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That Sinking Feeling
Clearly, small tidal ranges have been around the Mediterranean for a long time, at least as long as this church has been there - or maybe this walking on water thing is in playWe didn't spend a lot of time in Montenegro. There is not much doubt that longer would have been worthwhile. A visit to Kotor and its old city - stari grad that is - a run up over the mountain to Cetinje, back around to Budva, through Tivat and on. Then another run up the Tara Klisura Valley/Canyon. Montenegro or Crna Gora is only a small place. Less than 20,000 square miles and less than one million people. We all heard about it during the relatively recent wars following the break up of the former Yugoslavia when Montenegro seemed to often play a sort of sidebar role to the 'negotiations' that went on between Serbia and Croatia.
On our first visit we drove in from Croatia through a 'proper' border crossing, rather than one of these half hearted ones where no one looks too hard at you and don't even put a stamp in your passport. This one has the Croatian gate up on a hill. They check you out. No aggravation at all but certainly have a look. Then on about 500 metres down the hill to the Montenegran gate where they hit you up for the vignette -
but a nice cheap Euro 10 one - and then look thoroughly through your passport and vehicle papers. It all sounds serious and then the bloke in the booth suddenly stops, makes a phone call, waits and another bloke comes over to take over from him. It was time for a smoke and cuppa. The other bloke smiles and says 'Welcome to Montenegro' as he hands the material back.
Driving in we were impressed by how much of a hole the place seemed to be. Buildings knocked about, closed shops, roads in disrepair etc. The first real town, Herceg-Novi, is not too special at all. Running on through a series of coastal, holiday places wasn't much better. You couldn't really see much at all because the houses and trees were in the way. Not a peek at what is supposed to be one of the great fjords of this part of the world.
Things picked up at Kotor. We had been to the old city at Dubrovnik first of course and there is really no comparison between the two. Still, Kotor is well worth a look. It would be unfair, I think, to call it Dubrovnik in miniature.
Kotor Stari Grad
Old city that is. I reckon she actually looks younger with the hair that colour It is smaller and doesn't have such spectacular walls. It is also pretty calm and relaxed. The crowds haven't found it yet - or at least not on the day when we were there. The place has not been restored to the same extent as Dubrovnik, but then it wasn't so comprehensively bombed by the neighbours.
Nice trick in the traffic at Kotor. Busy main road needs to be crossed. Four of us walk up wondering how we will accomplish this. Traffic from both ways stops. We walk across. Policeman standing on the kerb gives us a friendly nod and traffic starts off again. All well and good for the pedestrians but what about the drivers? And if it is me driving along the road how the blazes do I know that a little wave from a policeman on the side of the road means stop for foreign tourists? He was still there when we came back much later in the arvo. I watched him like a hawk and drove past very gently.
Up over the mountains to Cetinje. This is the old royal capital. They must have been a nervous bunch building their capital far up into
Black Hills
Looming, glowering or something similar. They are very high and just hang there. the mountains and away from the coast. The drive up the hill is our best to date. Skinny road, two way traffic, stupendous views. We wound up the side of a very steep mountain. The cars and the occasional bus coming down provided special treats for everyone as a way past was negotiated for all. Precipitous falls on one side. Unforgiving rock walls on the other and a Renault gear box that is still difficult to get right every time. Tony, who drove this leg, received a special cheer for his efforts from the passengers in a large bus as he poked the car off the road on the wrong side down a steep drop to allow the bus to inch through.
Laid back is the only way to describe Cetinje. Very quiet and very relaxed this place with a strange lack of any signs for anything. You drive in, wander around and decide to drive out. No hope of any direction signs. The first person asked for directions speaks Italian as his second language and we started to make some progress. Eventually, a vey surprised policeman is approached and deals with the situation well.
Lovely road back
Looking Down
Almost impossible to give more than an impression of what it is like. The road was speccy but it really is impossible to give any real view of that down the mountain through to Budva which is developing into another Mediterranean seaside resort. Hasn't quite made it yet but it will be there in another couple of years. On back around the fjord towards Kotor. A wrong turning and we followed the coast rather than duck through a nice tunnel. The coast road was very skinny, made more so by approximately one third being taken up with a trench that ran for almost 20 km. Lots of shenanigans trying to get past the oncoming traffic, including the occasional truck and work crew. Made it a late day back to the camp at Slano.
On our second run into Montenegro we entered through Bosnia-Hercegovina. We had decided that it would be good to try to visit the second largest - or is that longest - canyon in the world. This required that we head up mountain roads to a place called Zabljak.
