Outboard Motor, Shopping, Bends, Views and Wild Horses

Shortly after arriving in Montenegro, Steve and I went out in Teddy to the edge of the Bay as we wanted to collect live mussels to use as fishing bait.  No sooner had we gotten out of our islet to hug the shore between us and the Tramontana Beach Bar, than the motor cut out.  As we were already near where we wanted to be, we drifted into it nicely and then pulled Teddy on to the beach so we could wade in the clear water to collect our mussels.  Having gathered sufficient mussels we got back into Teddy, but the engine just wouldn’t start, or to be more accurate it coughed, spluttered, started and then cut out within seconds. It didn’t matter as we had a pair of oars. With me at the bow looking over Steve’s shoulders to give direction, Steve, at the Skipper’s end, started rowing.

Having begun rowing we realised we were getting nowhere fast as the tide had turned against us and whilst rowing as hard as we could, one of the brackets holding the motor gave way which meant the motor was falling into the bay.  We didn’t lose it as it has a safety harness in case of such an eventuality (never before needed), but as Steve turned to grab the motor one of the oars started floating away from Teddy.  Obviously the motor was more precious than the oar but working as a team we managed to retrieve the runaway oar and make it back to base camp, together with the engine.

Over the next few days Steve stripped the engine, which as an engineer he’s done quite a few times before on the motor, but despite his best efforts using practically every tool he’d brought with he couldn’t get the motor to start and continue working. I told him in no uncertain words, if he did get it working, I wouldn’t have any faith in going out in Teddy and not being stranded again.

Dušan, our camp site owner, had chatted with Steve during one of the repair attempts, and put us in touch with a boat yard in Igalo which is a few kilometres north of Herceg Novi.  Off we set with the motor, but the two men we saw at the boat yard gave their apologies as the motor was too old for them to have any spare parts.  I must admit looking around their yard that comment somewhat surprised me.

Wearing frowns, but optimistic, we had a word with Captain Ivan who said he knew some great engineers, including the local priest who was apparently the best motor engineer in the area. Unfortunately for us the priest was away for a few days. 

Captain Ivan collected the motor from us at the campsite and took it to people he knew around Kotor and Tivat but without success.  We began to think we needed some higher rank of divine intervention, than our humble priest. It was important to us to get the motor repaired as Steve had inherited it from his fishing friend Teddy and it held many memories from fishing trips going back over some 40 years.

Chatting to Captain Ivan it seemed he had located an engineer in Montenegro who was not only capable of finding the spare parts needed but also of fixing it.  This person Ivica lives in Skadar and it just so happened as we had planned to go to Skadar for a few days, we would take the engine with us and drop it off in person.

As we checked into the Country House Djurisic, which we’ve already written about in ‘Lake Skadar Mini Break’ (Lake Skadar Mini Break – On the Road (teamwilph.com), we spoke with Marko who gave Ivica a call to see if we could drop the motor off that afternoon.  As Ivica didn’t speak any English we were lucky to have Marko chat to him on our behalf, having already briefed him on the sentimental value. Ivica told Marko that the engine was too old and he wasn’t interested. However, Marko had an ace up his sleeve.  Marko’s mother, Vesna knows Ivica’s family and that did the trick of opening the door for us. Phew!

Marko wasn’t sure where Ivica lived so gave him a call whilst we were en route to be told by Ivica to ask his mother for directions!  Following Vesna’s directions, we crossed a bridge, looked for a group of women selling fish (apparently they specialise in the best and latest gossip) and turned right.

Arriving at Ivica’s workshop, he took a look and said he would need a few days to work out if the motor could be fixed, if so, what the price would be and then we could take a decision whether or not to go ahead or not. 

We counted the days to the phone call from Ivica to hear that the engine could be fixed.  Having researched prices of new engines we were quite prepared to invest generously in the repair.  The call came and Marko relayed to us that the repair would be between 75€ and 100€.  We were ecstatic and immediately gave the go ahead.

After only a few days, hearing from Marko the repaired motor was ready to be collected, we planned another trip to Skadar, but this time to include a visit to Lovcen National Park, drive up the Serpentine and walk the 461 steps to the magnificent mausoleum at the top of Montenegro’s second-highest peak Jezerski Vrh (1657 m).

The New Dress

That morning Steve took me over to meet three couples, who had stayed only one night, to show me their impressive serious 4×4’s; each one fitted with a roof tent and solar panels. Steve said “they might be fully loaded, but we are just over loaded”. As we approached the group, I spoke to one of the women and told her I admired her dress.  She told me she sold them, pulled out a suitcase from her car, opened it, showed me a selection and picked one out for me to try on.  Wearing one of her dresses, when I told her I preferred the one she was wearing, she didn’t hesitate to take it off, right there, swap it for another one from the suitcase and give me the one she was wearing which she said she had only put on that morning. Deal done and new dress for Blanche!  We didn’t know what nationality they were but I thought their language sounded somewhat Arabic.

Every Journey has a beginning

Apart from the fact that the most direct route between us and Lovcen National Park includes the famous serpentine road with its 26 bends, it was already on our list, but our intention was only to drive up it, not down. Thinking we were en route, we took a wrong turn and looked for a turning opportunity. Certainly not on this bit of road!

However, having taken a wrong turn we did unknowingly have the added advantage of coming across Fortress Gorazda which was used by the Austrians against the Montenegrins during the First World War. It’s most notable feature is a 100-ton Gruson rotating turret on its roof, the last remaining example of its type. I bet you found that little nugget interesting!

The Serpentine

At last we find the actual Serpentine and enjoyed our drive upwards looking out for bend #26, supposedly with the most spectacular view, despite all the other 25 having amazing views too. From there we could not only see the Bay of Kotor, but also two German men who had been staying at our camp and left that morning. They had actually parked their van and set up table and chairs on #26 to enjoy the view with their breakfast. Obviously we took pictures of each other on each other’s phones.

