Our journey had begun five days earlier in Albania's capital, Tirana. From there, we'd hopped a bus to Shkodër, and the next day, took a minivan to Theth - a touristy village known for the Blue Eye: a preternaturally turquoise natural pool.
The trip was shockingly cheap: Our average daily budget all in was $40 per head. The first day of hiking was a baptism of fire.
That's partly down to the Peaks of the Balkans, a long-distance transnational hiking trail that was launched in 2012 by a German development organization.
As we lay on the rocks, recovering from a punishing final push, it seemed like we'd fallen out of time. The 8,714-foot Gjeravica mountain... sits in the Accursed Mountains.
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