with his pack of wild street dogs.
He was applying for a role in the hostel I was staying at, when I first met him. He looked tired but his eyes burned with bright intensity as we begun conversation. It turned out we were both Arsenal fans. It also turned out we grew up less than 20 minutes away from each other. In moments such as these, the world never feels smaller; a familiar stranger from down the road here in the wilderness of Albania.
He'd found an abandoned house in the Albanian Alps, a house he had spent converting to provide shelter for his nine stray dogs. I cleared any plans I had made, curious to learn more about Bene, the Englishman in the mountains . 'Why are you looking after them Bene?' I questioned. On the hike up to see them he told me the tale of how he ended up living in such remote and extreme conditions. Tired of the mistreatment of strays around Albania he had rescued a few dogs and they had begun to follow him.
Thunderous rain journeyed up the mountain with us. Rock turned to thick forest as I followed him nervously. He moved quick and surefooted. The maze of the valley was a puzzle he had worked out. It was as if he knew each rock, each plant by name and even in the dizzying mist that had begun to emerge in the forest, he led me on without hesitation. What was I doing, following a stranger to a remote house in such horrendous conditions? Was it naivety that kept me going or a sense of adventure? Bene had certainly cast a spell over me and I had little time to reflect as my guide motioned from thought to thought, ruminating on what philosophy had brought him to such an unconventional path in life.
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