“I go to the mountains more from the fear of living rather than the fear of dying”

Ada Gobetti

Sabina Veizaj

Now that I see the Dajti from downwards in Tirana I do not have consciously stored the fact that few days ago I climbed that majesty.

(When you see Tirana from Dajti, it looks so puny, so dirty and you feel so unwilling to go back in there! Thus you can start to become a man of the mountains)…

Apart from the inner feeling and the life experience, I have read that traveling is to enrich yourself, it is enough to take your first step from the door of the house, afterwards walk your feet off to your heart’s content.

As an introduction to the first trip to the mountain, you have to like it and its climate. When you climb it in adulthood,  it has to be a moment of rapture, thoughtless, to not phylosophyze over the fatigue, fear, long hours, difficult ground, altitude, etc. So it was for me. I decided to join the group totally unprepared. But for a beginner it is ok.

What equipment you need for a trip to the mountain?!

• Mountain shoes. The ground si tough and with combat boots and inappropriate sneakers it can be painful and tedious for your feet.
• Tracksuits and jumpers specifically for this purpose.
• You should take 1-2 shirts to spare so that you can get changed during the resting moments.
• Two sticks that are part of the equipment can be bought in the shops that dispose sports apparel and material.
• Water, fruits, bread.

*The trip lasts approximately 11 hours, thus it will be an early departure.

We were a group of seven people. We drunk the morning coffee in a bar near the “Treasure” in Linzë and we start climbing nearly 300 m above the sea level at 7:40 am.

The very first meters of the road were with sand. The aroma of the grassland and shrubs sents you elsewhere, in a place with river. You could watch old adobe houses. Large gates over which fell vines and pomegranates.

Further above the houses came being more rare. Every house had dogs and their barking escorted us all the way.

On the way to Shërmin we passed through paths which were signed with red paint from the climbing lovers. The terrain from place to place it was easy, from place to place it is rough.

The more we climbed the more our lungs got filled with fresh and clean air, although the temperatures of early September did not resemble to the temperatures of an official autumn. Berries had blown, as well as figs. Knee to knee with nature, with its fruits and the conversations of traveling friends, Dajti got closer.

We also got a rest at the Alpin Polygon. We climbed to the Field of Dajti and Cherry’s Pass. Exhaustin began to rise its head, but a retreat was not possible. A few stops and Tirana seemed at the palm of ones hand.

Some 50 m and Tujani’s Peak (1531 m) became apparent. The climb was complete.

I felt as a mountain!!!

And I recalled the quote of the Briton Sir Edmund Hillary: when we climb a mountain, It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.

PS: Prepare for the descent, that is the tricky part. The first week your muscles will hurt, but the grandeur of mountain’s nature will remain such until the next climbing.