Dajti Mountain Trail

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Dajti Mountain Trail

Summary: Dajti Balcony is rightfully a top excursion from Tirana. At roughly 1000 Meter, it offers grandiose views across the sprawling city, and on to the Adriatic. It can be reached in many ways - by car, by cable car, or you can walk from Linza or Tujan village. The summit of Dajti can be easily reached from the balcony. Perhaps not so widely known is the Dajti Mountain Trail (Dajti MT), which explores the backside (eastern side) of the mountain.

The Dajti MT was originally designed as a trail also to be used by vehicles - possibly to provide an escape for the VIPs hiding in the military base on the plateau, just in case. The trail is now only used by people and mules. If "mulepath" sounds boring to you, think again. The path is carved into the - sometimes almost vertical - rockface of Dajti, and while there is no real risk to the hiker it passes some sheer drops. The views are dramatic.

With just under 10 kilometers in length, the trail is not particularly strenuous, as long as you manage the logistics of reaching the trailhead at Qafe Molle. We used two cars, positioning one near the mountain station of the cable car, which is the end of the hike. Alternatively, you may use a furgon (minibus) to reach the trailhead, or make other transport arrangements.

Maximum altitude:	1117 meter
Minimum altitude:	786 meter
Cumulative height:	425 meter
Cumulative length:	9.33 kilometer
Difficulty	easy
Time:	3 hours 15 minutes
Date of this record	January 2014
Download GPS info:	Dajti MT

General location and approach: The trailhead is near Qafe Molle, behind Dajti Mountain. The road up Dajti Mountain is under re-construction, in January 2014. If you don't have to pick up your own car at the trailhead, you can use the cable car down to Tirana.

According to the owner of Bar Luli at the Qafe Molle trailhead, furgons to Qafe Molle and beyond leave from Kinostudio in Tirana daily at 7 am. You are advised to be at the bus station at 6:30 am. The furgon station is next to the Bar Kinostudio at the Kinostudio's Alp Petrol station. The driver of the furgon is Sami Balla. There is no scheduled return bus from Qafe Molle in the afternoon. You may however walk from Qafe Molle to Qafe Priske, to catch the last bus coming from Shengjergj to Tirana at 4 pm. To avoid the risk of getting stuck, we recommend to start the hike at Qafe Molle.

Other Information: We rated the hike as generally easy. While the trail is - in most places - fairly wide, be aware of some unsecured steep drops. These make the trail unsuitable for small children.

Near the trailhead. The backside (eastern side) of Dajti Mountain is more dramatic than the side visible from Tirana.

The weather was mixed and overcast. Here a short glimpse of Mali me Gropa, with some specks of snow.

Mali i Papatit, with its elegant straight ridge. According to our measurement, it is two Meter higher than the top of Dajti. See separate page on how to reach Papatit and climb it.

The trail was originally designed to be used for vehicles - this thought has however long been abandonned.

View from the Dajti MT towards Tujanit - Dajti's northern summit.

View to Brar Mountain (see separate pages)

The way from the tunnel to the Dajti Balcony (which you can reach bye car or cable car) is a leisurely stroll

The last stretch is even asphalt. You are moving in a military zone, which doesn't seem to be a problem.

The upper station of the cable car - we recommend the Dajti Balcony Restaurant next to it.

GPS and trailmaps: The map and trailinformation is generated by

, based on GPS information collected from the actual hike. Waypoints can be downloaded to a GPS device from Wikiloc. If necessary, use GPSBabel to convert GPS data to different formats. For more hike descriptions by Palmtreetreeproduction, browse this website or visit Wikiloc and search for "Palmtreeproduction". You may also find nearby trails from other authors.

Google Earth: You may also view the trail in 3D by clicking "view in Google Earth" when on Wikiloc. You need to have Google Earth installed on your computer.