25. Mai 2008 | en

we entered montenegro and had the most thorough inspection of papers so far, and the country side was intantly different from bosnia, unbelievable….. we arrived in the first town and needed to get groceries and money, pljevlja, was a throw back to another world much more communist feeling than anywhere else, and it was tough to find our way around, we spoke to a young girl who spoke perfect english, she gave us directions to the bankomat and then ended the conversation by saying, “thats alli can do for you” and walked away…the directions where wrong but we prevailed only to find that montenegro uses euro even though they are not a eu country!!!! we also discovered to our dismay the first country not to have wide use of credit, gas was available in currency only!!!!, so we get gas, money and food and head for the country…durmitor….we ride about 10km, nice roads and pretty country, although the trash was every where, sad….......so josh is in front and we are cruizing pretty good, next thing i notice is a car on the side of the road, and a guy walking to the middle of the street, he is waving something which is red and white, a stop sign, he is a cop, and the car is mounted with a radar gun!!!!! nice we have covered nearly 4000km and have seen so few police and here we are in an incredible poor country adn there are cops everywhere, speed traps!!!amazing,,,, so they ask us for our pass ports and tell us that we driving to fast, ok, good cop bad cop routine one speaking perfect english the other speaking no english, they actually let us go after awhile…..ok…...we were near the durmitor national park when we came to the tara river valley…........oh wow….took a break and then headed up the other side of the valley to continue to the park as we crested the mountain the durmitors came into veiw…..........snow covered!!!!!!! the wind was howling and bitting we continued for about 5km more beofre deciding to return to the tara river valley where it was much warmer. over loking the river valley was a rafting camp…we pulled in to the camp and found it to be empty but for the owner, camping aand showers for only 3euro each,,,cool…..we set camp and started to prepare dinner, expecting to have a quiet night our perspective quickly needed adjustment when a van and trailer pulled in and 10 happy czech’s pilled out…...they came down to the fire where we had set up our tent and began drinking jack daniels,,,,,well they welcomed us into their party and we dined on lamb and lamb soup….the camp host came down to the fire carrying an entire gutted lamb and proceeded to chop it into pieces with an axe and put it into a large pot and boil the hell out of it…..ah all teh experiences life has to offer!!!!!! we partied til late thanks to peter, andre, maritn, john….....hope they made it to their rafting adventure…....

Marqueurs: rasova montenegro
Carte: N 43° 28.120 E 19° 24.804

Created at: 25. Mai 2008

Vers carnet de bord | Auteur

the lake road

25. Mai 2008 | en

riding is always better when you are clear in the head and focused, after partying with the czech it took a while to clear my head but the riding in montenegro was sure to clear the head quickly, not because of danger, just because of the altitude, can’t say for sure but i feel that montenegro must have been the highest riding we have done, i always felt like i was traveling down hill and then around the next bend there would this incredibly steep and deep valley,nice!!!!!
our goal today was to get to the coast, but as we got close we found ourselves drawn to the shkoder sea…..........holy crap was that an intense ride, a very large lake ringed with mountains and crystal clear water!!!!! we travelled on a winding path, til we found a road that went down to the water, a steep decent that wound down thru a valley to the edge of the water, an oasis in the middle of no where!!!!!!so cool…..amazing that these things exist…...
the shkoder sea is part of a national park that separates montenegro and albania, there are several small towns along the coast but the “road” is several hundred meters above the coast and provides the most incredible views….when we arrived at the turn off to murici we were following signs to a resort, hoping that we could get food and a place to camp and low and behold we got both….the camping was even free….of course the food….being that it was shipped in from who knows where….was about the most expensive we ate on this trip and it was just sausage….oh the showers, we have hit the turning point in western conveniences, the toilets are glorified holes in the floor and the shower comes off the sink faucet and you just stand over the shitter…don’t lose your balance….not a biggy actually very space conscious and easy but seriously why can’t they have some where to hang a towel?????......i digress, the owner was so cool and nice, everyone we have met has been very friendly, we get people that come up to us on the street when we pull over, if we are taking a break or looking at the map checking directions we are almost always offered help or asked if we need help!!!!

Marqueurs: murici montenegro
Carte: N 42° 16.270 E 19° 22.255

Created at: 25. Mai 2008

Vers carnet de bord | Auteur

Bergwelt Montenegros

18. Septembre 2008 | de

Auf kleinen und kleinsten Strässchen fahren wir durch die Berge. Es ist einsam und verlassen hier. Ab und zu sieht man ein verschlafenes Dorf, manche der Häuser sind gut in Schuss, andere halb verfallen.

Das Wetter ist immer noch gut, allerdings kalt. Der Herbst hat hier schon Einzug gehalten, das Laub der Bäume verfärbt sich langsam.

Marqueurs: Hügel bei Nikisic montenegro
Carte: N 42° 56.494 E 18° 86.009

Created at: 20. Septembre 2008

Vers carnet de bord | Auteur

Tine to Play Guess A Title Again!

17. Septembre 2008 | en

And if it had rain in the title you win! We woke up in sunshine, but by the time we had our morning coffee it was already raining. And we decided to make a beeline for Montenegro. Obviously Albanai no longer wanted us, and driving in the rain is not my idea of fun. We paid another 2 Euro on the way out for `tax`` (and this guy never bothered trying to scribble off a receipt) but after reading that some others had to pay 10 I shut my mouth and rode away.

Montenegro however proved to be the easiest border crossing ever. Patrick took my passport, I stayed with the bikes, they stamped us in and never even looked at the bike papers.

And we made the right choice, the rain had stopped, we had mountain roads, and Lake Shokder is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. At least that I have seen.

We finally camped again, had a BBQ, and wished our biker friend from Vienna that we had met not too far past the border crossing could have joined us (he was on a much tighter schedule than us). You missed a great camp site with a fantastic BBQ!

Marqueurs: Camp Near Lake Shokder Lake montenegro
Carte: N 42° 12.406 E 19° 27.516

Created at: 20. Septembre 2008

Vers carnet de bord | Auteur

Amazing Country

18. Septembre 2008 | en

Sorry Greece, you lost your title that fast. Montenegro is perhaps the best country for biking that we have been in so far. I was actually crying out in my helmet at some points the view was so fantastic (although this should be taken with a grain of salt as given that most of the day I have no one to talk to but myself I tend to talk a lot out loud, usually though its cursing the Turkish drivers, and since Turkey I have not had to curse anyone out except for this one transport truck driver in Greece).

Marqueurs: Wild Camp montenegro
Carte: N 42° 56.494 E 18° 86.009

Created at: 20. Septembre 2008

Vers carnet de bord | Auteur