Saturday 1st June 2024 - Himare, Albania

 

There were two archaeological sites on the coast that we were interested in - Apolonia and Orikum. Orikum is in a military compound but visits are normally possible, accompanied by a guide who take you from the gates on weekday mornings. Two problems here – we wouldn’t get there until the afternoon and it was Saturday.
Being on the coast, Apolonia is a popular site and many coach trips go there but it wasn’t very busy when we arrived. It was founded in the 6^th century BC by Corinthians, close to the mouth of the Aoos (Vjosa) River and became an important port. Named in honour of the god Apollo, it was also a centre for learning and, in the Roman era, Octavian would be educated here. Late in antiquity, a series of earthquakes moved the course of the Aoos further south, leaving Apolonia without a port. It now stands a few miles from the Adriatic.
The site has a good museum and the site is interesting, with a theatre in good condition and a particularly impressive bouleuterion with its intact façade and columns, the image of which has been adopted as a symbol of Albania. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant on a hill in the centre of the extensive site. We were the only customers and we had a simple lunch – ‘Frogs’, fortunately, were not available. We then continued the short distance to the acropolis and discovered why nobody else wanted to see it. During the paranoid communist period, large underground bunkers had been built into the hill and there were no ancient remains to be seen. However, the views were good!
We drove on along Albania’s azure coast, dotted with stretches of beach. We drove up over the Llogoaja pass and National Park which was very pretty but, the roads were narrow, twisty and busy. As we descended through hairpin bends we came to an area of unmade road. Here they are working on a new tunnel that will take most traffic through the mountain, leaving the national park for others to enjoy.
We booked into the only ACSI campsite in southern Albania – Moskato Camping at Himare.
Photos: A ceremonial horned wine jug from 7^th century BC Apolonia; A gorgon from the centre of a magnificent 4^th century BC shield; The Bouleuterion; The Portico – imagine a two-storey building with two rows of columns and marble statues in every one of the niches; A view of the azure coast; Negotiating the tunnel roadworks.