Biking through the Balkan: part 2
Montenegro: the tiny country that has it all.
We love Montenegro and have been here before, 4 years ago we hiked through Durmitor National Park for 5 days. This tiny country really has it all: mountains, jet set riviera, lakes, rivers, skiing, cruise ship ports, all packed in an area of not even 14000 km2. It’s basically the perfect holiday country.
Anyway, we entered from Albania just past Shkoder and after the border we took “panoramic road 3”, along Lake Shkoder to Virpazar. The climbing is worth it, because the views of the lake are amazing.
We found a municipal campsite at the river in Rijeca Crnojevica, our first night at a formal campsite this trip! There were already 2 French cyclists and just when we were pitching our tent, 2 bike tourers more arrived. Kevin took one look, then a bit longer and muttered: “I know those people…”. These people turned out to be two friends of his from university, Ralph and Bettina, who have been unknowingly on our tail for the last few days. So we had a lovely evening catching up in Swiss German, drinking beer and getting eaten alive by mosquitos.
The next day we left early, while Ralph and Bettina took it easy and exored the surroundings by foot. Directly after the camp site the road started going up, along a small winding road with lots of trees protecting us from the scorching sun. At one point we joined the main road just before Cetinje, which was horrible, as the drivers passed us by with only centimeters to spare. At Cetinje we opted for the “lazy” route up (so not via Lovcen, as this was an extra 500 meters up) and we did “only” 1000 meters via Njegusi. Which was also beautiful: a sleepy town surrounded by mountain peaks. Further on we encountered the main attraction of this route; a magnificent view on Kotor Bay and 25 (!) switchback turns all the way down to Kotor. Normally the bay is a major stop for cruise ships, but none of that right now.
In Kotor we spend our break after buying half the offerings at a local bakery, and we continued our trip along the water to take the ferry across the narrowest point of the bay. By now we were almost in Croatia, so we decided to quickly cross the border. The border patrol dude however did not let us in so easily. Our vaccination certificates were not enough, as we entered from a non-EU country, and we needed a proof of residence for our first night. Which we did not have. A tent doesn’t count, apparently. Also the whole cycling thing made him suspicious; there was no way people do that for fun during their holiday. After a lot of back and forth he reluctantly let us in. By then it was close to sunset and as soon as we were out of view we pitched our tent in the bushes. We were in Croatia and we only spent one night in Montenegro.
Dubrovnik: beautiful but not bike friendly
The reason we crossed into Croatia was that we last-minute decided that we wanted to visit Dubrovnik. We heard that is was really quiet at the moment due to the pandemic, and we were close by anyway. But oh boy, the road into town. From the border it started off quiet enough, we stopped by warmshowers legend Marco for a coffee. Marco has hosted numerous cyclists at his property and he is quite the character. 83 years old, smoking, seen lots of the world and curses like a sailor. After an entertaining 2 hours at his place we continued to the city and we almost regretted our last-minute decision. The road into town is hot and crowded and steep. Also the old town is not really bike friendly, as it almost only stairs. So we took turns checking out the town and we were amazed by it. Normally, they have to do some serious crowd control, as tourism has boomed since Games of Thrones, but now we could stroll through town, enjoying ice cream and empty alleyways. But we would not recommend to cycle to this town, or when you do, do it like we did: during a pandemic and leave the city when Croatia is playing in the European championship. That way the roads are empty enough…
That same night we crossed the border into Bosnia and Herzegovina, after spending 24 hours in Croatia (but we will be back soon!). Directly after the border crossing we asked some locals to pitch our tent next to their home, as it was already dark. We had a short night, as the dogs kept us awake, so we got up early the next day to start our journey through Bosnia!
