Day 18 – Montenegro (Tuesday 30th April 2024)

To me Montenegro always sounded like an exotic place. Somewhere you might expect a James Bond movie to be set. Hang on! It is! Daniel Craig’s Bond visited Montenegro in Casino Royale in 2006.

As impressed as we were with the scenery of Bosnia and Herzegovina we were promised much, much more after we crossed the border over the river Tapa into Montenegro. The tiny border control points on the winding, narrow road just before the river (Bosnia) and just after the river (Montenegro) were not very busy. The border guards in Montenegro could see we needed to exercise so they asked us to leave the bus and walk past the guard house displaying our passports – just like at used to be in the olden days.

Back in the bus we hit the very narrow and at times treacherous road to take us high up into the mountains and our first destination for the day, the town of Žabljak some 95kms and 2hr20m distant. The first part of the journey followed the Piva river from its confluence with the Tara to the dam wall and then along the shores of the man-made Lake Piva. Like all the rivers up this way it is quite large (by mountain river standards) and is a beautiful turquoise blue thanks to the icy region in the mountains from which it emanates. Lake Piva is the same colour and very narrow and very long. Along the M18/E762 road we travelled through 70-80 tunnels, some quite short, some very long and dark (lighting must a been too expensive when they were built in the 60’s and 70’s). Almost all of them have been hand-carved straight out of the mountain rock. No concrete reinforcement needed here. A magnificent feat of engineering and human sweat!

The road rose steadily as it followed the river and lake-shore. All along the road were splendid vista of the high, rocky mountains we were ultimately heading for. Every turn revealed a truly serious WOW! exclamation from whichever side of the bus the next vista appeared. What we were promised at the start of the journey was being delivered in spades.

Now at about 750m elevation we took a left-hand turn into the P14 ans started a serious steep clink up to the “high plains”. Over just 5kms we rose 350m in elevation before the road began to flatten out. Across the treeless plain we travelled, the rolling hills dotted with houses and barns here and there and the occasional sheep or cow. In all directions, however, persisted the massive, snow-capped rocky tors that rose above the plain. The WOW! moments just kept on coming. The give you an idea, imagine the Victorian high-plains up around Falls Creeks or Hotham but with giant granite mountains encircling the view.

Along the way popped up this little old lady standing at a stall by the road selling her honey and rakija. Honey, you all know. Rakija, some of you know, is Balkan moonshine made by fermenting fruits of all sorts. I tried her apricot one and then her quince one. I bought a bottle of the latter for 10 Euros. Producing your own rakija for your own personal consumption is an ancient Balkan tradition allowed by law. One sure-fire way to start another armed conflict in the Balkans would be to take that right away from the people. So to be able to find some for sale at a store in the middle of nowhere was an opportunity to good to miss.

Before long many of the surrounding mountain peaks were touching 2000m with Bobotov Peak reaching 2525m. All are close to the road that transverses the plain and all stunning but none more so than Mt. Durmitor in the Durmitor National Park, a stunning rock with and an almost vertical face that loosely resembled the flutes of the Organ Pipes near Melbourne, only a gazillion times broader and taller. Little glacial lakes dotted the landscape as our driver began the decent into Žabljak – the #1 skiing destinations for Montenegrans. Here we had an unexciting meal in a local restaurant before heading a little way out of town to the stunning glacial lakes of Titova Pecina - really just one lake joined by a very narrow umbilical cord of water. Here the group took a very pleasant 5km walk around the lakes over the next 90 minutes. What started as an easy walk through the forest became decidedly more difficult the further it went on – made more difficult by our decision to leave the formed path to walk by the water’s edge. For short periods we had to scramble across uneven, rocky surfaces to get to something that resembled a track. Even when we returned to the “formed” path it was not much better as it was equally rocky and now littered with the exposed roots of the surrounding forest trees. Occasionally we tackled sharp little rises in the path which were a challenge for us all. Despite the rock scrambling and the ever-present danger of twisting an ankle or knee it was a lovely, peaceful walk in a stunning setting.

 

As dusk was beginning to fall on the lakes we boarded our bus bound for the city of Niksic - our overnight stop. I can’t really comment on the city as we didn’t really see it – suffice to say it’s an industrial city. Our stop was the surprisingly named Hotel Yugoslavia, worth mentioning for the name alone. Like Tito’s bunker, this hotel was a salute to the long gone 1970’s. Our room was literally “on the nose” so we asked for a change to which the management were happy to oblige. Exhausted, we found our way to the dining room for a late dinner. Kerry didn’t last more than one drink and 15 minutes before she headed to bed. I stayed with a few others and enjoyed a beer and a lovely plate of grilled squid.

Some panorama shots to try to show the magnificent landscape....