Mount Çika — Attraction in Bashkia Himarë

Tough hike in the Ceraunian Mountain range. Let me break it down:

We (m, 26; f, 24) started at around 6:30am from the Parking opposite to Bar Restorant Dervishalliu. Parking costs 500 Lek (5€) for the entire day and can be purchased inside the restaurant. Since we started early, we already paid the day before.

There is two different routes for the beginning 20 minutes (see image). I would highly recommend to choose the 'left route' as it passes through beautiful forest and has a better & clearer trail. Once you have reached the photo spot, the two trails combine.

From there, it's a nice walk all the way up a junction where you either continue to get to Maja e Qorës or cross over to Maja e Çikës. We chose the latter and continued on the 'ridge' towards Maja e Çikës.

You might think, that you have done the heavy duty, once you have gotten to 1900m in altitude but the cross over to Maja e Çikës took us longer than expected and included many ups and downs. Overall, Strava estimated a total of 1335m in altitude.

The final push to the summit, includes another 250m in altitude, but once you have gotten through this, you get rewarded with a lovely 360° view of the coastline of Albanian as well as the inland. A really beautiful panorama.

Three aspects I want to mention:

(1) Start early, take sunscreen & take enough water. There are no water stations to fill up your bottles. We had 2.5 liters in a camel pack each and could have used even more if we had it.

(2) If you're doing the hike to Maja e Çikës just for the view, it's not worth it. There are plenty of stunning viewpoints along the way to Maja e Qorës. Only continue to Maja e Çikës if you're looking for the challenge - it’s a long, exhausting trek that doesn’t offer much more in terms of scenery.

(3) After an hour into our trip we were joined by this beautiful, extremely fit white dog who joined us for the entire trip until we reached the summit and eventually parking again. Since he was wearing no collar, I don't know whether he belongs to someone or not but he definitely knew his way up and even showed us the way a couple of times when the track was not super visible. A really lovely experience 🐕

Timings:

Parking - Maja e Qorës 2h00 Maja e Qorës - Maja e Çikës 2h00 (4h00 total) Break 0h30 Maja e Çikës - Parking 3h30...

It's hard to make a review of a mountain, so I will focus on some comments/tips from my own hike in July. Minus one star for poor trail marks, but well. It's not the fault of the mountain. Somewhere I've had read that the trail is almost impossible to loose and hike from point near restaurant Panorama (there is a "parking" on the side of the road) to the top is around 2,5h (someone else commented it's more like 4 hours, but the trail is not that hard). For us (two quite young and quite fit people it was 8 hours up and down with time for short rests. About the trail/marks - for me it quite easy to get lost. Some signs are quite old and poorly visible. Basically the trail is a narrow path, sometimes quite steep. For sure you need proper hiking shoes for that. And I think it's the most important tip from this review- if you go there just for some views it's totally not worth it to go all the way to the top. During way up we were mostly souranded by clouds, so we didn't see nothing. On the way down clouds dispersed a little, so we got the view on the coast, Himare and sourrading area. Another important tip:take a lot of water. The trail is not easy, with basic hiking experience I would say difficulty was 6-7/10. Of course you don't need any other equipment than proper shoes and clothes, but still it was...

Një nga pamjet më mbresëlënëse që mund të shikosh në majat e maleve shqiptare. 2045 m direkt mbi det si një ballkon relaksues me të kaltrën çlodhëse të Jonit poshtë. Syri shijon dhe rreshton plazhet dhe fshatrat e Bregut, konturet e bregut të detit me gjiret dhe kepet e vegjël, djathtas sheh majën e Qorres dhe Karaburunin e zgjatur thellë në det, dhe larg shikon Korfuzin dhe ishujt e vegjël grek. Nëse kthehesh nga mbrapa shikon luginën e Lumit të Vlorës dhe malet tej të Kurveleshit, Griba, Tartari, Çipini i Bolenës, dhe anash vazhdimin e vargmalit të Vetëtimave me majat e tjera Maja e Valit të Bufit, maja e Zotit (Bogonicës), e më tutje Mali i Lucës. Ngjitja zgjati rreth 5 orë e gjysëm nga lartësia 1000 m në qafën e Llogarasë dhe si fillim kalon midis pishave duke fituar vazhdimisht lartësi. Shtegu ofron pamjen mahnitëse të pishave të shkurta e të trasha për të duruar forcën e erërave të forta, dhe një pjesë të tyre të mumifikuara e të thara nga goditjet e rrufeve dhe vetëtimave duke dhënë një pamje statujash të punuara nga natyra. Këtë pamje me mal, gjelberim pemësh, statuja pemësh me sfond të kaltrën e Jonit nuk e sheh në asnjë mal në Shqipëri, dhe mbase janë të pakët malet që ngrihen kaq fuqishëm mbi det në...