The Accursed Mountains

Church at Theth Village, on the foot of the Accursed Mountains, Albania

Let’s continue with Albania, since I’ve already started it. (Makes it easier, don’t need to think too much). Mountains, here we come! We’re mountain-lovers, what can I say? Of course, we’ll head to the mountains if there’s any, and Albania is full of mountains!

Here’s the Accursed Mountains. Yeah, no kidding, that's its real name. Don’t ask me how it got this cool menacing name. Maybe you can Google it. Is there a curse linked to this place? Let’s hope it’s just a name. Anyway, accursed or not, they’re too good to be missed.


Up, and up we go, on this narrow mountain route. It IS narrow. Can barely squeeze in 2 car widths, but luckily, the road surface is good! Why do trees grow crooked like these??!? Beats me


Whew, smooth sailing all the way to Theth, the main village here. That’s our hotel, the Logu i Harushave


Good morning! Let’s have a nice breakfast before we head out!


Exploring Theth Village – the village church… It’s a catholic church sez Google (Albania is supposed to be a Muslim country, and indeed it is. The population is more than 50% Muslim, but I think the Albanians are mostly irreligious, and we don’t see any mosques or signs of Islam in the Theth area…)


A bee farm in Theth Village – Those mountains are the Accursed Mountains (also known as the Albanian Alps) surrounding Theth Valley


Hiking to Grunas Waterfall, our first stop. Those dirt roads are bumpy, but are drivable from the looks of it (I would’ve driven, if I’d known earlier, ahem. Yup, lazy, non-environmentally-friendly bugger)


A nice halfway stop, …a rest area where you can buy drinks and snacks – on a small farm area up in the hills. Google calls it the ‘Kunora e Grunasit’ (or the Crown of Grunas if you translate it to Albanian). This is the limit where vehicles could come. After this, the path is only wide enough for foot traffic


The rustic grocery store/ farmhouse… at Kunora e Grunasit, Theth, Albania, Aug 2023


Yippee! We’ve reached the Grunas Waterfall! Supercold water! Brrrr….


“Jayden, don’t run!” And there goes Anu, running down the path, trying to catch up with Jayden, and taking a bad tumble! Through some sort of freak accident, a jagged piece of stone made a bad cut on her knee… Looks like it’ll need stitches. (…Hmmm…, maybe that’s why it’s called the Accursed Mountains??!??) Anu, limping down the path till the rest area. We asked a fellow tourist to help talk to some construction people further down the dirt road to drive up to the rest area, to take us back down to the village, and we’d pay them. Thank God, it wasn’t worse, and that someone came to help… Also, thank God that a doctor was present at the one and only ‘seasonal’ clinic in the village, who could stitch up the wound. The clinic was just beside our hotel. She had 4 stitches!


We were supposed to also visit the Blue Eye (a scenic turquoise, blue pond, with a waterfall flowing into it) which is a different 2km hike, but decided to give it a miss and rest instead (of course, with the stitches and all that, what d’ya think? We’re bonkers?!?). This view of the Theth River Gorge, is from the road leading to the Blue Eye Kappre trail


Hello Honey. How’s your knee? Looking good!!


Let’s get back down to the city. A crucifix beside the hill road on the way down to Shkodër, the biggest city in Northern Albania


Bye-bye Accursed Mountains… Till next time