Monica and the rest of the gang from our Huck Finn cruise dropped us in the drop dead gorgeous little settlement of Sveti Stefan on the Montenegrin coast, and after settling in we did a bit of exploring. It was then we began to see things that we didn't like.
Sveti Stefan is famous for it's gorgeous little island just off the mainland, connected by a narrow causeway to the village. Great to photograph, but the whole island and it's buildings has been bought by an exclusive hotel, and only hotel guests are allowed to go out there. They also have exclusive rights to the beach on the northern side of the causeway, charging 50 euros to walk onto the beach. The next 2 beaches north were the same, controlled by exclusive hotels which charged 75 euros, yep, that's right, 75 euros to walk onto the beach! We were told the government had given the hotels a 30 year lease - I'd like to think they'll come to their senses when the leases come up for renewal, but there are probably too many pockets being lined to hope for anything like that.
Meanwhile, the only beach available "free" to plebs like us has been ruined by overdevelopment. Five and six story apartment blocks built right on the beachfront along 2/3rds of the beach without even a walkway between them and the sand, er, stones. Then they've allocated 2/3rds of the "sand" exclusively to sun lounge vendors, leaving just a bit at either end for the people who just want to spread their own mats and/or towels on the "sand".
Most of the development in this area comes from Russian money, and it seems to be a case of grab the money and stuff the rape of the coastline. However, the sea was still clean, clear and free, and great for a swim - but watch out for the idiots on jet skis!
It wasn't all bad, though, and we had a restful 3 nights at Sveti Stefan before picking up a car and heading for the mountains.
Our first stop was Cetinje, the one time capital of Montenegro. They moved the capital to Podgorica because Cetinje was hemmed in by mountains and could not grow. But we found Cetinje a nice little town, with traffic free streets full of cafes and restaurants, and lots of families out promenading in the evening. In the main square there was a guy hiring out electric powered mini quad bikes to kids. The kids had a ball charging around, no one got hurt, and their parents sat at outside tables having a drink and a chat.
We then moved further inland to the mountainous Durmitor NP, staying 4 nights in an apartment in the town of Zabljak, just outside the park. On the way we detoured to a monastery - Ortog - built high up on a mountainside under towering cliffs, and dedicated to St Basil. Not sure what Basil's claim to fame is, but he must have been a cool guy to have a monastery like this one in his name!
The drive up to the monastery was, typically, the most exciting part. Once again, 1 and 1/2 car widths wide, heaps of hairpin bends, no guard rails and HUGE drops off the side. Susie was frequently beseaching me to get the wheels away from the edge, but I couldn't, I already had my door mirror folded in to inch past the guy coming the other way! But we made it, and it was worth the hair raising drive.
On our first day in Durmitor we went rafting. Not white knuckle stuff. Just very easy little rapids, and very easy paddling, but passing through the very spectacular and deep, Tara Gorge. They say it's the second deepest gorge in the world behind the Grand Canyon. Don't know about that, but it was pretty deep, and very beautiful. Actually, the most exciting part of the day was the drive out of the canyon in a clapped out VW van with the raft on the roof up a very steep and winding gravel track. I was pretty impressed with our driver's skills!
Next day we headed out to the closest and most accessible of many glacial lakes in the park. Crna Jezero, or Black Lake, is actually 2 lakes linked by a narrow channel which flows in different directions at different times of the year depending on snow melt and other stuff. We had a nice walk around the lakes and through the surrounding pine forests, punctuated by a picnic lunch, before a lazy late afternoon and evening in our apartment reading and watching our resident cows (we christened them Bessie and Dora) munch their way around the paddock outside our back door as the sun went down and the moon came up.
Feeling like giving our legs a bit more, we next tackled a longer walk, up to another lake. This time it was 2 and 1/2 hours of fairly steep uphill walking to reach our objective, Jablan Jezero, and we were just a tad disappointed to find there wasn't much water left in the lake. The long hot summer had taken it's toll, but it was still a beautiful place, watched over by the soaring cliffs of nearby peaks. Once again we had taken a picnic lunch, so found a grassy alpine meadow to sit on and admire the view, and munched contentedly on our simple, but delicious fare.
