Hoshteve – Nivan – Sheper

A shorter stage crosses the hamlets of Vithuq and Koncka on the way to Nivan and Sheper, with views towards Mount Cajupi (2,145 m). The improving but still unmade roads show how access between the villages is changing.

Nivan contains remains of military installations and a memorial to British mountaineer and sailor Bill Tilman, who fought with the valley’s resistance against German occupation during the Second World War. Continue through oak forest to the river, passing a monastery and an optional detour to another of Ali Pasha’s stone bridges.

In Sheper, many formerly nomadic Aromanian shepherds were forcibly settled after the border with neighbouring Greece closed in the late 1940s. The ruined museum and faded quotations from Marx and Lenin remain visible reminders of Albania’s communist past. Accommodation is at a family-run guesthouse.