This was the beginning of our five day adventure in the north in Montenegro in the Poacher, leaving our caravan in the safe hands of Dušan, campsite owner of Naluka .

Ostrog is a Monastery and Church complex dug into the Ostroska Greda Mountain which is 900 meters above sea level.

On our travels, at each country we visit we (and by we that probably means Steve) always look for UNESCO and World Heritage Sites to visit.  When you have a short holiday of say 2 or 3 weeks, staying in a hotel and having the sun every day that can be a marvellous contrast to the UK weather and time goes all too quickly. However, on a twelve month trip, you can’t really spend all of your time sitting on a sun lounger being served cocktails and beer (we try as much as we can) and it’s good to have cloudy days, sightseeing days and adventure days to look forward to and break up the routines.  More importantly, I’m enjoying writing about our adventures, sharing them with you and it all just wouldn’t work if we simply bar crawled!

Following the caravan incident two days prior on Monday, we departed with packed bags for this adventure on Wednesday instead of the Tuesday; only a day later than planned and certainly not a biggie. We had aimed to have a really early start to miss the blistering heat of the day, but to be honest we slept in, it was already hot by 7:30am, things cropped up and we didn’t leave until mid-morning. One of the things that cropped up was me trying to decant my toiletries into little bottles to last our few days; we have regular sizes in the caravan, just as you do in your homes, but I wanted to try to travel as light as possible. We (by we, that means me) took far fewer clothes than normal (space is always an excuse for me to buy more if we come across any shops with stuff I like) and with plenty of cold drink on board and Stella settled in the back, we set off.

The problem with a car without air conditioning, only equipped with windows and vents that can be opened, is that all sorts of bugs try to get a lift inside with us.  Goodness knows why they pick on me, but I’m becoming a dab hand at guiding them back out again armed with repellent in one hand, bug spray in the other and a rolled up tourist map as back up swat on stand by. With everything possible to open, opened to encourage air to flow into the back of the Poacher for Stella, I began to get uncomfortable with the heat and fidgety in the car – which is a euphemism for me not coping and feeling a wobbly coming on. 

Two of the four National Parks we hadn’t yet visited in Montenegro were Durmitor and Biogradska Gora. Setting Durmitor into our satnavs we set off for Ostrog Monastery, which had been circled on our map as an attraction to visit, to be our first tourist stop as it was conveniently virtually en route. 

Ostrog Monastery is carved almost entirety vertically into a mountain side.  Access is from, yes you guessed it, a serpent like road (not quite as bad as the Serpentine) up the mountain with narrow single lanes and sharp, tight bends.  Getting closer we parked in a designated view point and Steve asked if I could see the monastery in the rocks above.

That sighting turned out to be a false alarm, just part a power station. Derh!

With plenty of car parking and a Church on the way we made it to the summit passing a few vehicles with their bonnets open having overheated. We couldn’t help out as the roads they had broken down on were too narrow to be of any assistance. I asked Steve if all our Poacher levels were OK. He confirmed they were. I was relieved and possibly hotter than the engine by this point.

Parking the car in the large designated area in front of Ostrog, the very few spaces in the shade were already occupied, we locked the car. Checking we had masks, wallet, phones, wifi router (tiny thing I carry around in my bag), the big camera, Stella with lead and poo bags, we all walked the short distance to the arches to enter Ostrog to be met with several signs, two of which applied to us “no dogs” and “no inappropriate clothing” permitted beyond this point. Bummer!

The temperature by now was above the mid-30’s and there was insufficient shade anywhere for us to leave Stella in the car or take turns looking after her outside whilst the other went inside for a tour.  Consequently we didn’t get to go inside the chapel and monastery complex but subsequently I have researched and watched videos of YouTube. Not quite the same thing as a first hand experience, but I learnt that monks still live in the Monastery and Pilgrims visit for healing and fertility solutions. There are many small cave churches built into the mountain for multiple religions and there are colourful and beautiful paintings on the walls and ceilings. Having negotiated the journey to get there I wished we’d arranged to visit it on a different day so we could have left Stella with Dušan* and not had restrictions on our visit.  Anyway, maybe another day.  Can you sense the undertones of my strop continuing to build?

The frontage is modern with the original monastery behind consisting of small caves built into the mountain. It was difficult to get any good photographic shots without being suspended from a distance off the side of the cliff from a crane, or abseiling from a helicopter so I’ve lifted some from the web to compliment ours for you to get an idea of these incredibly impressive structures.

Outside of Covid, Ostrog is apparently one of the most visited destinations on the planet by pilgrims and travellers from all around the world of all religions; in normal times there are more than a hundred thousand visitors every year.  Apparently, it’s a custom to walk the final 3km ascent barefoot from the church/car park and leave presents of blankets for the monks at the top.  We didn’t do that. 

I was wet through with the heat really getting to me. The only thing that kept me going was that the weather in Durmitor would be cooler in the mountains, which until recently had snow – as our friends Richard and Chrissy found out when they visited in May and had to make a substantial detour due to snowfall and falling rocks.  I wasn’t looking forward to getting back into the hot Poacher for a few more hours’ drive but it meant getting to Durmitor.   Strop now slightly uncontrollable.  Steve might have a different view!

Leaving Ostrog and it’s zig zag narrow roads up the mountain behind us we headed for Žabljak** where we intended to find an apartment for a couple of nights in order to visit Durmitor National Park before moving on to Biogradska Gora. We arrived mid/late afternoon and got an apartment without any problem. I began to unpack – the story continues . . .

NOTE:

* Dušan, our camp owner loves Stella. He regularly takes her for a walk, throws a ball for her to retrieve and always has treats in his pocket for her. Stella looks forward to new arrivals to the campsite as she always accompanies Dušan on the show rounds, as Dušan boasts “look how much Stella likes me”. You’d think that all the training and tricks we have taught Stella belong to Dušan. We always check that Stella is in our car when we travel – just in case!

** Žabljak, the seat of Žabljak Municipality, is a small town in northern Montenegro. It has a population of 1,723. The town is in the centre of the Durmitor mountain region and with an altitude of 1,456 metres, it is the highest situated Balkan town.

View from the cockpit

I always check the Poacher before setting off, Brake Fluid is the first to be checked, followed by the Power Steering Fluid. Either one of those is critical to our safety on these roads The clutch we can just about substitute with Stellas Dog lead, which was previously commissioned to pull it up again, when needed. Engine Oil has hardly changed, we’ve not used a half pint since we left around 4k km ago, and the water levels hardly drop, being topped up once a month.

I have a cursory glance at the controls before setting off, the fuel gauge must always be over 1/2 for safety , the alternator charging should always be positive, meaning the battery is charging. The temperature gauge in front of me is now superfluous, I just look at Blanche, and if it’s hot we remark on the heat, too hot and I get a glare, much too hot I get some unfair remark, and when it’s unbearably hot, just tight-lipped silence from the passenger seat!