Montenegro
Of all the countries we’ve visited so far, Montenegro has to be our favourite. The lush green mountains, the cars who gave us lots of space on the road, and the people were lovely.
We arrived just after lunch on a Thursday, and we were surprised to find that all the shops were closed. It turned out that it was National Day, and the country had bank holidays on the Thursday and Friday. We managed to suss out that bakeries and petrol stations were still open, and managed to make do for a few days - but we were relieved when Saturday rolled around and we could buy more food!
There were only subtle differences that we were no longer in the EU: things were cheaper, there was a lack of Lidls, and plastic lids were no longer attached to their bottles. Other than that, culturally, the region of Montenegro we journeyed through didn’t feel notably dissimilar to Croatia.
We treated ourselves to dinner at the campsite, since we had no food to cook, and we chatted to another pair of cyclists and an English motorcyclist. They all warned us that the route we had planned for the following day, up the Kotor Serpentine Road would be dangerous to cycle due to the sheer number of cars, vans and coaches which would also be making their way up the 25 hairpin climb. Zach and I had a serious discussion about it, and decided that we would still do the climb, but we would get an early start in the hope that the roads would be quieter.
Kotor Serpentine
We set off from the campsite at 07:30am, and stocked up in the local bakery - we’d be fuelled by jam sandwiches again as it was still a national holiday. As we turned onto the road to begin the climb, we were joined by a party of three - Americans, Ken, Dave and Mike. I started chatting to Mike, and before I knew it, we were most of the way up the climb, and I had been cycling far too fast. Mike rode onto the top, and I slowed down for Zach and the others to catch up. Zach gave me a look, also knowing that I hadn’t realised the pace I was riding, and that it would have suddenly caught up to me.
When we reached the cafe at the top of the hill, there was already a collection of bikes outside. Two road bikes, one with a child trailer, and the other with a tag along bike attached. We hadn’t seen many kids touring on our trip, and I was very impressed to find a family here! The cafe at the top of the Serpentine is well worth a visit, the view is breathtaking, and although the drinks were expensive, the owner gave us a free chocolate bar when he found out I was a Preston North End supporter (out of pity I assume).
On our way down the other side of the mountain, we enjoyed winding descents, with only a short gravel detour. There were quite a lot of cyclists on this road so we think it must have been an organised trip. At the bottom of the hill as I rode past a couple on gravel bikes, they. exclaimed “Kendal!” in recognition. The couple, Chloe and Sam, turned out to be from Bowness - and we had a lovely chat!
Shkodra Lake
The following day consisted of four moderate climbs (between 350-550m each) following the edge of Shkodra Lake, and it proved to be a very tough day. The heat was starting to get to me, and the steep hills meant that for hours at a time, we wouldn’t have any breeze! We came to an unexpected campsite at around 3pm, and we had to decide whether to push on to Albania, or to stop there for the day. We decided to push on, and made it to Albania and then to our campsite around 7pm!
