By no means am I expert on recycling, but when I was asked by Ivana (wife of Captain Ivan) who works at the Kotor Tourist Office to help her write an article on sustainable tourism, which included the campsite Autocamp Naluka where we are staying, I was delighted and of course I said ‘yes’.  Ivana came to Naluka to interview me and as she has never been camping, I showed her around the site, how it all worked and what was useful.

I introduced her to fellow camper Rob, of Rob and Sharon (whose company we had enjoyed for a fortnight), who are travelling in a motorhome so she could have different points of view between requirements for Motorhomes and Caravans.

We discussed recycling and it was obvious that currently Montenegro is somewhat behind in its recycling efforts, probably due to budget.  I said those of us long term touring (much longer than a holiday period) whilst having excellent storage we must be mindful not to over hoard as space and weight is always an issue. Whilst touring it’s not unusual to replace furniture and cookware to suit changing needs, buy additional essential items and each off these new items have to have somewhere to be stored.  The same goes for shoes and clothes, depending on the seasons, and we prefer to recycle or be able to donate to a local charity shops as we do in the UK.  Montenegro is quite a small country, the shops are smaller and there are very few large supermarkets (even the large ones are quite small), none of which have recycling bins.  I mentioned to Ivana that I’d seen some people going through the large garbage bins outside our campsite and she replied that there are a lot of poor people.  I told her how dedicated recycling for clothing, shoes and bed linen could be a benefit to the poorer communities.  She was quite sad that Montenegro has so much to achieve with its recycling efforts.

Ivana wrote up her notes in impeccable English, which I only edited slightly when referring to my words, and she was able to post the interview on the Kotor Tourist Board Website under – CLICK HERE for Article on Sustainable Tourism.

Captain Ivan was so delighted with the article and my willingness to help his wife, that he popped down to our campsite with Krempita made by his mother as a gift for Steve and me.  Krempita is similar to French mille-feuille and is best eaten as soon as possible whilst still warm.  Already cut into 12 sections, and far too much for just the two of us (Stella is not allowed cake), we shared it with Dušan (our campsite owner), who told us that Ivan’s mother makes the best Krempita in the area ever and with François and Heinke, our German neighbours at that time who came with their inflatable pedal powered kayak.

View from the Cockpit

As Blanche has written it’s not really in our nature to throw things away. We have UK charity shops, recycling, freecycling, ebay, and any means of getting unwanted items to another home. Here people go through the bins for cans, metal, and glass to sell on for a pittance. Worse of all we see plastic bags in supermarkets given out with gay abandon, remembering that poor seagull in Croatia that had it’s leg stuck through the handle, bravely trying to fly with the plastic airbrake billowing out behind him.

We do understand that there is a huge cost to recycling and that an infrastructure, and mindset, needs a lot of sponsorship and support , how can a country of less than a million people set this up is beyond us. What does encourage us is that people on the ground here recognise the need to cut down on waste, and are making a start , as Ivana and many others are doing.