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Published: November 10th 2010
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To begin with we got the feeling that Montenegro was a top cycling destination, narrow lanes from the border with only the odd car or two for company were ideal for a lazy afternoon ride.Then we got to the main road.Maybe were a bit tired of having trucks up the arse , but out on the coast road its a reality,beautiful enough but risky.Blind corners,fast traffic, climbs and more twists than a Hitchcock movie had me looking more in my rear mirror than watching out front.
We took a break at Stari Bar , an old abandoned city overlooking the resort of Bar.With a name like that I was'nt surprised to meet a load of Brits wandering the place, I guess from now on we will meet many a tourist as we press on into Europe's more inviting countries.Weve started telling people more about what were doing, is this somekind of hidden pride beginning to emerge I wonder?Its funny, mostly we are met with many questions and pats on the back but sometimes, people are almost offended.A retired Aussie couple we met told us of their great trip in an old English camper
around Europe, some 7000 km, then they asked us what we were doing.Without missing a beat the lady looked over her glasses and said " you could of done that quicker" and then left.Ha ha.Shes probably right though.Next time!
Campings a bit of a bugger, just like the Chinese where ever theres a nice place the Montenegran's like to crap all over it, so we were left with only ugly but suitable campspots.Old quarries became our hotels for the next two nights,its been warm in the day but at night the temperature is beginning to drop,looks like we'll be adding a blanket to our bags sooner rather than later.
Had a wander around Budva's old lanes, where we were blamed for a stray dog "having a go" on a tourists dog, "its not ours" didnt seem to work so we left town and headed into the hills away from the busy main road and any futher canine finger pointing.Hell of a climb but worth the views across the coastline as we passed several village churches casting awesome silhouettes in the light of the setting sun.
We're heading for Cavtat ,south of Dubrovnik where we'll be meeting up
good weather for fishing
dad in action with the combers with our families for the first time in over a year and a well earnt rest away from the bikes.After a nice little ride around Kotor Fjord we crossed into Croatia, country number 32 and our fifth country in 10 days having also just clocked up 31 000km .Time for that week off!
And it was a good week,although it took a while to step away from the cycling routine of just the two of us.Spent a lot of the time out with my dad fishing but apart from small Painted Comber's and other minnow's of the deep we failed to catch anything worthy of the frying pan although Ozzy and Sharon the house cats didn't seem to mind.Still it was a good crack and we caught most days.We went back to Kotor in Montenegro where it pissed down until we arrived and right on cue the sun came out allowing Tati ,Marsha and me to climb the 1500 steps up to the old castle and then high tail it back down as the thunder returned with lightning fizzing in the sky.
What with all the lovely food my mum and dad made that
week , plus the amount of booze we put away I was starting to feel like a comfortable Zepplin balloon by the end of our stay.Its easy to put on but hell to take off.Topped the weekend off with Tati's brother Thorbjorn and Anne his fiancé taking us to a test dinner for their wedding next summer at a posh hotel in Dubrovnik.Not sure were the best qualified for the testing as everything we ate tasted amazing, bearing in mind weve been living off pasta and tomato sauce for most of the year.The waiter could of put his boiled head on the table and i'd of wolfed it down. "Yep ,lovely"!
Nice to see everyone though,we will all meet up at Christmas and then next summer for the wedding,better get some new cyling shorts for that one.
It was back to normal for us after that,no more beds,roofs,cars,resturants or booze.The weathers still holding out but the nights are still getting colder.Made our way along the lovely Croatian coast meeting several tourer's along the way, all heading south apart from one crazed German guy who asked us if this was Croatia and was that island Italy.We left him in the rain, a long dribble hanging off his nose, a wiser man.We met a young Swiss couple going to Singapore.Felt excited for them but not at all envious, knowing full well how far and how gruelling the way ahead was.Then we met Evan and Valkarie the North American's outside a LIDL supermarket shrine,those two were more skanky than us.Good on them too.
Having had enough of the main road we crossed to the pencil thin island of Hvar .Costs almost the same for a bike as it does for a person,which is a bit cheeky.Still its so much quieter than the mainland and a cracking ride although very steep in places.Stari Grad is like a tiny Dubrovnikwithout the tourists.Great end to our trip in Croatia.Now its a ferry to Split and a connection to Italy and the cold ride north.
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