"Backdoor entrance into Albania!" a Konispol Travel Page by JLBG

The time when it was almost impossible to enter into Albania is over. There are now plenty of roads open with custom working:
- North to Shkoder, Hani I Hotti, on the road to Podgorica in Montenegro.
- East to Shkoder, Pogaj, on the road to Prizren, in Kosovo.
- East to Tirana, Përrenjas, on the road to Ohrid, Makedonia.
- South to Gjirokaster, Kakavia, on the road to Ioanina, Greece.

These are customs on main roads but there are also half a dozen, if not more, customs offices opened on secondary roads.

In May 2007, we had planned to take a ferry from Ancona to Igoumenitsa and drive to Berat and Saranda. I knew that we could drive to Ioanina and enter in Albania at Kakavia but I learned on the Albania forum (thank you Edvin) that there was a shorter way, driving from Igoumenitsa to Sagiada, passing the border to Konispol at a recently opened custom and driving west to Xiflik (or Çiflik/Ciflik) and then north to Livadhe and Saranda. After that, I should have to driven 18 km southwards to go to Butrint.

However, though the best map I owned (1/400,000) did not give any other road, I felt there might be an even shorter route, going directly from Sagiada and Konispol to Butrint, which would have saved an almost 40 km loop.

We landed in Igoumenitsa at 6 AM, had a breakfast in a local cafeneion and headed to Albania. We drove on the main road to Ioanina for about 6 km, then turned left on the small winding road to Sagiada. After Sagiada, we found an amazingly wide and excellent road to the border (about 10 km), built with EU money. When we arrived at the Greek custom, an imposing building, there was already a small group of a dozen foreigners. A bus that was going back to Igoumenitsa obviously had brought them there and they were waiting for the custom to open. It opened at 8:00 AM. We followed them and were quickly done. After 200 m, we found on the right an unexpected, luxurious, one level “tax free shop” with a wide parking lot. They had plenty of goods but no customers at this early hour (around 8:30 AM) We bought Kalamata olives to bring back home and drove to the Albanian custom, 100 m away.

50 m before the custom, there was the usual washing ditch, full of water (of disinfectant?) where the car had to wash its wheels before entering in the country. The Albanian custom was not so imposing that the Greek one but was made of several small and nice looking prefabricated units, scattered on both sides of the road. A nice police officer asked for the usual 10 euros per person on entrance into the country. A very helpful woman custom officer checked that the insurance of the car was valid for Albania. As I asked her if there was a direct road to Butrint, she answered in Italian that I should take left when I would meet a fork and would arrive directly in Butrint.

So, we went out of the custom and drove towards Butrint.

… and after 30 m, there was no road anymore…!

That was the end of the road and the track ran steeply into the dry bed of a torrent that seemed to have washed out everything. The surface was a bit stony but luckily, not too much. After 30-40 m, we found again the road but instead of the wide surfaced road that we had followed since Sagiada, that was now a narrow dirt road that winded mostly in the plain, between a series of hills.