Dazzling Dragesh

I had prepared a very detailed account of another weekend adventure which was deleted before I could upload my adventure so this posting will be a modified account of another day trip. And now I realized I also deleted the very cool photos I was about to upload. I guess this entry was never supposed to happen...

Anyway, a crew of 6 of us headed out from Pristina in two typical white NGO SUV's and drove 3 hours to the southern most tip of Kosovo to the mountain region of Dragesh. We had lucked out with a rare (for this time of year) perfectly sunny day and took advantage of the fact that minimal snow has fallen allowing us a final window of opportunity to smell the fresh mountain air and hike into the hills without risk of disappearing in meters of snow. It felt like we were way out there hiking through a very remote village with all the locals staring and waving speaking a language that was closer to Serbian than Albanian. I guess they see a good amount of us internationals and fortunately don't seem to mind our weird outfits, incomprehensible desire to voluntarily walk up a mountain and the need to take photos of them and their houses.

It's amazing how dull the senses can become in a heavily polluted city since I immediately began snorting in the fresh air and the sounds of the babbling brook as if it was the last time. We started up the mountain according to some questionable KFOR maps that quickly proved wrong and left me debating with our self-appointed leader on the best way out of the valley. I volunteered to hike straight out to a ridge that unfolded an incredible valley (with wild horses) and a clear shot up the to the top of a mountain without the need of any trails. The snow had not yet collected on this ridge but left incredible views contrasting snow white with the last remaining green fields of the season.

After an hour up, I parked myself on the side of the 45degree mountainside and had an awesome meditation. Several of my companions insisted to reach the top even though our sunlight was fading while several others had already turned back and one had stopped much earlier for a nice nap. After waiting for an hour and still no sign of the advance crew I grew cold and donned my final layer and began to descend into the valley with enough sunlight to make our way back to the village. The other crew finally descended to a ridge line that left them still 800 meters above the valley floor with almost no light to get down the mountain. Fortunately they came across a convoy of sheep and trudged behind them to emerge from the darkness into the town. Our days adventure was not complete until we stopped off at a mountainside inn to feast on fresh trout and several beers to recap the days adventure. 6 strangers now bonded by another Kosovo experience.