I camped on top of a low grassy cliff and made a fire where others had before, cooking my pasta on it and eating it with olive oil, having nothing else. It was a cold night, a heavy dew sinking down from the scrub covered hills above me.

The beach was covered in rubbish, a sad sight. As I packed up, I thought about chucking my pasta packet and empty pickle jar on the pile. It wouldn’t make a difference, and would save me carrying it. I can see if you grow up in this environment, how easy it is to not care, or lose hope even if you do care.

A toothless old fisherman wearing a sombrero arrived and set off in his rowing boat to check his nets. Despite its rich waters, the trawlers haven’t arrived in Albania yet and the fishing industry is still very primitive, mostly Gill nets set between wooden sticks pushed into the seabed, which I have to be careful to avoid.

I set off in pursuit of food, having nothing but a 1kg bag of sugar to sustain me. Disgusting to eat, but practical for treating hypos.

The coastline was still a desolate swampland, but layers of mountains now filled the horizon, and my mind felt at ease taking it all in.

I came to the Lagoon of Patok where a restaurants had been built on a strip of land running right through the middle of the lake. King Fish, a swanky hotel with a pretentious restaurant and a pool that had gone green, had free WiFi, so I sat there and blogged for a while.

My sugars kept going low and I was fed up with eating sugar, so I kept paddling, stopping in one town with no food, but finally getting to Shëngjin as the sun set.

I got there in the dark actually, noticing there weren’t many lights on in the apartment blocks along the seafront. Sure enough, the place was full of deserted hotels and apartment blocks, some unfinished. I felt a bit nervous about camping in a big town, but I pitched up by a beach club, and the vibe felt fine. Finally, I could eat!