Balkans 4. Montenegro 2. flowers at last

 

covers 7 - 12 April 2024

Lovcen, with the masoleum of Petar II on top

We skirt Budva as quickly as we can because it is a horrible blot on the landscape. Holiday apartment blocks are spreading across a hilly bowl facing the sea like a rash and as we turn inland and begin to climb, the stunning landscape before us suits us much better. We drive straight through a place called Cetinje because we’re heading into the Lovcen National Park and then we begin twisting and turning up the hairpins. Much of the tree cover is beech, still leafless and with lichen encrusted trunks looking beautiful in the sunshine. Once above the treeline we stopped for lunch. We were at 4,400 feet and it was still very warm in the sun. In the woods coming up we’d seen primroses and anemone blanda, 2 inch wide sky blue flowers and very pretty. These are related to the white flowered and more delicate Wood Anemone which we see on the edge of woods in England. There had been Early-spider Orchids too but we were clearly too early for most of the mountain flora. Lovcen was a check for us, we were at altitude but hadn’t had to drive all the way to the mountains in the north of the country. As we were too early for many flowers we decided we would stay at lower altitudes for Montenegro and try mountains again later in our trip. This would restrict Montenegro a bit for us because we don’t want to spend too long on an over built up coastline either.

We’d not found a campsite anywhere for the night but for a small fee we can park overnight at the National Park Visitor Centre. It was closed but we parked there anyway, surrounded by bare beech trees. It was very dark apart from the lights left on overnight at a nearby cafe and totally quiet apart from the music also playing overnight at the cafe. To be honest we could hardly hear it and thought it was a long way away for some time. What we could hear with monotonous regularity every 2-3 seconds was what sounded just like a piece of electronic equipment beeping. It wasn’t electronic though, it was a Eurasian Scops Owl, the bird with the most boring call I’ve ever heard.

Anemone blanda

having a beer at our night stopping stop

bare beech trunks in late sunshine

just before a mountain sunrise 06.09

In the morning we wended (and there was a long of wending) our way back down to investigate Cetinje. This had been the capital of the old Kingdom of Montenegro and still has some ex-embassies dotted around. The French one, dating from 1910 is impressive but looks out of place, allegedly because due to a mix up in the post the plans for it were really the plans for a French Embassy in Egypt.  Stopping as we do sometimes for a coffee and a little something, we had the biggest croissants I’ve ever had, each about a foot long. No jam, so I got some from our handily parked and jam-stocked van.

two giant croissants and two coffees for approx £5

Cipur Church, Cetinje

Montenegro is an ironic name for this country really. Monte negro of course means black mountain and yet the mountains we’ve seen and believe to be similar for most of the country are limestone and are bright white in the sun, sometimes dazzlingly so. For you rock lovers, there’s a lot of Karst limestone which I would try to explain but I’ve read about it and I’m still confused.

We’d picked out Rijeka Crnojevica to stop in for the night. This was a small village on one of the rivers leading into the sizeable Skadar Lake (about 30 miles by 10 miles) and which importantly had a campsite with hot and cold showers, electricity, a view of the river and wifi. The campsite was fortunately blessed with two levels with the lower part waterlogged because the river was still high, presumably from snow melt from the mountains. There was only one other van there when we arrived.  We were given some cakes at this site by the owner who seemed delighted we were there. 15 Euros a night.

We walked into the village which had several cafes and restaurants and a very pleasant waterfront on the river. Restaurants serve lots of fish here, particularly Carp. I’ve never tasted it but understand that it’s fairly bland, very bony and can taste muddy. It’s not much of convincing argument in its favour when you see the local name for it, which is Krap. Sadly this village also had a fair number of derelict buildings in what seemed like prime positions facing the river. There was also a fine pedestrian arched stone bridge. Pedestrians would include donkeys I think. There were lots of birds singing and these were identified for us by an app called Merlin which is just great, a free download from Cornell University.

the old bridge at Rijeka Crnojevika 

Leaving here after two nights we had a choice between two narrow country lanes. We chose the one nearer the river and headed towards Virpazar on the shore of Skadar Lake. It turned out to be one of the best days of the trip so far. Virtually no traffic, great views of the river plus lots of flowers.  It wouldn’t suit everyone but this is a perfect opportunity for us to stop and spend quite some time just looking at, trying to identify and photographing the flowers. The difficulty we had is that we were unable to find any books on the flora of the Balkans except one 30+ year old one which is out of print. We just brought a variety of the books we had on Alpine and Mediterranean flowers with us.  The Accursed Mountains in Albanian are visible in the distance, they're also less entertainingly known as the Albanian Alps.  We intend to visit them.

 

a large loop in the Crnojevika River

Woodcock Orchid,  Ophrys scolopax subsp. comuta
 (we think)

and a close up of a single flower

Early-spider Orchid (Ophrys sphegodes)

You’ll no doubt be relieved to know that I don’t intend to mention every campsite we stay in (on ?) but I will briefly mention Camping Lad, a small site being improved by two young sisters and perfectly adequate for us. Hot showers, electricity and wifi for only 10 euros (about £8.75).

two pictures of Lake Skadar with Albania on the far side

It’s certainly warming up and is hot enough most days for us to try to park in the shade on a site or at the very least have our main door facing away from the sun. The weather has been really good for us. It rained as we were on the motorway coming down through Croatia on 28 March and since then, we’ve had nothing but sunshine. I’m writing this on 14 April.

Lake Skadar from Virpazar

Monkey Orchid (Orchis simia)

There’s a 30 mile scenic road along the southern shore of Skadar Lake which we have been warned is narrow, precipitous and with unprotected crumbly edges. Well risks are there to be weighed up and considered. As we’re travelling SE with the lake on our left and driving as close to the right as we can on what is not much more than one lane in some places, anyone teetering on the edge is going to be the other chap. So we go for it. It turned out not to be busy and there are plenty of passing places as well as stopping spots for looking at flowers. There are more orchids to see and even some fritillaries and it was a well worth while drive. At the end, almost in Albania, there’s a sharp right turn and a slow drop down to the coastal plain where we have a couple of days R & R before turning our noses towards Albania.

the corrugated landscape of southern Montenegro looking into Albania

breakfast on our site next to the Adriatic

I had the trout