The Full Monte

After leaving the Montenegrin coast, with improved weather we headed for the hills to check out Ostrog Monastery. Our planned route was blocked to due to landslips, but as it turned out, we did a brilliant road instead - kismet! On the way we camped in the mountains with views forever. Next morning a family of Serbians drove by and were asking us about Boris etc. The father wanted to start a drinking session with his home-made plum brandy. Even we thought 9.30am was a tad early.

 

Serbian Family

The Monastery itself is quite extraordinary, being built into a cliff. Apparently it was built by a miracle, which simply means no-one has any clue how it was constructed! Unfortunately scaffolding man was also there, doing some much needed shoring up and renovation.

 

Ostrog Moastery

Ostrog

Next stop was the beautiful and vast Lake Skadar. We camped high above the lake in a tiny spot and enjoyed the ever changing colours of the lake. Of course some passers-by stopped. Montenegrins are incredibly interested in Boris, with waves, horn toots and thumbs-up being very common. This was a bit different. First thing we heard was “It’s a bloody Aussie” – in a strong local accent. Turns out this couple had lived in Melbourne for 20 odd years and had returned to live in the capital, Podgorica (Lord knows why – it’s not exactly cosmopolitan).

We spent 2 days driving around this amazing lake, taking photos, looking at birds, and camping in extraordinary spots.

 

Lake Skadar

Lake Skadara

Lake Skadar

For our Sunday lunch we had delicious fresh brown trout, straight from the lake – simply grilled and accompanied by a curious local wine. From the nose I wasn’t sure if I should drink it or put it on the salad. Bouquet of vinaigrette is not that appealing, but tasted OK.

In short, Montenegro is absolutely stunning!!

Across Lake Skadar is a constant and dramatic background of the snowy mountain peaks of Albania. As it turns out – some things look better from a distance. We are now in Albania and are not exactly enchanted.

It’s a bit of a culture shock, having a very ‘third world’ feel to it. Bad roads, lawless driving, scrawny dogs, bony-arse cows and rubbish everywhere. It’s the rubbish I find most distressing, worse than Sicily.

First night was spent in a campsite that was closed to due a death in the family, but they cleaned a room in the hostel for us so we could have shower and hair wash and Wifi. We spent today driving to Lake Koman. Disappointingly the ferry is not running as this is meant to be the highlight of a visit to Albania. However, the road out there was certainly ‘interesting’. Technically it was a paved road but in such a bad state of repair we felt we were ‘off roading’.

 

Lake Koman - Albania

The 'Road'

The town of Koman itself was screamingly dull, so we turned around and drove the one and a half hours back. We stopped for a quick lunch on the way - 2 plates of pork, some fried potatoes, pickled tomatoes (yuk), loaf of bread, 2 beers, 2 coffees – 9 euros!

Tonight we are camped at the back of a hotel. It’s a sort of campsite but rather exxy for what is basically a carpark with electricity. However they are doing the washing for us, God know what it will cost. There is also a sweet little dog for me to make a fuss of.

Tomorrow we go in search of the famed spit roast lamb.

Let’s Split!

Well we finally left Spain and spent 2 nights in beautiful Assisi before landing on Pam and Mike’s doorstep in Le Marche.

As usual they showed us wonderful warm hospitality and fed us very well. On our last night we went to a tiny local restaurant and had one of the best meals of our trip. A five course extravaganza, 2 of which involved truffles. The flavours were divine and I felt that we really got to understand why truffles are so revered.

We boarded the ferry for Split in Ancona. A word of warning for anyone contemplating this: Don’t arrive early! You’ll be squeezed into a dodgy spot at the back. We argued about our position but were forced to concede and ended up sustaining some damage to Boris. We didn’t notice it until too late.

Anyway, Split was wonderful. The old town is a riot of narrow alleyways, arches, tunnels, churches and sunny squares, all squeezed into the original walls of Diocletian’s Palace. It’s tiny and fascinating.

 

Split

Diocletian's Palace Walls

From the Campsite

We met Jimmy in the campsite who gave us some wonderful advice re avoiding Bosnia (and the brutish border guards) and seeing some spectacular scenery – thanks Jimmy. This led us to Pleljesac – which on first glance looks like an island but is actually a peninsular. It’s a really good way to avoid the bit of coast that belongs to Bosnia.

It also has the added bonus of being the wine growing area – and it’s incredibly beautiful. From there we drove to Dubrovnik and as expected the coastal scenery was breath-taking. Pick any superlative you like – you’ll be right!

 

Beautiful Coast

We loved Dubrovnik, with its spectacular setting. The main street is wide and beautifully proportioned, in contrast to the side streets which are very steep and narrow.

Dubrovnik

Main Street

Sunset

Dubrovnik

The forecast however, was poor so we headed south into Montenegro to find somewhere to hunker down. We drove around the stunning Bay of Kotor to the pretty walled town of Kotor, with its spectacular backdrop of mountains and fortifications. We booked into a quaint hotel for a much needed shower and hair wash. We hadn’t had a bathroom since Split (long story). Next morning the predicted rain came down by the bucketful. We drove through driving rain and howling winds. Cliffs became waterfalls, roads turned in rivers, the sea to mud.