Back to the boys.  They told us that the three couples we met that morning were from Israel, had put their cars on a ferry from Israel to Greece and, as that took three days, they flew over to Greece not to miss a moment of their six week holiday, collecting the cars when they arrived to continue their travels.  Especially as the three couples were only at the campsite for one night, I wished I had spent more time chatting to them and especially wished I had taken photos of them and their cars. We parted company with the boys, each of us wishing the others safe journey, to make our way to the Mausoleum. At the top of the Serpentine was a Bar on the edge. Literally a bar on the edge. Well, we just had to stop, grab a (forgive the swearing) non-alcoholic drink and admire more views from this unique vantage point.

The Njegos Mausoleum

Driving through Lovcen National Park, paying our 2€ entrance fee each we drove the three kilometres up to the Mausoleum. Parking was at a premium. The most convenient place to park was outside the restaurant, but only if we took drinks and/or food there, which is what we did so not only could the staff keep an eye on the Poacher, but also Stella who would not be attempting the 461 steps.

The 461 steps, for a change were regular and proper steps, protected from the elements by a well lit tunnel, with the steps in tiers of 9 or 10 with a slight bend so looking up wasn’t too daunting to reach the top.  Having eventually managed the 461 steps, spurred on by the very little young children in front of us, the view from the top was unbelievable, we could see most of Montenegro.

Time to come down and who do you think we bumped into on their way up?  Yes, the three couples from Israel!  We stopped to chat and learn more about their travels and plans and once again I forgot to ask to have a picture taken with them.  However, they had parked their three cars next to the Poacher and I took pictures of their fully loaded vehicles for the petrol heads amongst you.

Return to Country House Djurisic – Lake Skadar

It was then time for the last leg of that day’s journey to Marko’s place for dinner, overnight and collection of the repaired motor.  En route we came across some horses which were in the middle of the narrow road ahead. We weren’t expecting that.

Reaching Virpazar around 6:30pm it was too late in the day for any gauntlet of boat trip sellers, so it was easy for us to park up and make our way to a bar to refresh the driver.

Driver refreshed, we drove the 1.2km to Country House Djurisic.  Met by Marina, we walked upstairs across the balcony to our apartment feeling very much at home. Once again Vesna prepared an amazing evening meal for us, accompanied by a bottle of Marko’s wine. In Slavic mythology Vesna is the Goddess of Spring – in TeamWilph land Vesna is total Goddess of the kitchen. We arranged breakfast for 9, putting in an order for priganice and looked forward to collecting the repaired motor.

Purpose of the Trip – Collect the Motor

After a wonderful night’s sleep in our Skadar apartment and priganice breakfast, Marko accompanied us to collect the motor.  Now knowing the route, turning right at the landmark of the gossiping women who sell fresh fish we pulled up outside Ivica’s place and the three of us could hardly wait to see the repaired motor.  I asked if Ivica if I could look at his workshop which turned out to be a series of storage rooms made from cellars under his building.  One room lead to another, like an Aladin’s cave adventure, each filled with bits of boat bits apart from one which held Ivica’s tools. And you know what? I bet he knows exactly where everything is.

Ivica proudly brought our motor out, it looked brand spanking new. He placed it in an oil drum filled with water and we watched and listened to our refurbished motor as it was started up catching on the first pull.  It was unbelievable, it no longer roared like a lion gargling rusty ball bearings, and was no longer temperamental in whether it would perform and if so at what speed.  For the first time I didn’t need ear defenders as it purred like a content kitten. We asked how much and were told ‘family’ gets a discount and it would be 70€. We rounded it up to 80€, everyone was happy.

Dropping Marko back off at his Country House, we left with a bottle of his red wine, a takeaway of Vesna’s smoked fish, our water bottles filled from the spring, a repaired motor and big, big grins.

Perfect End to a Perfect Trip

Returning to base camp mid-afternoon via an excursion to Podgorica, as you can imagine, Steve couldn’t wait to inflate Teddy and introduce him to his sparkling refurbished motor. Doing a trial trip to the Bay and back we met Laura and Andy, a couple staying next to us at the campsite. When Andy looking at Teddy told us he had an inflatable yacht, Steve worried about the mast being too tall to go under the bridge to the Bay. He need not have worried. The evening ended with vino, an impromptu buffet and a little bit of duelling guitars .

View from the Cockpit

What are we doing with our time you might think? Well we’re not sure either but it really is flying by. When we travel and get back to base camp as we now call it we (Blanche) gets straight on to this blog, which is a time consuming task, with slow internet just giving me ten minutes at the end of the day to write my bit. It’s raining now, a tropical storm swirling around the mountains, towering above, and it’s so refreshing after the 30 degrees or so of recent days. Today I’ve walked Stella, caught up with the breadman at 8.30, got the daily water and waste chores done, spoke to our neighbours, then spoke to our other neighbours, downloaded the photos, checked over the poacher, got the fishing gear ready for next week’s excursion, put the new sunshade up, read the literature and maps we picked up in Podgorica, and generally have been busy, too busy even for lunch. This afternoon we have a short interview with the local tourist office to publicise Base Camp, and it will soon be six-o-clock !

I did discover on the lockdown of last year that I was particularly good at doing nothing, and this lifestyle suits me, and rather surprisingly to me, Blanche as well. We read the news from the UK, through a telegraph subscription, we keep up with family and friends, speaking most days, and realise how lucky we are to have made this trip at this time. We would dearly love family and friends to come and make some memories over here, but unfortunately the logistics of travel make it impossible., but we are certainty thinking of all of you, and can’t wait until we get our first visitor from home.