The Island Sky had just 100 passengers. Photo / Getty Images
Beautiful, lesser-known Albania is just one reason to board a ship that can get into places larger vessels can't, writes Roger Hall
Two questions:
1. The north of Corfu is only a few hundred yards from Albania. Had you sailed between those countries during the communist regime (which ended in 1992), what would have happened?
2. What huge engineering project was first conceived and started in 307BC and completed in 1893?
The answer to question one is that Albania would have opened fire on you. It was the North Korea of Europe, isolationist and jumpy. Within its borders, it had 170,000 defence bunkers, many of which still exist.
Its island of Sazan was used by the Russians for a submarine base and the Albanian Government turned it into a military base, now disused and open to visitors.
Visiting Albania was one of the reasons we were on Noble Caledonia's Spring in the Secret Mediterranean cruise.
Noble Caledonia presents itself as "the world's leading small ship cruising expert", which means they can get into many places larger ships can't and offer a huge range of interesting itineraries.
The passengers on our ship were nearly all from the UK, so the "sorries" flowed like champagne.
Despite our ages (late 70s), Dianne and I were two of the more spritely on board. But a couple of men who were doing back-to-back trips said: "If you think this lot is frail, you should have seen them on the previous trip."
We went with some Kiwi friends and we were about the only ones on their first cruise with the line. Initially the main topic of conversation was comparing the number of previous trips with the company. "Three." "10." "41." With that amount of repeat business, clearly the company is doing something right. And, as far as we were concerned, something wrong, of which more anon.
We embarked in Malta after several days there plus 10 days in Greece.
How pleasant to be on board and not have to choose where to eat at night. The hardest decisions were whether to eat on deck (mostly yes, to enjoy the passing coastlines) and for breakfast whether to have one eggs benedict or two.
On the first evening we had an excellent lecture about the history of the Mediterranean from a former director of the V&A Museum in London. This set the scene nicely for places we were to visit. As well as three ports in Albania, these included two in Southern Italy; one in Montenegro, one in mainland Greece and five in the Greek Islands.
First port was Crotone in Calabria at the bottom of the heel of Italy, a town that was prosperous between the wars, but now fallen on hard times and slowly picking itself up.
We were taken by bus to a hilltop town, Santa Severina, a spectacular site. Here was the first ceremony of fitting the audio guides into our ears. One man struggled to fit his earpiece into his right ear. It was pointed out that it was designed for the left. "I know," he said, "but I can't hear in my left." Once mastered, the earpieces are worth it, as the guide can be heard quite a long way off.
The guides varied. That day we had one who talked far too much in poor English, so after a time, many of us switched off, literally.
Santa Severina was a fortified town, one of 178 such places in Calabria and our first reminder that places in Southern Europe on The Med had constantly to be on the defence as different powers came and went.
Calabria was a Greek-speaking area for many years (Pythagoras had a school here) and there is still a group of residents who speak a Greek-influenced dialect.
Next day we landed at Otranto for a 30-minute drive to Lecce, "the Florence of the South". Mmmmm, hardly. But very pleasant with its narrow streets and squares. And an excellent guide.
Then on to Kotor in Montenegro. To get there, we sailed through the most beautiful of fjords, famous for two churches built on islands, one artificial.
Another small ship was there, which meant the tiny town (a Unesco treasure) was semi-choked with our groups and theirs.
We had to be back to our ship by noon as it had to leave the wharf and anchor in the bay to allow two huge liners in for their brief visit. How crowded the streets would have then become beggars belief. Once the big liners had gone, we returned to the berth, allowing some of us to slip back ashore, not so much in search of nightlife but for free Wi-Fi (on board it was poor and expensive). But Kotor was the only port of call where we were affected by other cruise ships.
Next day, Albania, and I opted out of the day's driving from Montenegro into Albania and stayed on board to avoid several hours in a bus and a border crossing. Wrong decision, as among the day's attractions was a nine-course slow food lunch, which people raved about. Clearly the Albanians were making a big effort to impress tourists and this certainly did.
While the others were stuffing themselves, the Island Sky sailed along the beautiful Albanian coastline to berth at Shengjin (for a time called Wilson after President Wilson who had backed Albania's independence).
In time, Shengjin could well become a popular resort for young Europeans seeking the sun, beaches and cheap alcohol. Certainly the thrown-up hotels and apartments, bars, the mass of beach umbrellas and loungers (all empty at the time of the visit), indicate that's the market they are anticipating.
The same sort of development was happening at Sarabande, Albania's most attractive port. As someone observed, "This is like the Spain of the 1960s all over again."
Inland Albania has many attractions (apart from bunker-spotting) including fine remains of castles, theatres and temples, in particular at Butrint. The director of the area spoke passionately and proudly about what the country was doing to restore and conserve many of its treasures.
But clearly it is still a poor country. There are few fences, so there was always a man looking after a couple of cows or a small number of sheep, which shows how little a man's labour is worth. (In the early 1900s, Arnold Bennett made the same observation in his journals about France i.e. Albania is 100 years behind most of Europe.)
We sailed on to Greece, first to Delphi, then one of the trip's highlights, the answer to question two: the Corinth Canal. Just over 6km long, it cuts off 130 nautical miles from Venice to Piraeus. Nero had thousands of prisoners and slaves dig out more than 3km before he was summoned back to Rome and the work stopped. The completion of the Suez Canal inspired the Greek Government to resume work and it opened in 1893.
It's spectacular because it is so narrow and the walls are so steep. We passed under three bridges, one with a bungy platform, one crowded with people looking down on us.
Again, the advantage of being on a small ship meant we could pass through it while most modern ships are too big.
The rest of the itinerary was to lesser-known Greek ports, or islands unvisited by bigger ships: Nafplio, Sifnos, Folegandros, Chios, Lemnos.
On the final evening, we sailed past Gallipoli (with a moving commentary from our expert) and the next morning into Istanbul. We were the only liner in port.
No big cruise liners in Istanbul? No. Government travel warnings (New Zealand included) meant that instead of the 800 liners a year calling in, by June last year they had had only four. The positive for us (and our friends, who were staying on for four days) was that Istanbul was free of tourists, and there were no queues at any of the many attractions. But it is tough on the locals.
So, how good was life on board? Very. The wait staff were enthusiastic and charming Filipinos. The cabin was good, the food good and plentiful, as was the wine, which was included in the price (our female wine steward poured wine with the speed and cheerfulness of a British barmaid pulling a pint, and she kept it coming).
Several lectures about places we were to visit gave us useful background. Daily briefings from the excellent and highly amusing tour director came with detailed written notes of the next day's itinerary.
There were no cabaret shows at night, just a pianist playing in the cocktail lounge and the giddy excitement of a couple of quiz evenings.
The cruise was expensive, but the price included all gratuities, and all land trips (which, on some lines, are very costly). And passengers were well looked after right to the end. For example, when we were all driven to Istanbul airport at the end of the cruise, they got all our luggage through security and then escorted us with our bags to our check-in counter.
We were blessed with fine weather and smooth seas throughout.
DETAILS
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