MONTENEGRO
Zig-Zagging through the beautiful mountains ...
28th - 29th April | 2022
This morning we got up at about 7h30 and had our super-rich breakfast already at 8am. James was super happy as it was 4 fried eggs (per person!!!) and sausage plus other lovely things for breakfast! 9am our skipper Vesco was already there to pick us up. In Virpazar he helped us find a safe place for our bikes and gear and find an ATM as we needed EUROs.
The 2-hour boat tour was really lovely; we can highly recommend doing that if you are in the area. In the village there are various shops offering boat tours, so you can pick your package for your budget.
Once back, we had a cafe and started to make a plan. Well, our plan was/is a bit depending on servicing Schimmelchen. We were still on the Albanian SIM card, we contacted the local TET linesman about it; well, it was already some days ago. He arranged a new front sprocket in Podgorica for us to collect the next day. As the long May-weekend is coming up, the service can be done only Tuesday. In this case, we will try to do a bit of the TET ... even though we might have to turn around because of snow.
After we did our shopping for lunch, we headed up towards Budva, but over a lovely twisty mountain road. In Budva we parked at a cafe directly in the marina, next to the old town. James was again the lucky one staying in the bar guarding the bikes whilst Steffi had a stroll around the lovely old town of Budva.
We opted for the night for a wild camping spot on the coast south of the Bay of Kotor. Again a lovely road to get there, but you could already see that Montenegro is constructing for more tourists. Guess the area will be plastered with apartments in 10 years' time!
The access to our wild campingspott was still a stoney offroad track! The last part Steffi had to use a joker card as a bit bumpy, but once down there it was a fantastic place, directly at the sea! There was already a Suzuki DR650RS with an Ukrainian number plate parked next to a little tent, but we couldn’t see anybody; probably fishing or swimming.
Whilst we pitched up our tent, the owner of the tent turned up: Alexander / Sasha. Nice guy, he lives close by on the little Peninsula with his family but he sometimes comes there for some nights camping.
We had just got our little campfire going, when gusts of wind hit the coast. They came from all sorts of sides, so we had to let the lovely fire die off and escape into our tent. All night the gusts were so strong that it blew fine brown earth in. Everything was covered with it the next morning! We better not mention that Steffi couldn´t sleep at all; she is convinced she even heard a Wolfe howling during the night!
The next morning, we packed everything away and the wind started to calm down; typical! On the way over to Kotor we stopped at a Pub and we had another massive breakfast: 3 fried eggs, fried bread, ham and cheese. That will keep Steffi fed until tomorrow morning!
In Kotor we again found a perfect parking spot right at a cafe in front of the old town. Guess who stayed with the bikes ;-) So Steffi had a stroll around the lovely old town of Kotor; full of groups of tourists though! Steffi finally bought a local SIM card: 400GB for €10!! We can dream of such a thing in Portugal!!!
Once back to the bikes we got approached by a group of swiss guys travelling through Montenegro over to Albania. So we had a bit of a talk and then it was time to hit the road. We did the "famous" switchbacks (R-1) up to the top to have a fantastic view over the Bay of Kotor. The Swiss boys also stopped there and we all took pictures together there. Habt eine gute Fahrt; und geniesst Albanien!!
The road over to Podgorica was another lovely twisty mountain road. Once in Podgorica it was sort of rush hour going through. As chaotic as the Italian traffic was, at least they let you change lane; not here! However, we made it to Magnus Moto and after some time waiting we got the front sprocket for Schimmelchen. The next challenge was getting something to eat. After trying various Pubs, we consulted google and finally, we found a place just going out of Podgorica on our way to Medurijecje.
In Medurijecje we stayed at Wesko Camp - what a lovely place and lovely people! Steffi got even some flowers offered!! We will get tomorrow his famous breakfast :-) and James went to get himself a bottle of homemade Raki ;-)
Let us take you on our adventurous trip of the TET Montenegro from here. Let us tell you so much: "lesson learned". Are you curious, watch this space!
Places | Cities:
Virpazar, Budva, Durasevici, Kotor, Cetinje, Podgorica, Medurijecje.
Driven km | Trip:
Total: 9580 km
Maintenance | Breakdown:
./.
Health issues:
./.
Special thanks to:
iOverlander providing us again with fantastic wild camping spots.