GARËS CANYON

Attracted by its regular flow throughout the year and its 35-meter waterfall (although the most beautiful one turns out to be 25), we embark on the Albanian adventure of parking the car at the entrance of the canyon, with the conviction that hitchhiking will save us from doing the 11 kilometers of combination of cars necessary to make this ravine.

As always and thanks to the generosity of the people of the country, our hope is fulfilled, and we only walk for half an hour to reach the car.

GARËS CANYON DATA

Activity: Canyoning in Albania
Other toponyms: Not known
Starting point: Past the bridge that crosses the canyon
Nearest town: Elbasan, for services
Car combination: Up to 11KM (Hitchhiking possible)
Approach time: 5′ + 40′ walking along the canyon
Descent time: 2h
Return time: 1h hitchhiking
Difficulty: v4a4III
Longest abseil: 35 mts.
Rope: 2×40
Cartography:
Soviet Military ~ 1980 – 1: 50,000 (Via Russian Topomaps APP)
Bibliography:
Canyonisme en Albanie – Guillaume Coquin
Albania Canyoning – Pascal Van Duin
Observations: Provide replacement material to install, just in case.

ACCESS AND APPROACH TO GARËS CANYON IN ALBANIA

From Labinot Fushë, we can take the road in the direction of Elbasan for a few hundred meters to find the turnoff to Griqan, a road that had just been asphalted and whose auxiliary services were still being built. After the first village of houses, we will continue along the main road until we come to another junction, on the right hand side there is a small Bar-Cafè, where we will continue for a few kilometers until we cross the ravine and look for the best place to park and enter the river, a few tens of meters away, for example there is a space on the left for a couple of cars.

Almost immediately, we will look for the best way to enter the river or one of its tributaries.

The guide considers the first 40/50 minutes of walking along the river as an approximation until we reach the first truly vertical obstacles, we were able to do this first section without wetsuits or for the water to reach above our knees, although sometimes it is necessary to search well for the best possible way.

Not very obvious, and not at all recommended to follow our track in its lower part.

From the car park we will follow the road passing under the big bauma and heading towards Leskovik, we will reach the second big electric tower that we can see from the car. Here we will see how some goat paths go down into the ravine. If we take them to the right, without too much haste to go down to the river, we will end up arriving at the bed of the Çarçovës ravine or Leskovik river by a path that can be a bit difficult to follow as it sometimes gets lost in the bushes. A little guidance and common sense will help us.

GARËS CANYONING DESCENT

The vertical and sporty descent of the Gares begins properly at the end of the chaos of blocks, we will identify the end of the chaos precisely by the beginning of an interesting gorge, excavated in beautiful folds of rock on both sides of the gorge.

Some highlights of more or less importance, some of them more delicate than others, lead us to the first siphon mentioned in the topo of the Canyonisme en Albanie guide.

This siphon, in the flow conditions that we encounter, is not a siphon as such, but offers us up to three different steps once in the hole at the base of the rappel, which we find installed quite far from the active on the left bank of the ravine.

A little more highlighting leads us to a discrete jump (always probe).

After a short walk we will reach a waterfall of 10 meters (rare in our opinion) and further on we will find another head obviously to overcome the next vertical one, of about 5 meters, but in which we need to anticipate the 16 meters that we will be needed to safely access the head of the first important vertical of the ravine, a beautiful waterfall of 25 meters equipped to the left of two points.

The abseil is very, very beautiful, the water falls a first section until it hits the rock, forming a fan of water that waters the entire base of the abseil, forming a very, very aesthetic environment.

An aesthetic passage with some uncomplicated protrusion will lead us straight to the next and last vertical of the ravine, a beautiful rappel of 35 meters, to the head of which we will access with a handrail on the right, which starts on a single bolt, a little delicate to achieve

This last abseil couldn’t be more beautiful, because of the ribbed shape it has, and the way the water falls, which doesn’t offer any kind of problem when descending.

It is followed by a good stretch of march, to reach a rappel equipped in the center, where water will fall on both sides of the torrent.

A little further on, on top of a built-in block on the right, we will find the last installation, a new rappel of barely 8 meters, and which is followed by a short stretch of river with some prominence, after which it suddenly opens up the torrent, until you find your way back.

HOW TO RETURN FROM GARËS CANYON

Leaving the ravine, just as it opens, we will follow the riverbed for a bit, well off to the right to find a very obvious path that will lead us to three mines or bunkers, and beyond to cross the river by a bridge

Having already crossed the river, we will follow a track on the left bank and passing some barracks on the left, until we come across a closed door, which we were able to pass under.

Then we will arrive at the Labinot Fushë car wash, where if we have combined cars we will have finished, or on the contrary as in our case, we will follow the train tracks to avoid crossing the road, and we will get off at the Griqa junction, where we will be hitchhiking to get up the 11 kilometers of the combine, and walking as much as it takes to get to the car, in our case luck smiled on us and we were able to complete the full return in just one hour.