For clarity, a Mini Break is when we leave the caravan at a campsite and travel in the Poacher with luggage staying overnight somewhere else.

I thought we were going to set off early for our trip to Lake Skadar last Thursday (27th May), as I am used to Steve’s early starts to get the most of each of our travelling days. However, I hadn’t communicated this to him and ready to go (unbelievably early for me – probably around 9am), I saw that Steve was enjoying a chat with one of the other campers, a young German man who was travelling with his wife and 4 year old daughter in quite a small campervan, also taking a year out.  I didn’t take a picture of him but, for the ladies out there, get an image in your mind of a tall, young, cool surfer dude, totally fit, tan, blond hair pulled back in pony tail and you’re half way there. 

Eventually, without any rush at all, remembering everything and Stella and Stella’s stuff we set off catching the small drive on drive off ferry from Kamenari to Lepetani to make our way to Budva, then along the coast road to Petrovac and finally towards Virpazar our destination by lake Skardar.

The thing about Virpazar is that the entrance to the village is a bottle neck where you have to run a gauntlet of locals wanting to show you where to park for a fee (it’s all free!) and book you on to an overpriced Lake Skadar Boat Tour guaranteeing that you will see all the wildlife of your dreams including pelicans. I know times are tough, but! We had been prewarned, told them we were on our way to the Country House Djurisic run by Marko, the gauntlet politely disappeared and we were able to continue without further hindrance.

One of the interesting things we’ve found out in Montenegro is that with the country being so small almost everyone knows everyone else, or at least a relative of someone. That’s probably why once we mentioned Marko’s place, they left us alone. Having been in touch with highly recommended Ivana of Golden Frog Tours we booked a private boat trip of the lake and I asked her if she knew somewhere we could stay for a couple of nights. She put us in touch with her cousin Marko (her mother and his father are siblings), I WhatsApp’d him, he sent me a link to his place on booking.com which I didn’t take too much notice of, and said we would be delighted to stay there. Sorted!

Following Marko’s directions and instruction to park outside the white house on the left, I didn’t expect a huge first floor apartment with views of Skader Lake, each room full of heirlooms, pieces of interest and antiques.  Climbing two flights of stairs, past the ‘train’ we walked through the spacious balcony area into the apartment. There was no key to the front door, they don’t lock their homes as everyone in the area is related or knows each other and all strangers are challenged. I don’t know what to, but definitely challenged.

As Marko showed us around, he was proud to tell us that his estate has been in the family for over 500 years, his father’s background was wine and his mother’s background was fishing. He has his own vineyard, produces his own wine, apparently as does everyone locally, showed us an old wooden fishing boat in the garden that was once his grandfather’s, the build of which is now protected by UNESCO.  He poured us a glass of the freshest pure water from one of their natural springs and showed us where some of it is collected and used to irrigate the land.  Pulling a handle on a manhole cover, to reveal the ‘well’ he hauled up a rope, tethered to the top, and pulled up a net full of very large, very live fish.  He told us his mother employs many local fishermen and supplies all the local restaurants with their fresh fish.  Laughing he also told us that one of the fish was for our dinner that night. 

Touring the grounds, which are on several tiered levels, as is the norm, he showed us a house he had built without any vehicular access, using physics and a pully system to get all the material from the road frontage to the building plot.  Towards the end of the tour we were shown the family’s traditional smoke house, which is still very much in use, and to finish the tour we were invited into his wine cellar to have a welcome drink of his red wine and sample some of his Rakji.  We thought rude not to, so gave it our best shot. Marko normally produces around 500 bottles per year, which is for personal and guest use and apparently isn’t around for very long. Without sales last year due to Covid, the wine from 2019 is now two years old and the barrels below are full of wine waiting to be bottled.

Settling into the apartment I unpacked our ‘stuff’ which we had packed to cover us for a couple of days. Apart from toiletries and underwear, mine consisted of a selection of tops, a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, walking shoes, sandals, jacket and rain poncho in a pocket to be prepared for any weather and dining out eventuality.  Steve, despite it not being clean t shirt day, packed a spare one.  I was impressed.

