Three beaches

By the time dawn was breaking with a soft orange light slowly making the features of the scene below our balcony, the cacophony of humanity in the evening past had given over to the cacophony of swifts communicating furiously to each other and thus owning this slot of the daily schedule. They've always done this in these parts, ever since the mountains rose up and began their crumbling dance, these guys have been adapting to what ever gets thrown at them. No doubt adapted how to build their nests out of secretions against solid brick walls when the Roman's first started replicating cliffs with useful overhangs all those years ago. They adapted and got along whilst all their compatriates fell by the wayside as their natural environments were consumed by humankind's insatiable appetite. And so they own the morning sunrise slot. We know this because we had to have the door open because we could not get the air-conditioning to work. Yes folks. This was epiphany time. Shut the door. The aircon can be turned on. Open the door, it turns off. In the warm glow of the sunrise the sensor switch is quite obvious. Still,  one bonus of all this is the sunrise was there to behold with an accomplimentory musical symphony created by nature (as opposed to boomboxes).
Took a photo, shut the door, turmed the aircon on, went back to bed.

At the proper human time of the morning our cacophony of cars, circular saws and the cries of indignation kids had taken over as we had breakfast in the restaurant we'd had dinner in the night before. It was good, certainly enough to hatch plans to find another beach, just because we can. On the way we drove back into Himare proper. More innertown Albanian chaos. Navigating twisting tight roads, people everywhere, cars parked with reckless abandon, no care they're blocking the through traffic. Managed to find our way to a nice beach, with free shade under an established tree and a parking spot. Not believing our luck we didn't hang around as this was just a reconioter, not a destination. Across the road was however a shop selling stone beach footware of which we fussed a bit and eventually got what we wanted and headed of back through the narrow crowded streets to hit the road in search of Gjipe Beach.
Took a major miss and double back to get there but we did.
The road in is single car/both way. This means if you come up against someone coming the other way. Someone has to relent and reverse back to the last passing bay. There is no forgiveness as the gutters are straight up and high, not possible for your average sedan to mount. Luckily on the way in we were not confronted by an oncoming vehicle. Was nerve racking though considering what could have transpired.
The wierd road ended in carpark with huge signs saying we'd need to pay for the privilege for doing so. 400 Leke (say $8 Au) the service we receive for this expense is the direction to park the car in the next obvious vacant space and to receive change if you don't have the correct amount. See...the locals are cottoning on how to fleece tourists. Put up a sign and people will follow,  Regardless of how unofficial it is. The guy also directed us to the path to the beach. Obviously still high up we asked how far it was. 20 minutes was the response. Yeah right. This is a foot path from hell. Big rocks jutting out amongst smaller ones ankle twisting their positions with no symmetry on stepping rhythms. Half way down tyre tracks were noticed in the sparce soil. As it transpires its a seriously difficult 4WD track that is traversed a few times a day. Need a seriously well built high-off-the- ground vehicle to do so though. Suspect it was originally built during the fascists regime era as there are a few intact bunkers perched on the slopes next to the track.
Did I mention it is hot?
No wind, no breeze it seemed to take a long time to get to the bottom where a magical beach scene opened up.
There was no going back so basically committed for the day. For 2000 Leke (approx $30aud) we got an umbrella and deck chairs.

Had to do it (albeit with dwindling cash supplies) and then spent the next few hours, lolling around on the benches, adjusting positions to stay in the shade with multiple dips into the warm, salty, buoyant, crystal clear waters of the Ionian Sea, all the whilst watching people's from all over the world doing the same thing. People watching is great fun. Especially when they're wearing very little clothing. Have to mention a group of girls bringing a pet kitten with them. Initially it seemed ridiculous, after watching them all day, good on them.This was finally time to relax, been on the go pretty much nonstop the whole trip so far and here were, effectively stuck because of the single vehicle road leading in, paid for the whole day for the furniture (which by the way - last of the front row - timing win yet again) and in no particular hurry to traverse that horrible track again to get back to the car (and thus to home). Relaxing was undertaken. There was a nice cooling breeze. That stopped, comfort levels dropped, breeze came back, comfort levels rose. It was a fabulous and memorable beach experience. By the time we figured there were enough departing to make the inevitable road standoff in our favor the breeze had decided to depart again. The treak back up took 35 minutes and was enough exercise for the week. This place is definitely for fit young peeps, us oldies are probably an ambulance ride away from realizing we shouldn't be there. Nuhh bugger that - we got though -  even non-blogger in slippery wet thongs got through it unscathed.

Hot and bothered, the drive back home was on incredibly quiet roads as the locals were all watching their team take on Croatia in the football. This is a big thing. They actually managed to do pretty well against the odds so we're now also on board. Got back to our own beach for another dip before heading up to the Blue Oyster Bar for dinner. That's not actually it's name but had to use it for the ongoing joke.

Dinner overlooking the sunset across the waters to Greek Islands in the distance was ... oh I don't know... how many blinking appropriate words do I need to come up with here... unforgettable (well if I describe it here well enough then I won't forget it I guess). Literally perched above the water, we're looking out South to islands. Eastwards is the town with the big screen TV on the shore with the mountains as a backdrop with the old castle perched on a smaller outcrop. With lowering sun casting shadows into the steep valleys highlighting their shapes even more. Pretty cool.

Then the moon came up. A bit fuller and thus closer to the terminator. By the time the zorba the Greek started blaring out the speakers  (the footy had finnished) the moon light reflections sparking of the water seemed to be in time with it.
The footy was great by the way. Predicted it would impact the locals and it did. The guy allocated to us totally forgot about us whilst the next game was on. Care factor here - zero. The eventually delivered grub was amazing. The location and the ambiance was unforgettable (hopefully so after all that verbiage).
Cost $130 aud.
Welcome to Albainia.