Theth

Blue Eye Theth

We chose to hike to the Blue Eye directly from Theth village, making the hike about 3 hours each way. It is also possible to take a taxi/drive to the official trailhead, thus cutting the hike down to around 40 minutes each way. The final 40 minutes are where the steepest incline is, the first few hours are generally quite flat. Alternatively, you can mix and match, often with people hiking all the way there and then calling a taxi back so that they can stay longer at the Blue Eye without worrying about it getting dark.

I downloaded the maps.me app to help with the navigation of this trail. It was good navigation and can be used offline with live location and approximate timings. The trail itself is also fairly well signed with red paint marks, although there are a number of trails going in the same direction for the first 2 km, so pay attention. There is some incline and decline in the first hour of the hike, but they are short-lived. The real incline comes at the final stretch of the hike. Around 2/3 of the way into the hike, you will come across two restaurants across the river. This is a good place to stock up on water, use the bathroom, and eat. Because we visited during non-peak season, there weren't any other places to buy water or use the bathroom on this hike apart from at these restaurants. I'm sure during the summer however there will be facilities at the Blue Eye too, as it seemed that the structures were there, they just weren't open.

It took us 1.5 hours to reach the road, which is then a 15 min walk to the 2 restaurants. From the restaurants it’s another 40 min hike, mostly steep incline followed by steep decline, so you will have worked up a sweat by the time you reach the Blue Eye. When you first get to the Blue Eye, you come across a river where people are swimming. This is not the Blue Eye, although this is probably the most accessible part of the water to get into. Carry on over the bridge to some farmland. You can either go past the house, and cross a sketchy-looking bridge that will take you round to a viewpoint of the Blue Eye which you can then follow down to the water edge, or you could opt to not go past the house and instead take the path on your right that will lead you down to the water of the Blue Eye. I'd recommend crossing the bridge.

We stayed at the Blue Eye for maybe 45 mins. We were super sweaty when we arrived, but the water was really cold, and after dipping my feet in I was too chicken to get in completely. Our hotel in Shkoder had kindly provided us with packed lunches for our journey, so we ate that and generally spent some time exploring the area and relaxing.

Recharged, we started our return journey. Passing the restaurants, we saw many people rewarding themselves with a sit-down meal and some beers. Even some passed out on the river banks having a nap. When we got back to our guest house, we had some time to shower, air our dirty clothes and rest our legs. Our guest house served dinner family style, with everyone sitting together along long benches, just catching up. It was a really nice atmosphere, and there was a firepit in the garden to sit around after. However, most of us were pretty tired following our early morning, travel, and hike. Most people had turned in by 9.30pm.

The following morning was when we were planning to hike from Theth to Valbona. As previously mentioned, this trail was not accessible when we visited. We debated about staying an extra day in Theth anyway, but I didn't see many more hikes that particularly interested me, plus the weather was grey and drizzly. So at 10:30am we took the shuttle back to Shkoder. On our journey back to Shkoder we didn't make any stops for photos or refreshments.