Skip to main content

Towards Montenegro

  Mon - Wed 18th - 20th Sept





Usually we avoid paying for toll motorways, making the observation that the journey is all part of the experience. There are sometimes when you just want to ‘get there’ and the next part of the coastal trip is going to be on the motorway with a 2-3 hour journey on it, that will save another 2 hours if we stay off.

So at kilometre marker 245 we settled down until km 490 and enjoyed the open road with few lorries and not so many cars either. The overdrive was engaged confidently, knowing that it wasn’t leaking and we sat at about 65mph which is roughly 110kph in decimal.



The minutes ticked by into 10 mins and then thirty but as it was hot, the windows and front flaps were open, so there was no chance to catchup with The Archers or take advantage of the Spotify premium, bought on offer, especially for this trip.

We played a game of spot the unusual car registration plate. By this I mean that we ignored the common HR (Croatia), SLO (Slovenia), D (Deutsland) and A (Austria) plates, looking for something a bit unusual.

There were quite a few BIH (Bosnia and Herzegovina), even a couple of UA (Ukraine) but it was ages before we saw just one S (Sweden) and one UK/GB car.

Eventually we stopped to view the Pelješac bridge. As Wikipedia describes it, “this provides a fixed link from the southeastern Croatian semi-enclave to the rest of the country, while bypassing Bosnia and Herzegovina at Neum”.

I couldn’t have put it better myself.




As we looked at the bridge we talked to a couple from Germany. He was the typical northern German who gets up really close when telling you something and makes his point by slightly pushing you with the side of his body. I recognise this from work years ago.

The toll fee was surprisingly’ cheap’ at €23. Apparently everything has risen In price with the introduction of the new currency.

Eventually we got to far more scenic surroundings and headed for the beautiful natural harbour of Slano, where we finally found a pitch after a couple of rejections. These Germans really do fill up these spots but also a couple from the UK are on the next door site and have been for a month. It’s easy to see that they’ve been here for some time.











These sites are really the terraced ‘gardens’ of the houses that line the shore. It’s very underdeveloped and a beautiful spot. 

We walked into the small village and had fish stew for dinner and the next day bought bread and burek for lunch. Then served our own chicken, pepper and courgette on the terrace for tea.





In between all that we walked the fifty paces to the sea and had some good long swims and sat and watched the small world go by.




Labels:

Comments

Phil said…
The water looks lush. No river swim for me this morning...too much wind and rain 😫
20 September 2023 at 07:46
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The empty map of Macedonia and into Greece

Continuing south towards the Serbia / Macedonia border, the satnav warned of a lack of detail, "do you wish to continue with this route?" However we are not intrepid explorers and Macedonia comes with a few " be careful" warnings, so we decided to stay on the motorway :-) We didn't explore Serbia; it will wait for another trip. So it was on to the border. Here, passport and V5 were required again and also proof of insurance. We didn't have any of course. When we rang the UK insurance company call centres prior to the trip, most had no idea where these countries are. They don't understand non-EU. "Macedonia - can you spell that"? The nice man at the passport office was already expecting me to say that I would buy my insurance at the "Green card office" and he handed back one passport and the V5 and put mine in his pocket until I had the necessary paper for the Landy. Unfortunately in spite of the Land Rover being classed as PL...
9 comments
Read more

"I'm the dog"

El Berro and  Camping Sierra Espuña  are nicely positioned for walking in these 'low' Sierras and of course the obligatory GR XYZ  long distance path crosses the village. The campsite people gave us a couple of short walk suggestions, written on A4 and translated by some English guy, Michael Ball. We waited until the end of the afternoon, so that the temperature was somewhat manageable and then picked one of the ~1 hour walks that start at the campsite. The walk is so simple that there's no description, just a small diagram that's well annotated with the type of path (wide main track / footpath), other markers (gate, incorrect route, fence). You can't go wrong, can you? Well the first part was easy. Follow the path out of the village, up a valley, through woodland, up and up. Then reach the ridge and the marked ring of stones. Don't turn right, carry on straight across. Then wander through a few trees and down to a dry riverbed, at which point you walk the (ve...
6 comments
Read more

Remote mountains and how not to behave in them

Prior to the trip I had read somewhere that there aren’t any mountains in Portugal - at least I thought I read it. My preparations had, as usual, been focused almost totally on getting the Landy ready and Dawn, who had been doing all the other jobs was much better informed. “What? You are kidding aren’t you? Have you even looked at a map?” were some of the words she used when I told her this vital piece of information. As it became clear, there are mountains in Portugal - not massive peaks but high elevations are common and the extent of the ranges is quite large. The most remote and wild are the Serra da Peneda Gerês which rise to 1,440m but there are three others “Seras” in the Parque National da Peneda - Gerês, in which wolves roam free. First stop on they way there was the town of Guimarães, the day after “Portugal Day” and the castle and buildings were in tip-top condition. A Polish guy from Katowice who’s lived here for twenty years was selling bilberry jam in these c...
8 comments
Read more