Albania: Hiking on the valley where Skanderbeg defeated the Turks

We decided to take the backroads during our Albania Panda Trip and visit the hometown of our albanian friend Mariglen.

After one night spent in a real ottoman-time tower house (Kulla Hupi Guesthouse), run by an enthusiastic young man and his wife, we decided to take a easy hike along the side of the mountain that oversees the Valley where Skanderbeg, the famous Albanian hero, defeated the Turks in the memorable Vajkal Battle of 1465.

Starting off at the Kulla Hupi, we walk up to the little mosque and we start following the red and white path sign. We immediately make a mistake (that you recognize on the GPS track). To avoid that you can follow this directions.
From the mosque instead of turning right on the path, keep going uphill on the left hand side. You will reach on a gravel road a crossing that you can take to the right, towards the very visible graveyard (leaving on the left the track that will follow on the way back to see the waterfall).
The path goes by a series of graves, scattered on the mountain side. This apparently is a very common practice, in rural areas of Albania.
The path is very visible and is crossing above an area without trees.
Soon you will have to take a deviation onto a smaller track, without signs. The track gets smaller and enters the trees and bushes.
For quite a bit the track runs up on a mild up-down with beautiful views on the valley on the right following direction south.
The valley that opens up is between the city of Bulqizë and the macedonian border.
This piece of land represented the main route of access for ottoman invaders during several waves of incursion into albanian land and several battles were fought between the ottomans lead by Ballaban Pasha and the albanian rebels of Skanderbeg.

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Extract from Wikipedia:
Gjergj Kastrioti, commonly known as Skanderbeg, was an Albanian feudal lord and military commander who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia.
Despite his military valor he was only able to hold his own possessions within the very small area in today's northern Albania where almost all of his victories against the Ottomans took place.[3] Skanderbeg's military skills presented a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion, and many in western Europe considered him to be a model of Christian resistance against Muslims.[4] For 25 years, from 1443 to 1468, Skanderbeg's 10,000-man army marched through Ottoman territory, winning against consistently larger and better-supplied Ottoman forces.[5] He was greatly admired for this.[6]

Skanderbeg always signed himself in Latin: Dominus Albaniae ("Lord of Albania"), and claimed no other titles but that in surviving documents.[1] In 1451, through the Treaty of Gaeta, he recognized de jure the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Naples over Albania, ensuring a protective alliance, although he remained a de facto independent ruler.[7] In 1460–61, he supported Ferdinand I of Naples in his wars and led an expedition against John of Anjou and the barons who supported John's claim to the throne of Naples.

In 1463, he was earmarked to be the chief commander of the crusading forces of Pope Pius II, but the Pope died while the armies were still gathering and the greater European crusade never eventuated. Together with Venetians, he fought against the Ottomans during the Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–1479) until his death in January 1468. He ranks high in the military history of that time as the most persistent—and ever-victorious—opponent of the Ottoman Empire in its heyday.[8] He became a central figure in the Albanian National Awakening in the 19th century. He is honored in modern Albania, and is commemorated with many monuments and cultural works.

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We continue to walk on easy terrain, with only few tricky steps on the very final approach to a minor peak, a sort of a balcony that overflies above the main road that connects Bulqizë to the macedonian border and the city of Debar.
Here the view is stunning from right to left clearly seeing the major peaks with snow and overlooking in distance to the lake and the macedonian Alps.
The way back is on the same track.