Our Boat Tour was booked for 6pm, Marko offered us a couple of bicycles to travel the kilometre to where the Golden Frog was moored, but we decided to drive and parked the Poacher in the main free car park. As we were just about to leave, we noticed that a rather large van had driven into an area deep in shingle and was stuck. It was as though the driver was caught in quicksand, neither able to go forwards nor backwards, each manoeuvre resulting in the wheels getting even deeper into the shingle, filling the air with the smell of burning rubber. A local brought out a plank of plywood, but the back tyres just shredded it, again the vehicle going nowhere.

Steve and I looked at each other. This was yet another RTRP (right time, right place) moment. I could see the glee in Steve’s eyes; you see he had missed out being at home through the harsh winter, not being able to haul anyone out of snow or difficulty having bought himself every size of tow rope to adorn the Poacher. You can see the ‘big boy’ tow rope on the inside of the back door and several others attached to the ladder the back?

Whilst Steve got himself organised I walked over to the very worried looking driver and pointed to Poacher. I told him we could help. I was pretty much damned sure we could.

I returned to the Poacher to collect a walkie talkie so Steve and I could communicate with each other. We turned them on and did a check. I walked up to the driver’s cab and asked him through the open window to make sure his engine was off. He couldn’t nod fast enough to signal it was. I relayed to Steve ‘engine off’. I asked the driver to ensure his handbrake was off and the driver again quickly nodded affirmative. I relayed to Steve ‘handbrake off’. I then told Steve we had an audience from the adjacent building site. He said ‘roger that’. I told Steve ‘all clear, ready to go’. I watched as the massive tow rope took the strain and slowly the Poacher successfully pulled the truck to safety. I can’t remember getting any applause or standing ovation from the building site, but boy did we feel good. The Serbian driver was incredibly grateful and as a bonus we still had time for a quick celebratory drink for the two of us before our Lake Tour.

Lake Skadar, two thirds in Montenegro and one third in Albania, is one of the largest bird reserves in Europe, home to over half of Europe’s bird species having 270, among which are the last Dalmatian pelicans in Europe. We know that wildlife is not trained to perform at specific times, boarded the Golden Frog, had no expectations and looked forward to our tour with any bird spotting being a bonus.

Ivana, only 20 who has been doing tours on the lake in her own boat since she was 11, and her father steered the boat perfectly and quietly for us to get the best out of our two hour sunset tour. Ivana had a map of the lake so we could choose our route, but we preferred to take her recommendation. She had a selection of books on every species of bird, which she and Steve referred to and I can’t think there is much she doesn’t know about where she lives. She’s at university studying law, you can see her father’s pride of her burst out of his chest. Her English was superb and I’m sure she’s going to be a super success at whatever path she chooses. We were almost the only boat the Lake, the wildlife benefitting from being left undisturbed through lack of tourists and consequently too many boats tours invading their territory. We were told to see a pelican would be unusual, but they would try. The tour included hidden channels which we could navigate due to perfect conditions and I was blown away by the serenity and beauty of everything we saw. Suddenly Ivana told us she had spotted some pelicans. I couldn’t see them without using binoculars. Apparently a group of over 30 rare Dalmatian pelicans were in front of us. This was unheard of but we do benefit from RTRP. Her father steered the boat to get best light angle for photographs and we were surprised how close we could get to them. They didn’t seem bothered by us at all.

I was content to watch and Steve in his element took goodness knows how many hundreds of photos. I can’t name the other birds above, I’m waiting for Steve and Vron to let me know what they are.

That night Marko’s mother had prepared an evening meal for us. It consisted of Krap (which is an edible carp) coated in salt and fried so the skin was irresistibly crispy, smoked fish which had been smoked on willow tree for 3 – 5 days in their smoke house, then cooked for 9 hours in olive oil, white wine and bay leaves, served with hot potatoes and kale, cold potato salad, two types of aromatic rice dishes, green pepper and of course home made bread.

We dined on our balcony, enjoying a bottle of Marko’s two year old red wine with a spare bottle – just in case – planning our next day’s adventure of the area. We discussed how lucky we were to be at Marko’s country house and how much attention he pays to every detail. Happy and content tired, we went to bed, the front door closed but not locked.