Holta Canyon

Like most of the world, a pandemic changed a lot of plans.  Most summers find us hosting college interns and teams from America.  Of course those visits were all postponed indefinitely, but we also felt we needed to stay close to the work site as the building project entered the final stages of construction.  Our decisions have been needed almost daily for choosing ceiling tile, grout color, corner edging, door design, the size of the gravel in the stucco ... and a million other details you don't consider.

Yet after a lockdown that lasted roughly two months, without permission to drive our private vehicles, we have yearned to get OUT and do things this summer while the kids are out of school and before I start classes myself.  We set aside a day this month to visit a new-to-us place just a couple of hours away.  Enjoy these views of a beautiful piece of God's handiwork on display!

I had never heard of Holta Canyon before, but learned about it while visiting a travel company's website, owned by the husband of our architect. When I asked some Albanian friends, they frowned at my curiosity, telling me the road there was terrible and the canyon was too dangerous. (At that point, I had already booked the guided hike! Oops!)

Our reason for booking a tour was two fold: Albania derives 30% of its GDP from tourism and we wanted to do our part to help support a hurting part of the economy.  The second reason was for research.

We want to provide some experiences for our students at VT Albania to see some of their beautiful country and while we realized the particular tour we booked was not appropriate for them, we were curious about the company and its off-road vehicles to see if they could provide an alternate travel experience for our mobility-challenged friends to see the great outdoors.

This canyon is about 2 hours from our home.  Our guide, Doni, told us it's only safe to hike about two months of the year as the water level is lowest then.

The kids had been really reluctant to take the trip.  Obviously, once they got there, they enjoyed themselves immensely.  And the ride wasn't too bad either (see the video near the end).  They were great sports for the camera - yay!

Our friend and colleague, Tiffany, joined us, as well as two sisters who won the tour on a TV trivia contest.

The canyon had stunning views at every twist and turn!

There were lots of places we had to walk through water -- some as deep as our waist.

I bought these shoes (below) several years ago and they have served me well hiking in Albania -- from rocks to water to thorny paths... someone else was not so well prepared!

Again, we were soooo thankful for the freedom that Reni's new legs provide him.  Special thanks again to Shriner's Children's Hospital Lexington for designing something for him so versatile!  He's modeling his Keen's that he finally got to buy when he got his legs with feet.  Normally it might seem frivolous to buy a kid a name brand shoe, but in his case, his feet don't grow! ha ha.  He will get a solid two years' worth of wear out of these. :-) 

Enjoying our jeep ride with Off Limits Albania!

Here's a video of us off-roading in a dry river bed!

Thanks, Off Limits, for helping us make a great memory from the summer of 2020!

We definitely recommend them if you want to make a plan to visit Albania! :-)