Budva and Lake Skadar

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We left Kotor via the narrow twisty road that goes up above the town where there were great views back over the town and Bay of Kotor. As we continued to drive upwards the road became more and more narrow and such tight switchbacks it was just a thick line on the gps. The road leads up to the top of Mt Lovcen and on top of that is the mausoleum of Njegus, an incredible location for the communist looking mausoleum. The views were excellent, I read somewhere that you can see as far as Italy, not sure at all about that but is was a BIG view. Back down again and we stopped for lunch at the beach looking out to the island of Sveti Stefan, incredible blue waters and very busy. Spent the night in the busy resort town of Budva, where there’s another small old town with pretty buildings.

From Budva we moved on to Lake Skadar, staying in the tiny village of Rijeka Crnojevica with its’ famous old bridge (stari most). The lake is huge, the largest lake in the Balkans and goes over the border into Albania. Had a lunch on the lake shore in Donji Murici, really quiet and lovely water. The road to get there (and back) was another super narrow one, fortunately not a lot of traffic, lots of vistas of the lake. Before resting in the new apartment by the river we visited the abandoned fortress of Zabljak Crnojevica, more great views of the river and lake from here and no other visitors, really quiet and pleasant place.

Kayaked along the narrow end of the lake near to Rijeka Crnojevica for a couple of hours in the early morning. Lots of bird life, particularly herons, cormorants and shrikes, acres of lilies. Couple of snakes too, one tried to jump in the boat! The drives all around here are on narrow roads but worth the trouble to see pretty fishing villages (Koruk and Dodosi) and more views of the lake.

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