True Colours: Flying the Vlorë salt flats

“The lake is not deep,” says paramotor pilot Dimitris Kolliakos, “maximum one metre. But the problem is you don’t want to land in the lake because there are rocks in there, rocks of salt. You have to remember that always!”

Albania’s Vlorë salt flats are in the Narta Lagoon, on the southwest coast of this Mediterranean country. In turn the lagoon is part of the Adriatic Sea, and it also sits within the boundaries of Albania’s newest protected area, the Vjosa Wild River National Park. 

Designated a national park in March 2023, after years of work with Albania’s ministry of tourism and environment, international environment groups, and perhaps surprisingly the outdoor brand Patagonia, it is known as one of southern Europe’s last wild landscapes, its river unmarked by dams or gravel extraction. 

Home to over 1,100 species of wildlife the lagoon and the wider region is a birder’s paradise and includes one of Europe’s largest colonies of 3,000 flamingos....