Friday 16 Sep we drove on to our next stop, Kolacin, near another mountain NP called Biogradska Gora. But before setting off we decided, on the advice of our host, to go check out the local ski facilities at Savin Kuk, about 5 kms out of town. The resort was, um, rudimentary shall we say? There was one chair and about 4 T-bars or pommels on the lower slopes. The chair was an old 2 seater, not unlike the one at Mt Perisher for you Aussie skiers, of the type that doesn't slow down as it picks up or drops off, making entry and exit kinda fun, especially when at the exit you have to quickly swing sideways and then down off a raised platform to avoid being flattened by the chair - easy for a 20 year old. The chair disappeared up the mountain over cliffs and other very steep and rocky terrain, and was running intermittently for tourists wanting to go up, so we paid our money, they started it up, and off we went. This was the most rickety, clunky, rattley chair lift I've ever been on, and it became even more so as we passed over the bent, mangled remains of an old chair tower still lying on the rocks.
From the top station there was a short climb up grassy slopes to the top, which ended abruptly with a vertical drop into the next valley. The views into the higher mountains of the NP were sensational, if a little hazy from smoke, and we hung around taking it all in for a while before thinking, okay, how do you ski down from here?
The only route down was a curving glacial scree chute immediately under big cliffs, with a gentle-ish start, a very steep drop into the chute proper, and then just steep until it linked up with the gentler lower slopes. And that was it... but at 15 euros a day, and probably not too many skiers, you could probably ski the top run about 4 times before getting bored, and go home satisfied? Naah, give me Snowbasin any day.
So we left Savin Kuk thinking about our next ski adventure, set off for Kolacin, and promptly went the wrong way. After driving for half an hour in the wrong direction we quickly realised our mistake and went back to the right road, which proved to be yet another "World's Great Drive"! This road followed the Tara River Gorge, winding through the narrow gut of the gorge, frequently through unlit narrow tunnels, and all the time with towering cliffs overhead. Unfortunately, there were very few places to stop and take pics without risking a prang, so we just motored on, jaws agape, until we reached somewhat less precipitous country, the town of Kolacin and the Hotel Cile.
We dined early at a pub in town that night, and were struck by the relative absence of women. The place seemed to be full of groups of guys, sitting drinking, eating, smoking, talking, but mostly with the absence of womenfolk. Strange.
The following day we drove out to Biogradska NP, walked around it's signature lake, then up a steep mountain trail to nowhere, where we found a tall, recently built tower, not unlike bushfire lookout towers at home, sitting in a clearing. The tower entrance was open so we climbed to the top, which afforded a good view of the surrounding hills and forest, sat down and ate our lunch.
This little outing whetted our appetites for more walking so we set out next day to find a walk Ivan, our host suggested. We drove to the point on the map which we thought was the right starting point, giving a lift to some young hitchhikers from Prague along the way, parked the car, and set off. After walking about 3 kms along this dusty logging road without finding the signed track we were looking for, we turned around in frustration and retraced our steps. Maybe we had missed it? Maybe the logging trucks had knocked out the sign? Flagging down a logging truck, we had an animated and probably rather comical "discussion" with it's 4 occupants, pouring over our map, with much pointing at it, and every direction on the compass, they talking in Montenegrin and us not, before giving up with smiles and handshakes all round.
Finally back at the car, we poured over the map again and decided it HAD to be the right road, so got in the car and drove it, thinking maybe we hadn't gone far enough to find the track turn off. We gave the shock absorbers of our little Yaris a pounding, driving endlessly along this road, without finding a thing, ultimately giving up, managing a 6 point turn without falling off the mountain, and drove back to our start point. Maybe we should drive on a bit, we thought?
So off we went, and about 2 kms along we found, The Right Road. And it was bitumen, so we drove it, all the way to a little settlement with beautiful views across gently rising grassy alpine meadows towards craggy mountain tops beyond. Beautiful. We parked the car, walked along the meadows to a spot with a beautiful view of the mountains, sat down, and had lunch. After our bumbling, but enjoyable day, we thought we deserved a beer, so shouted ourselves one at a little cafe on the way back to Kolacin.
Leaving Kolacin, we headed back to the coast, passing through the Capital, Podgorica. From what we saw passing through - dead boring. Then on to Petrovac on the coast. This was beautiful, and we wished we had booked a couple of nights there, but having to return our car to Budva, and catch a bus from there to Albania, we had booked a hotel in Budva.
We weren't very impressed with Budva. Dirty, buildings going up next to others being left to decay, pavements half finished, the beachfront rather crappy and sleazy when it could have been really nice. Maybe the howling onshore gale with intermittent heavy showers tinted our outlook somewhat, but I don't think so.
There were some good things to come out of Budva, though. Susie got a manicure, pedicure, and massage for not much, and I got the best head shave of all time from a barber right next door to our hotel. Fantastic.
Next morning we were waiting at the Bus Station for our 0800 departure for Shkodra, Albania, and the next stage of our adventure.
