The only trip to made to the surroundings of Tirana was to this artificial lake about 14 km northeast of Tirana. I only took the trip because it was close, but the road there is so bad that it took forever and besides that, the narrow, bumpy road is jammed with trucks. I think I overheard somebody talking about a concrete plant.
The place is really scenic once you reach the top. You know you are there because there is a restaurant and a viewing platform that you have to pay extra for. To get there is a bit of a climb.
The hike from where we left the minibus was about 45 minutes. I joined a small group with a guide and if I had known what it was all about, I would have a taken a taxi and done the whole the thing myself. First of all the guide did not really care if people could keep up going up the steep slope, even worse he did not explain anything.
I was really interested in learnig about the reservoir since it provides most of the drinking water for Tirana. So basically I had to look up everything on my mobile phone.
This is was I learned: The 91m high dam stands at the entrance of a deep canyon, with the river Terkuze running through it, forming the reservoir.
Construction work originally began in 1988, but stopped with the collapse of communism. In October 1993, work restarted thanks to the support Italy. After the end of construction in 1996, the lake took until 1998 to fill and begin to serve its purpose. A steel pipeline links the reservoir to the processing plant, north of Tirana.
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