 

Kotor

Anyway we found a funny little campsite to sit it out, with the wind howling like mad and Boris rocking like a bucking bronco. The gin bottle came out early yesterday.

So now we are waiting for the wind to die down (at least the rain has stopped) and tomorrow we’ll head for the hills and check out some of the famous Montenegro monasteries.

 

Montenegro Coast

Do You Know the Way to San José?

Well, we do! In fact we walked to this lovely coastal town from our campsite in Los Escullos at Cabo de Gata. We did a brilliant 10km coastal walk to San Jose for our last Sunday lunch in Spain. The walk home was a bit slower.

 

Coast

More coast

San Jose in the distance

I digress as usual. As you may remember we had a second date in Sevilla with our Texan friends which was of course great fun, and yes we showed them our favourite eating and drinking spots. Lawrence first met John in Tibet in 1987.

 

Bulls and Texans

At Plaza de Espana

From there we drove back up to Las Alpujarras for some mountain walking and general exploration. We’d done the western end with the Bimobil gang late last year but I really wanted to see the rest of the region and do some decent hill walking. The weather had different ideas. It was so cold outside that after about 5 minutes I was starting to lose my general good humour. So, we spent 2 nights up there and saw the area but couldn’t see us doing any serious walking. So, after leaving the highest campsite in Spain (allegedly) at 1,560m, we whizzed back to coast and that is how we found ourselves at Cabo de Gata.

 

Snow in the Alpujarra

Trevelez - apparently the highest town in Spain (from the campsite)

This region has been recommended to us by many people along the way and fitted into our plans. Sadly we had to drive through ‘poly tunnel land’ to get there. However the weather was great and we did some fantastic walks. This was really our last place hanging out in Spain before heading north for Barcelona.

Last night was spent in a dreary resort type place, a ghost town in winter. There was a ‘rally group’ there and we wondered why – what would they do? The bar was set up for Karaoke, so we fled.

I really think someone needs to come up with a way of combing Line Dancing with Bingo or Karaoke. It could be a spectator sport – with enough gin.

So tonight we are back in our first ever campsite in Spain! That was November 2011, a mere 3 years and 3 months ago. Blimey, we never thought we’d be back here. It’s just south of Barcelona, and we’ll head in tomorrow. We’ll have a final late lunch in the city and then head to the ferry.

Next stop, Italy (after 20 long hours on a ferry).

PS: I‘ve just looked back over the last few posts and there does seem to be maybe a few too many photos of us eating and drinking! We do cook - honest guv. Anyway, once we hit ‘the trail’ there’ll be no more highlife. Will be good thing for the purse and pants.

 

Sorry - one more food photo of last Sunday lunch in San Jose.

We’re on the Move, Baby.

We’ve finally left El P! All our new chums had left and we managed to catch up briefly with friends from previous years, so we felt it was time to move on, after our planned 6 weeks of 'no travel'.

We had a real blast in Sevilla last weekend, showing Andy and Susan from Glasgow all our favourite haunts and of course finding some new ones. We were blessed with good weather and took advantage by drinking vino in the sun whenever possible.

Favourite new tapas bar cum market.

To celebrate Andy’s birthday, we went to my fave eatery. We all loved our meals and I managed to avoid having the Ostrich this time! My duck liver terrine was sublime, and I think the hit of the day.

Birthday Lunch - yes, we had the same table.

Our planned stay in Grazalema has been thwarted by the damned weather. It’s snowing up in them hills and we just couldn’t face it. So, instead we are checking out some local towns of Rota, Chipiona and Sanlucar de Barrameda (another sherry town).

Sadly we left our bikes in El P. We had always planned on disposing of them before we started our mad trek home and this worked out well. The maintenance engineer on site helped us out with some stuff on Boris (spare wheel fitting) and he was glad to take them for his kids. I was happy they went to a good home. Lawrence is happy they are no longer hanging off the spare wheel. I’ll miss my bicicleta, but once we really get going, we won’t need them.

 

Pintxo Party Chez Boris

And about 4 hours later

We’ll be back in fabulous Sevilla this weekend to meet mates from Texas. John and Travis are having a ‘father and son trip’ to Europe. Fortunately we never tire of this characterful city. Once we leave there we’ll be making our way to Barcelona to catch our ferry on Feb 19 to Civitavecchia. This will feel like the beginning of the end – or is that the end of the beginning? Anyways, it will be the start of the homeward journey.

To refresh your memory, as I doubt you have the details etched on your brain, the plan is:

Split on March 1^st by ferry, then south to Dubrovnik, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, NE Greece, Northern Turkey, Georgia (by April), across the Caucasus, Chechnya, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (please try to keep up), back into Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia – to Vladivostok by mid September – or something like that.

Lawrence is working on setting up a GPS tracker thingy so you can see where we are at any given moment. That way you can let us know!

Paul and Carol (new chums) gave us a bottle of emergency gin in exchange for one of our ground mats. I think we’re gonna need it!

 

Men At Work - the United Nations step in to help with spare wheel problem.  Spanish, Dutch, German, Scots, Aussie - (I had to supply in some much needed input)