Balkans 3. Montenegro bound

covers Thursday 4 – Sunday 7 April 2024

Having read the title of this blog, the more astute of you will have deduced that our original van registration documents did arrive. They were picked up from Poole on Wednesday morning and delivered to our campsite in Dubrovnik early in the afternoon of Friday. For the less astute, the papers come.

a German cruise ship outbound from Dubrovnik photographed from our pitch on the campsite

Dubrovnik was a great place to spend three days more than we meant to and we gained the opportunity to do things we hadn’t expected to while we were here. We took the cable car ride to the top of the cliffs overlooking Dubrovnik which provided us with great panoramic views along the Adriatic coast and a birds eye look at the old town. While were walking down the hour and a bit official path an older man ran past us going down, then past us coming up, then amazingly back past us again going down. He was ‘wiry’ as you might be unsurprised to be told. This official track down ended at a main road which had no signs at all of how to get back to the centre of town. We managed it and caught the 2 euro bus. Back home on the campsite, our pitch had views straight over the sea and was secluded. Just about perfect really but we were still pleased when the documents turned up.

breakfast with a view

So we set off along what was becoming a well known route now towards Montenegro. I was fairly confident about getting in but Heather was thinking odds of about 50:50. Getting out of Croatia was easy but approaching the Montenegro border control there was a huge queue and it took us an hour to get to the single open booth. Scheduling is no doubt organised by someone who used to allocate tills at supermarkets. Rather strangely the booth is on our drivers side so mainland European drivers would be on the ‘wrong’ side. Passports were OK. “Papers for the vehicle”. Heather handed them to me and before I could even hand them across he just said “OK” and waved us through. I nearly insisted he looked at them. A bit irritating but the upside is that we do have the originals if that’s what they want at the Albanian/North Macedonian/Serbian or Croatian border.

the familiar Montenegran border post

Montenegro is a small country at 13,812 sq km with a population around 625,000 about 200,000 of whom live in the capital, Podgorica, the European capital no one’s ever heard of. Using the internationally accepted country size comparison standard (CSCS) that makes it about two thirds the size of Wales (and half that of Massachusetts) with a smaller population than Dorset. It is however very hilly and what isn’t hilly is mountainous. Even the flatter parts are generally rumpled somewhat and if it was possibly to iron Montenegro flat it would be a big country but far less interesting. Fortunately for us the currency is still Euros although in practice it’s mostly a credit card.

part way around the Gulf of Kotor

The first thing we see in Montenegro is the Gulf of Kotor, a huge inlet from the Adriatic with the old walled town of Kotor at the far end as far from the sea as it’s possible to get. The gulf is a very contorted shape, almost unnaturally angular, just imagine a snake with severe arthritis. The town of Kotor used to be a big port but how sailing ships got there is a mystery to me. From the open sea, even in straight lines they would have to sail N, then E, NE, SE and South over what looks roughly like 70 miles or so to get to Kotor. Then they’d have to get back out again. The gulf is spectacularly scenic with steep wooded slopes straight down to the road and then the water. Unfortunately the first ten miles or so of it as we arrive from Croatia are blighted by awful strip development and apartment blocks. Then it clears and the full beauty of the place can be seen. At one point there are narrows only about a mile across and there is a small car ferry, a little larger than Poole’s Sandbanks ferry running across. We continue on the road, stopping for a look at a pretty little place called Perast with restaurants perched right at the waters edge. They’re quite safe. Being an inlet from the Adriatic, the tidal range here is only about six inches or so, less than most lakes between summer and winter.

one of the islands just off Perast

lunch anyone ?

We had been in two minds about visiting Kotor having just come from seeing two lovely old walled towns. It was a sunny Saturday and our minds were made up when we saw the traffic and hordes of people milling about outside the walls. It looked for all the world like a reconstruction of a siege. We continued on to our campsite.

Campsites are few and far between in Montenegro, especially this early in the year but I have an app on my phone called Park4night and the internet is invaluable. Our standard free roaming isn’t valid here because we’re outside the EU, so I have an e-sim. Don’t ask, it’s too complicated but it seems to work. Tonight’s site is a small place quite difficult to get to and probably impossible for anyone towing a caravan. It’s run by a man and his father who are developing it, building more shower and lavatory blocks themselves and it also has a small bar. As we signed in we were given a shot glass of home made spirit, Raki or something like that which was fine if fiery and tasting a bit like Kirsch. A very good site with views over the sea from high above it and we hope it becomes a success for them.

washing up with a view. FYI I did the cooking

Petr and Igor at the bar, Camping Seoce-Budva

It was Sunday morning now and we decided to go back 15 miles or so to see Kotor. This walled town is jammed against the hills behind it with defensive walls built up what looked like almost vertical cliffs along one side. It’s all traffic free, although traffic impossible sums it up better. Wheelbarrows are used to move heavy stuff around and the layout is nowhere near as straightforward as Dubrovnik. Maybe it’s deliberate to confuse invaders (as it did us tourism invaders) or maybe it is just a sort of organic but disorganised development. Dubrovnik for all its appeal seemed a bit more sterile than Kotor which I felt was a more lively and lived in place. Very glad we drove back to see it. Just as we were leaving, an infestation of a hundred or so motorcyclists appeared. Live donors as our nephew Mark, a motorcyclist himself calls them.