And here is the thing about Montenegro. They have either removed all of the road signs or they decided that only locals use the roads anyway so it is actually a waste of money to keep erecting them especially as, the moment that you do put
A different Road
But the same issue. He eventually pulled over and gave us a few centimeters on each side - with the mirrors in - to get past one up, someone shoots it with either a rifle - not so bad, just leaves holes - or a shotgun - makes a bit of a mess. So there you have it: a minimum of signs; many, many roads going every which way; and very high mountains that are all over the place. Add a group of people who might, just occasionally, have discussions about which way we should go. Now what happens? Well we made it. Eventually. And after very little angst.
Our first run into Crna Gora was a mixed bag. The second run in was all good.
Zabljak is the largest place around. We ended up staying at the Ski Hotel. There were other options mainly in the form of 'classic' hotels and a few pensions. 'Classic' is code for old Soviet style places that haven't seen much of a paint brush or a re-furb since Adam was a boy - our Adam that is. We checked out a pension as well and ended up a the Ski. This is a clean and pretty new place. Excellent staff but the smallest rooms that you could possibly have and still get a double bed in. But
Haven´t Bought It
We just look like the owners.
There are times you just do as you are told and standing here was required OK and, with the amazing food that was included in the price, probably worth the tariff.
Tara Canyon is second only to the Grand Canyon in the USA. To get there we had to drive about 15 km from town and then walk for a couple of kms. The inward leg was primarily up hill. We all made it although there were some very sore knees a little later. I have to say that if you needed to be hauled up there by the ears it would still be worth it. The view that we had was of a bend in the canyon. Sheer wall of over 1300 meters. I am told on excellent authority that this is higher than any point in the UK and there we were leaning over it - until the strangled screams of the other people at the point caused us to move back a little.
We were the only ones at Curevac when we eventually made it up the hill. We found out later that the other tourists - carted up in taxis and buses - stopped at what we came to call 'Squib Point'. From this point you could see a
Zabljad
Typical house in the mountains bit of the canyon. Impressive yes but the real thing? Not a bit.
There was some intention to walk in the arvo but the car seemed a more sensible option and we drove down through the Canyon for about 50km. It is spectacular stuff and well worth a visit. May even be worth a substantial amount of time provided you want to ski or use mountain bikes to get around.
A quiet and relaxing time in the car gave confidence for a walk to and around the Crno Jezero - Black Lake. Turned out to also be two lakes later in the summer. Nice easy walk to it, lovely lake with a glacial touch to it. In fact it is fed by melting snow and glaciers - but don't tell those Alaskans and Canadians that they call these things 'glaciers'. They are just a little smaller that what we saw over there.
The walk around was different. We found out later from a nice young bloke who, I think, was a tour guide or some such, seemed knowledgeable and was very well set up in the equipment department - that the lake is currently about 5 meters
Flowers
The alpine meadows were full of them higher than it will be a couple of months from now. That would mean that the water over the track that caused us to do a bit of impromptu mountain climbing would not be there. It might also mean that those wonderful waterfalls that we got to see would not be pumping in quite so much water. Of course, it might also mean that we would not end up with wet feet and that sense of exiliration that you get when you take on something silly.
There were 5 waterfalls that flowed across the 'track'. They were running fast - as you would expect. They were cold - they were coming from these penny ante glaciers. And they were a fair way across. We made it. Others didn't. And when we rolled back to the start of the walk we met a large tour group that had turned back on the walk and we all received applause. Made our hearts warm. Didn't do a lot for the feet but we basked in the warmth of it anyway.
When we told the lovely woman in reception at the Ski Hotel that we were heading for Sarajevo and told her
Tara Canyon
1300 meters down our proposed route she blanched and said something like 'You can go that way of course but it is so boring. You should go - I recommend that you go across the mountain to Pluzine and then into Sarajevo. It is much shorter and much more beautiful. The road is not good, good, good but it is good.' We took her advice, had a few nervous moments as we headed up but then the views kicked in. Have to have been the best views of the trip to date.
The road was skinny but had an excellent running surface and you could see the traffic coming for a long way. The run down out of the mountains was as spectacular. How many times do you have tunnels that have bends in them? Ok they were not quite hairpins but they were close. And there were something in the region of 40 of them. The last had an intersection. That is right. There were intersecting tunnels and none of them had any reinforcing. Just carved out of the rock. Pretty speccy I have to say.
This place won't stay this way. There is no way that such a beautiful
and spectacular place will stay as it is for very long. Eventually, there will be chopper rides that plunge you out across the canyon walls leaving your belly a long way up, miles of souvenir shops, casinos, resorts and prices to match. You wont always be the only ones standing - or even sitting nervously - at one of the most spectacular viewpoints in the world. But if you say nothing there is still a chance to get there before everyone else does.
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