Montenegro is a small nation tucked down on the southern border of Croatia, we
visited it directly after landing at Dubrovnik from Prague.
We hired a car at Dubrovnik airport and arranged for its use in Montenegro
and Croatia. The company informed us that we have a free upgrade, to a
larger vehicle. This made us a bit suspicious by the age and look of the
vehicle, we soon we found it had malfunctioning air conditioning. We requested
our original, causing a bit of fuss as they were a short of vehicles and didn’t
want to change the paperwork. Not having air conditioning and a large
vehicle is an unwise choice in both countries due to the high temperatures,
narrow roads and price of fuel. After sorting out the hassles with the car hire
we ended up with a very new VW diesel Polo and were on our merry way.
The highway and driving to Montenegro was hassle free. You get to a large
checkpoint on border where you need to show passport and travel permits for
the vehicle, scary as it was, the wait wasn’t too bad.
The next impediment to our progress was the ferry across the bay. Montenegro
is mountainous and split by the waterways, our destination of Kotor required
crossing the bay. It is also possible to travel on the northern border if the
Bay of Kotor we fancied the journey on the southern side. The transit time
including the queue and ferry crossing works out to be about the same as
we are staying in a small town called Prcanj about 8km away form Kotor
city.
The journey in to Kotor this way is not for the faint hearted. The road is
very narrow, whittled down to one lane in places as it squeezes itself between
the bay and the mountainside. There are small turn in bays to allow passing of
vehicles. It gets especially interesting if you need to pass a bus or truck
(very glad we insisted on the small car !). We had a bit of a tiff with
a couple of middle-aged English ladies who entered a single lane causeway when
we were almost 90% along its way. They refused to back out insisting I was in
the wrong ! More the case that the driver was completely inept, so I caved in
and had to reverse a considerable distance to get to an ingress along
with a few others behind me. I had bite my tongue with the thoughts that were
running hard through my mind at the time.
We had to read very carefully the instruction on how to reach our residence
and also have Mr Google to thank for his sage assistance. In this part of
Montenegro there are no street numbers, everyone knows everyone so what is the
point ? All good unless you are a tourist trying to locate your place of
abode. Also the streets are incredibly steep and narrow so you really want to
be sure of your destination. We’re glad that we didn’t have to back track ! I
offered Caroline the opportunity to drive and she politely declined, citing
tiredness from the flight. Once we arrived at our accommodation the car
remained stationary until it was time to leave.
Our residence was very new and well presented. It was perched high up the hill
and afforded us with great views. The prices of accommodation in
Montenegro are very cheap in comparison to Australian prices ~ $60AUD per
night for this great apartment. We used Airbnb to select it "charming
apartment with breathtaking view" - not a truer word written !
A cat was there to greet us and as we soon found it was one of great number
that reside in Kotor. Being a sea side town, cats had an important job to do
throughout its history: control the rat population. They have special place in
the heart of the population and it wouldn’t surprise me they outnumbered
people ! Caroline being a cat lover fell instantly into a rapture.
At the end of the day it was nice to go down to the waters edge and enjoy a
local brew and meal.
For the ensuing days We travelled by bus into the city. It was easy to
use and very cheap. We just had tremember the exit point on the way back
– Market Dado, which also provided us with groceries.
Some of the bus drivers are a fairly lackadaisical: smoking, talking on the
phone and in one instance a driver was getting a bit of a workout with a
girlfriend ! Somehow they stay on the road and deliver us in one piece.
Our interest in Montenegro was the
city of Kotor is
UNESCO heritage listed, it has long history and a lot of interesting sites to explore.
I also wanted to raft the Tara canyon.
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