So, to update you from yesterday's post and to provide a brief summary, of where we are at:

Somebody was supposed to come and pick me up in a Land Rover from Klina in Kosovo on or around 6th October, so that I could return to Albania in plenty of time to get my flight home to the UK on 16th October. The date was very memorable because it was the same date as a famous England match with Greece and the even more famous last gasp goal by David Beckham that saw us qualify for the 2002 World Cup at Germany's expense. The Land Rover never arrived and I was getting increasingly fraught to the extent that I finally called George, the organisation's director on the Tuesday evening. No vehicle was coming and I would have to make my own way. George had tried to get the message to me, but it had somehow got lost on the way. I asked friends in Klina if they could take me and what I got was a unanimous NO because everybody considered it to be too dangerous...

Now, as Bigger_Rah says if we digress at bedtime, "Back to the story!"

The truth is I had no idea what to do and there was no way I was going to get directly from Klina to Lezhe so I had to think on my feet. My first logical thought was to get to Gjakova, a town which was much closer to the Albania / Kosovo border and a place where I had some friends. What follows is in part either an incredible coincidence or the providence of God - you can decide. It is possible that I have already blogged an element of this story already. With this partial plan in mind, I managed to organise a tentative lift with Kol and Albert; two of my friends who were willing to at least take me this far.

So, I called up my friend Nik Krasniqi and asked if I could stay overnight, on the Wednesday, in his place in Gjakova while I figure out what to do. With typical cheer and hearty warmth he readily agreed. I said that I arrive by about 6pm.

One of the reasons why Kol and Albert agreed to take me was because they had a meeting in a town called Decani which while using the indirect route from Klina to Gjakova wasn't too much of a step for them to do a bit more to drop me off, as illustrated in the map below. I have highlighted the three places that I am referring to in red circles. The border is represented by a white line and so you can see Bajram Curri is on the Albanian side. I mention it because, its significance will become relevent tomorrow. Incidentally, if you ever happen to be in Kosovo it is definitely worth going to see the waterfall at Mirushe (Ujevara e Mirushes) which is also shown on this map and is on the more direct route between Klina and Gjakova. It is stunning.

And so it was in the mid-afternoon on Wednesday (10th October) that I left Klina for the last time after saying my goodbyes to the many, many friends I had made. In the end we were late arriving for the meeting in Decan and I sat through it, but had no part to play, but was grateful for the hospitality. The meeting also overran and a a direct consequence we arrived in Gjakova more like 7pm, an hour later than planned and immediately went to Nik's house.

He wasn't in!

We knocked and knocked and knocked for several minutes, but everything was dark and shut up. Once more that daunting sense of dread began to rise from my very guts. Kol and Albert had already departed assuming that there wouldn't be any problems and so I was left alone with a large rucksack, a laptop (and bag) - and remember they were so much more bulky and heavy those days and a camcorder, also in a bag. Not knowing what to do I knocked on a neighbour's door and quickly explained and asked if I could leave my baggage with them while I go into the centre of the city to get something to eat. They readily agreed, and the strange thing was (after all I am seasoned traveler in the Balkans), that it was an incredibly naive thing to do. In the end though everything was fine as you will see.

Without Nik I was lost. I did have another friend, Skender, in the city, but he lived on the other side of town and I had no way of contacting him... and that is what makes, what follows even more incredible. Let me start with the simplest sketch map in the world. I could have lifted the same data off Google maps, but with it having to contain the whole city and the level of detailing it would be too much. Also, while I remember roughly where the two houses were the fact is that it was 25 years ago and even I cannot remember everything!

So, as you can see both houses are off the main road, only connected to the main road by a much smaller road and on opposite sides of the town. 

After leaving my baggage with the neighbours I started walking towards the city centre and literally as I am off Nik's small road onto the junction with the main road I suddenly heard a voice call out "[Crypto_Rah... Crypto_Rah]" and to my absolute astonishment directly opposite me on the junction walking towards the town centre was Skender!

Everything came together perfectly. Literally one minute either way and we would have missed each other and what was he doing on that side of town anyway when he lives on the opposite side. It was either an incredible coincidence of massive magnitude or providence. It is not for me to judge your religious beliefs. 

Skender and I still went into town to get some food before returning to Nik's. There was still no sign of him and so Skender said that I would have to come back to his. He hadn't offered earlier because he was the grown up son in his family and it wasn't really his place to invite others. However, that aside, when it mattered he came through. Furthermore Skender was of greater help than Nik could ever have been because as we passed through the city centre we did two things, first of all we chatted with some furgon (shared minibuses) drivers and we found one that would be departing at 6am the following morning. Skender negotiated the cost and I think it was $30 but don't quote me on that. As I have already said my mind is less than perfect. The second thing is that Skender had access to a secure lockup within 100 metres of where the furgon would depart from and so I was able to leave the bulk of my baggage there. and took only a minimal amount to Skender's

We went up to Skender's and probably sat up chatting until about 2am before finally falling asleep. I fell to sleep with a terrible sense of dread because before going to Kosovo earlier in the year a religious friend of mine had said "You will face danger - even to your life - but God will see you through".

These words had a massive impact on me and that was why I was feeling as I was because at that moment. I had yet to face such a danger and my time in Kosovo / Albania was coming to an end so surely it had to be during this last journey? Retrospectively, there might have been two other moments.

And so, at least now with a plan and we just had to see how it worked out the following day.

BTW I never did find out what happened to Nik that night!

As always stay safe and well my friends.