Miles on trip: 10223 miles
Countries: 21 (+ Montenegro)
Days on trip: 98
On leaving Dubrovnik, we had our first proper border awaiting us – Montenegro. As with most borders, it started with a queue – and being stuck behind a bus, we weren’t going to move anytime soon! Entertainment was limited, but nearby there were some Defenders used by the Montenegran border police. We love our Baloo to bits but he would not make a good vehicle for a car chase or to get to an emergency quickly. Anyway, we are sure the Montenegran police know why they picked their cars.
As we made it to the front of the queue they checked our passports and then asked for our green card, which proves vehicle insurance. However, since we are not insured in non EU countries (except for a few like Norway and Switzerland) we opted to buy third party insurance at the border, which at 15EUR for a week wasn’t too bad. By this point our phone companies also told us that we either couldn’t make any calls whilst in Montenegro (Andi) or it was prohibitedly expensive (Martin). Anyway, time to head to our first destination: Kotor Bay.
Kotor Bay is a bay that goes into the Adriatic Sea and has mountains all around it. It’s very picturesque and has a nice road going along it. At one end of the bay is the city of Kotor, which like Dubrovnik, is a well preserved walled city. We walked along one edge of the wall (you can’t walk all the way around like in Dubrovnik), and had a lovely view over the bay. Kotor also has a wall going up the mountain to a fort, but at about a 45min climb, Martin was less keen in the heat. So he opted for some pub time, whilst Andi decided to trek. There were great views over the bay, the city, different parts of the wall and the fort, but the climb definitely counted as doing exercise.
After an ice cream we decided to leave and find a camp site somewhere. We had seen a few pretty ones right by the bay on the way to Kotor, but they were quite far away now. So we kept going the other way in the hope we’d find something nice – the internet had promised us at least one camp site. As we left Kotor, the road (whilst pretty and along the bay) got very narrow and definitely didn’t feel like a road that you should be allowed to drive both ways (but it was!). So when a bus came the other way, Martin crept right to the edge of the road, and any further and we would have been swimming with the fishes!
When we got to the campsite google had promised us, we found it closed for the season. Great. Andi tried to ask whether there was another one nearby – using sign language because of the limited English, and luckily just a 100m further was another nice one right by the bay. It was basic but open(!), and had all we needed. So we enjoyed a BBQ, a lovely view over the bay and then decided to start our lectures – we had decided to do an online course on machine learning and it was time for our first set of video lectures.
The next morning we headed to Skadar lake via Budva. It’s the largest lake in the Balkans, but the area fluctuates between 370km^2 and 530km^2 depending on the season. Because the lake also changes in water level between 4.7m and 9.8m above sea level, there isn’t a nice path right along the lake, so in an attempt to learn more about how we can explore the area better, we stopped at a tourist information centre. Generally we’ve found them to be very good, especially in Norway, but here all they wanted to do was to sell us expensive boat tours, with apparently no room to negotiate. So we left and figured we’ll find some other way. From a map, it looked like next to the border with Albania, the road got pretty close to the lake. So we headed that way, passed a few interesting villages and got some nice views indeed. We were also hoping to find a camp site with a view but unfortunately they were all across the border in Albania. Nevermind, so we abandoned the plan and headed to Podgorica, the capital. There isn’t much in the capital at all, but it was the closest campsite and it’s also at the start of the Moraca River canyon, which was the plan for the next day.
At the campsite we saw Tom and Ann who we first met in Budapest. They had shipped their caravan from Australia and like us, were touring Europe. Having also caught up with them briefly in Dubrovnik, we now took the time to have a proper chat, enjoy some drinks, and have a relaxing evening.
One of the nicest drives is supposed to be from the start of the Moraca river up north to Durmitor national park. There are several routes but the recommended one is via Kolasin as that way you drive past the Moraca river canyon and the Tara river canyon. We heard before that the road isn’t supposed to be very good but we thought if it gets too bad we can always turn around.
The drive was indeed spectacular: lovely views over the river, steep drops down the canyon, rocks, trees and beautiful valleys. When we got to the Tara river canyon there was also the famous concrete bridge with arches and a common activity is to get a zip wire across or bungee jump off it. The route did not disappoint and the road was actually pretty good – tarmac all the way through and in reasonable condition. No idea what others were complaining about.
That night we stayed in Zabljac national park. There we found a basic (cheap) campsite, pretty high up at 1470m, and with its own resident cows. Andi was hoping Martin’s farming experience would be useful in case of attack by the boisterous bull – the tip was: if he charges at you, just run and hide behind the land rover. Hmm. Anyway, after that excitement we went for a short walk around a “black lake” (crno jezero), which is a pretty glacial lake in the national park – and after all the driving, it felt good to walk a little.
This was our last stop in Montenegro. It may be a small country but the scenery is absolutely beautiful! It has a lot to offer and the distances aren’t too long.
Road Monkeys 