Having spent an amazing couple of days and nights at Virpazar, staying at Marko’s Country House, packed two bottles of his Prevalis red wine into our luggage, been spoilt with yet another outstanding delicious Montenegrin typical breakfast and filled our water bottles from the fresh spring, it was time to return to base camp Naluka. We decided instead of the most direct route, which was basically reverse of our outward journey to take the mountain road East which took as as close to Albania as we could get and then drop down along the coast.

Just to get to Ulcinj via the mountain route took us three hours! Mostly in second gear. I never knew I had such buttock muscles. Sorry, Steve doesn’t want me to use the word ‘buttock’ so I’ll use bum cheeks instead. I’ll explain. During the journey the mountains were to our right, which meant that Steve in our right hand drive Poacher was closest to the side of the road with a wall. I, on the other hand, was in the passenger seat closest to the sheer drops on the left with little confidence of protection as the barriers, when there were any, looked more like artwork of rusty exhaust parts cobbled together for decorative purposes than safety barriers. In addition, the road, and by road I mean this is classed as a main road, was barely sufficient width of a single lane and by single lane, I mean single lane to be negotiated by both directions of traffic, not single lane either side. Just to make it a little more scary, as thought it was needed, there were very few passing places. I strained by eyes as far as ahead as I could, as we approached right hand bends, blind to Steve, to see if anything was coming and when anything was coming there was barely a playing card’s width between any oncoming cars and us. We were mostly in second gear, Steve driving carefully and steadily whilst I held my breath, which obviously worked to help make our car narrower, as we avoided any collisions. I dreaded any possibility of commercial vehicles coming towards us more than speeding sports cars and worst still us having to reverse into unicorn passing spaces – hence the reflex bum cheek muscle exercises .

Ulcinj (1) is the closest resort to Albania, the first stop of our return trip. We found safe parking in someone’s front courtyard – always worried about having the Poacher stolen and nothing to tow the caravan with. The Muslim social presence was prevalent; mostly obvious by the fact that all of the bars we passed only had male customers. Funnily enough, all the shops we passed only had female staff. I did try to find fashion shops, but they all seemed to have the same low quality tit tat. The beach there was one of the most crowded I’d seen for a long time. The most exciting bit of the visit was Steve getting excited over a kebab lunch. Oh that, and getting lost in a residential area thinking we were walking to the old town.

Bar (2) was next. We previously didn’t know it was one of the largest Ports in Europe and the main port of Montenegro. We tried to drive around, but it was so military we got moved on, and decided to visit Old (Stari) Bar, which was originally closer to the shore but because of frequent pirate attacks it was moved about 4 km from the centre up a very steep cliff – of course it was! It’s quite a tourist attraction and we would never have been able to park in normal times. It was so picturesque, just one main upward steep pebbled pedestrian walkway lined with bars, restaurants and souvenir shops to guide you to the Old Walls and ruins beyond. Some of the pebbles were quite slippery but we made it to the top.

Petrovac (3) was our next and final stop for the day. We were very excited as this was where both couples Andrea and Phil and Chrissy and Richard were staying and we had prearranged to meet up with them. As our arrival was later than expected, I thought it a jolly good idea to book somewhere for the night. We met at Bar Magazini around 6pm and as they couldn’t help with accommodation, and Steve deserved a few beers after the day’s challenging driving, I walked to the first sea front restaurant I could find, made enquiries and within minutes Steve, Stella and I had an apartment for the night. Being a RTRP (right time, right place) moment it won’t surprise you that it was just across the road from Bar Magazini. We had a wonderful Saturday evening followed be breakfast together Sunday morning which started with complimentary Raki (twice distilled grapes and anis). They are all really good company and fun to be with.

Budva (4) was the final destination before home. We’d heard it was an excellent fun centre, but tired from our few days’ mini break, we thought we’d leave it for another time.

By Home. During our time with our fun travelling friends, Andrea told us that she and Phil had visited the Cave Drawings near Morinj where we are based. Steve and I feeling guilty that we hadn’t seen the drawings yet thought we should and so we did. Given directions, we made a left turn up a track. Then without any signage we parked at a car port and looked for a trail. We couldn’t find one but did see an upward ascent so followed that. We thought we could hear voices, so assumed we were in the right direction. As we surfaced by the drawings on a rock face, not a cave, once again RTRP, we saw three men who turned out to be Montenegrin archaeologists who were more than happy to share their knowledge of the findings. They told us that the drawings were at least 2,800 years old and stone age, but didn’t know which stone age.

To finish our day we visited the Roman Mosaics at Risan. We took loads of photos, but this is the one that just had to be taken for the album!

View from the cockpit – The Long and Winding Road

As you will have observed I originally set this web-site as a record of our trips, and as usual Blanche has taken a good idea, and turned it into something brilliant.  In an effort to get a word in (not always easy !) I have added this short and personal view of the post. As you might also know I hate heights, Holland would be my perfect driving holiday. However, to drive in Montenegro I have had to learn to maintain tunnel vision, learn how to deal with different driving rules, and how not to look down sheer drops, and not be unnerved when confronted with tankers, and juggernauts thundering towards us or passing us. Most of our driving is without the caravan now. We have parked it and use it as a base. Montenegro is a small country, we can do one end to another in just a few hours, even at our speed, so it makes perfect sense. In fact I’m not sure that some of the mountain hairpins would be even possible with our 13 meter train length, we have even had to reverse just the poacher, which in itself has the turning circle of an oil tanker, and brakes to match. All through this I have had the perfect co-pilot and navigator, with some help from the TomTom of course. Whilst I sit there, white knuckles clutching the steering wheel, knowing the sheer drops as we drive clinging to the side of the mountains,  Blanche does not say anything, lets me concentrate on the white lines, sometimes imaginary, and sits on the side of the oncoming traffic without so much of a complaint. I do sometimes see her knuckles are clenched around the seat base. The reward of touring Montenegro is more than a trade off of what we have to overcome to so do. The scenery is dizzyingly magnificent, literally. The teamwork and trust are mutual, and the experience has been awesome. Hats off to the co-pilot.