Ura e Kamares and Via Egnatia

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Ura e Kamares and Via Egnatia

Summary: This is a rather short hike starting and ending at the Ura e Kamares and visiting a - somewhat scary - part of the Via Egnatia.

The Ura e Kamares crosses the Shkumbin River near the village of Mirake. Most likely, ancient travellers found it difficult to pass the Shkumbin River Gorge between Mirake and Librazhd, and had to journey across the high mountains. The bridge is at an altitude of 190 Meter, while the Via Egnatia passes the area at an altitude of more than 650 Meter. The hike is a clockwise loop.

We rated the hike of moderate technical difficulty, but must point out that the Via Egnatia is badly eroded. Short parts of the trail lead over precipitous gravel slopes, and the hike should only be undertaken by sure-footed experienced hikers with a head for heights.

This said, we found the hike a great half-day outing, giving a short glimpse into ancient history and life in the Shkumbin valley.

It is possible to cut the hike short - and avoid some of the eroded parts of the Via Egnatia - by taking the right fork at waypoint 06, and joining our trail again at waypoint 09. As an easy alternative, go from waypoint 02 directly to waypoint 10, 09, and 08, enjoy the view and return the same way.

There are many websites providing more information about the Via Egnatia - though we feel that more could be said about the Albanian part of it!

A short exposé of the Via Egnatia

Via Egnatia Foundation

Maximum altitude:	650 meter
Minimum altitude:	187 meter
Cumulative height:	466 meter
Cumulative length:	6.8 kilometer
Difficulty	moderate
Time:	3.5 hours
Date of this record	February 2014
Download GPS info:	Ura e Kamares

General location and approach: Trailhead at the railway, in the village of Mirake

Ura e Kamares is part of the Via Egnatia, extending from Durres in Albania to Istanbul

For a roundtrip. once having crossed the bridge, we turned to a lesser used footpath...

... while the mule and his master continued the regular path, which we will use for our return

Our trail climbs to a elevation of more than 600 meter.

Having reached the Via Egnatia. This view is in the direction of Lake Ohrid.

This view goes east along the Shkumbin valley. While the Via Egnatia, at this point, looks like a well maintained carriage path...

...this myth is shattered after the next bend. While there is no technical difficulty in travelling the path, a few stretches have considerable exposure, and hikers should know what they are doing

The Via Egnatia (here transformed into an Enver Hoxha military road) swallowed by the mountain side.

Looking for those who throw rocks onto the Via Egnatia

Ura e Kamares, crossing the Shkumbin River

Railway crossing in Mirake, the trailhead for the hike.

GPS and trailmaps: The map and trailinformation is generated by

, based on GPS information collected from the actual hike. Waypoints can be downloaded to a GPS device from Wikiloc. If necessary, use GPSBabel to convert GPS data to different formats. For more hike descriptions by Palmtreetreeproduction, browse this website or visit Wikiloc and search for "Palmtreeproduction". You may also find nearby trails from other authors.

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