Pasqyra - Mirror Beach In October



The great thing about October in places like Albania is the fact that it can still be warm enough to swim. Would I come here purely for the purposes of swimming in October? Probably not because warm weather, as we know, is not always guaranteed, so coming here just for beaches in October could be a bit dangerous and kind of fifty-fifty. Being here though is much better as it's more likely you will experience at least one brush with weather warm enough.

We went to Pasqyra beach last week. Pasqyra in Albanian means "Mirror" so it's also known as Mirror Beach. It's a gorgeous spot, set down below some chalky kind of white stone cliffs, which probably helped create the name. Looking at it, you can kind of see why it'd be called Mirror Beach.

Pasqyra Beach

Getting to the beach is an interesting hike through the village of Pasqyra from the main highway that connects Ksamil and Sarande, first up a paved bit of track and then through this relatively rundown little village with a surprising amount of charm. It added to the sense of adventure to get to the beach and takes around half an hour to walk from the bus stop to the beach itself. 

Village life in Pasqyra

It wasn't uncommon to run into the odd goat or sheep on the way down to the beach as well as back up. Often the animals would stand in the middle of the road and any traffic would have to sit and honk their horns to get the livestock to move. Maybe. 

Pasqyra Village. That's actually mountains below the cloud in the distance. Awesome view.

Cows in Pasqyra. 

The road down to the beach leaves a lot to be desired and has been reported as being a bit too rough for most cars. That didn't seem to stop people from driving their cars down, but I have to admit that if you were driving anything like a Smart car, I wouldn't risk it. There are enormous holes in the road and it's made of dusty low grade concrete in the places it happens to be paved. Perhaps it was once paved properly but years of winters and rough usage have rendered it worse for wear. Regardless, it's drive-able if you have a bigger vehicle. Truth be told though, with the state of many of the roads we have seen it's a wonder anyone has any suspension left in their cars around here. 

The waters here were properly turquoise, and while it wasn't terrifically hot out, it was hot enough to go for a swim. We were looking forward to it since we had gotten our snorkelling gear back after going to Athens to fetch our bags, so we took the gear with us to have a look. There's no photos from underwater, but we saw breams, rainbow wrasse, and starfish amongst others. 

The entire day long there was about four other people on the beach, which is the benefit to coming in October I suppose. Had this been high season, the beach would have been packed, but luckily this is definitely not high season. 

The clear water also shows why it's named "Mirror"

As the day went on the beach filled up slightly more, but in total all the day long there were only about fifteen people. Maybe even less. 

Luscious. Saranda along the coastline in the background

In all, I think Pasqyra is one of the best beaches we have been to. We haven't been to many around here but have been to Ksamil twice. I think it's safe to say that Pasqyra far outranks Ksamil in terms of seclusion. Ksamil has more to offer in terms of restaurant and dining options, where as this time of year on Pasqyra, the one tiny restaurant isn't open at all. Kind of  win-win really.

So if you come to the area, check out Pasqyra. The more off the season, the better!

Erin





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