Woke up in France, walked to the Swiss side of the Basel Airport, caught a plane to Croatia, got on a bus and now I am in Montenegro. The first two nights were spent in the old city of Kotor. The first night was spent with a sunset walk up the wall to the top for breathtaking views of the town and bay below.

The next day we hired bikes to ride around the bay (~70km) including a detour to the town of Herceg Novi. We stopped multiple places around the bay for swims and fig hunting. The clear water from the Adriatic Sea was a cold refreshing break from the sweat and heat of riding.

We moved on to Budva to pick up the hire car for the rest of the week and drove up through the imposing mountains to stay the night around Skadar Lake. At a little local B&B they served us homemade kiwi fruit brandy which I thought was pretty much paint stripper and dinner was a fish soup, a collection of salads and marinated carp (which was quite good). After the lake we stayed a night in Centinje to be close to the Mausoleum of Petar II Petrovic-Njegos which we visited the next morning. We ate some amazing burek on the steps leading up to the mausoleum before heading up to take in the views. Sadly, as with most of Montenegro so far, bush fires have made all of the views hazy, so they don’t have their normal take your breath away beauty.

Back to Kotor we went, driving down the narrow (pretty much single lane) and winding Lovćen to Kotor scenic road. In one section that switchbacks down the mountain there are 16 hairpin turns as you drop about 500m in height. The views were great but managing the other drivers and buses on the road not so much. We met up with Mitch in Kotor and went for dinner and a walk around town.

The next morning we hiked the fortress wall again and then feasted on cheese and meat burek and drove into the mountains to visit Ostrog Monastery.

Then across the country we went to Žabljak in preparation to hike Bobotov Kuk (a mountain) in Durmitor National Park. A great day hike and then back to our accommodation for the night.

The next day we went back to the coast via Đurđevića Tara Bridge and Moraca River Canyon Road for some spectacular driving scenery. All the way to the town of Bar where we spent two nights in an apartment near the beach. One of those days we took a canyoning tour up in the mountains. Rappelling, jumping, climbing and sliding our way down through the waterfalls and pools of the canyon was loads of fun!!

Now Montengro is done and we are off to Albania for a night before catching the ferry across to Corfu, Greece.