BABOS – IZGARIL CANYONS

Babos-Izgaril, a small canyon that you will find everywhere described as modest, despite its final verticality, and that presents a high aesthetic interest in terms of landscape beauty, but also in terms of flora and fauna.

It is also worth saying, and it is not a minor detail, that good and jokingly, one of the most repeated comments during the descent, is that here we probably found the freshest and cleanest water in the Përmet area.

In addition, we will complete the descent of the Babos with a more distracted return while walking along the Lengaricës river.

BABOS – IZGARIL CANYON DATA

Activity: Canyoning in Albania
Other toponyms: Babos – Izgaril – Përroi Babos – Lumi Lengaricës
Starting point: Thermal baths and Ottoman Bridge
Nearest town: Permet, for services
Car combination: Yes, 6 km.
Approach time: immediate
Descent time: 2h + 50′ Lengarices
Return time: 5′ from ottoman bridge
Difficulty: v3a2II
Longest abseil: 25 mts.
Rope: 2×30
Cartography:
Soviet Military ~ 1980 – 1: 50,000 (Via Russian Topomaps APP)
Bibliography:
Canyonisme en Albanie – Guillaume Coquin
Albania Canyoning – Pascal Van Duin
Wild Albania – 1º International Canyoning Meeting – Vertical Water
Observations: Provide replacement material to install, just in case.

ACCESS AND APPROACH TO BABOS – IZGARIL CANYON IN ALBANIA

We will drive from Permët towards Petran on the SH75 until we find the intersection with the road that goes to Benjës and the thermal baths, where we will see a very characteristic large rocky cliff.

Taking the left turn we will follow the main track for about 6 kilometers until we reach the large parking lot of the thermal baths and the Ottoman bridge that presides over them and gives us access.

With the leading car we will return to the road and cross the Lengaricës river by the bridge that continues along the forest track (in regular condition). We will follow this track for about 6 kilometers until it very obviously crosses the Babos river. We will also recognize the place by the Ottoman bridge that is a few meters down the river.

The access is immediate, from the car we will enter the torrent where it seems easiest.

BABOS – IZGARIL CANYONING DESCENT

We will start by walking briefly along the stream until we reach the Ottoman bridge, just before which we already find the first of the rappels, about 8 meters high at the tip of a rock point, with caution due to the friction there, we will descend and continue progressing below the bridge and we will soon reach a new abseil that helps us overcome a vertical and ramp in the shape of four, installed on the right and about 18 meters.

Then, a long stretch of progression awaits us, where we will find a diversity of landscapes that will not allow the monotony to bore us; at the end of this stretch, a small gorge forming an “letter s” that could be downclimbed with care, but which we set up on the right by abseiling with friction breaks this “monotony”.

We will continue to progress, now, through corridors where the green takes over the atmosphere, an environment with excellent aesthetics and simple progression, some tiny highlights until the canyon opens up again into the woods on the sides, to conform again, further down, another small gorge, where we will enjoy some small slide and a short abseil installed on the right after which the canyon opens completely in a space where we observe vestiges of what appear to be ancient breakwaters to protect the fields of possible floods. Point where one can escape to the right to take the return path (not recommended if we don’t have any setbacks).

The best is yet to come and we have it right in front of us. Soon the canyon will begin to fill up again and we will see an old Ottoman bridge that crosses it. Located under this bridge, we will find on the left the installation of the most impressive vertical of the descent. An aquatic vertical, about 25 meters high and which falls decisively into the gorge, forming a beautiful circus at its base. Just starting, we will find a ledge of rock, at the tip of which and to the left a derailleur has been installed to avoid the friction produced on this rappel.

We will walk very little, a small jump and we will immediately reach the final vertical succession. We will look to the right for the beginning of the handrail to access the head of the first of the rappels, a beautiful descent of 16 meters that leaves us at an intermediate pool, in the middle of the gorge that continues with a rappel of 12, the head of which is delicate to access it, which is why it is more than recommended to extend the rope of the first abseil to be able to reach it without exposing ourselves to the fall.

Next, we’ll look to our right for the installation to get out of the gorge, we can rappel about 6 meters, or mount a rope to ensure a bit of climbing and jump from below, if, flexing since the pool does not cover enough to jump to pleasure.

Ten meters further on, the Babos joins the Lengaricës.

HOW TO RETURN FROM BABOS – IZGARIL CANYON

We will consider the descent of Lengaricës as the return of Babos.

Once at the river, we have the option of going up and down the upper part of Lengaricës, considered the most interesting part of it. If we prefer to go for work, we will follow the waters of the Lengaricës river enjoying its beauty and the high walls that guard it, observing along the way a great diversity of elements that will enliven our progress, cliffs, flora and fauna, rocks and ridges in the heights, some small cave, and towards the end, pleasant solitary terms where tourism has not yet arrived are some of the things we will find going down the Lengaricës.

At the end of it all, we will observe the Ottoman bridge and the tourist baths. We will take the exit to the right, having passed under the Ottoman bridge, and in a few minutes we will have returned to the car.