Exit Bosnia

I left Bosnia over the M-I 116 after a short descent to Nevesinje. I was a bit hesitant as I supposed it was a busy road, so I had planned various escape routes over the mountains. To my pleasant surprise the road was lightly traveled and the drivers very courteous. It was a beautiful narrow little valley with steep mountains, mostly covered with vegetation, on either side. Ocassionally I passed through a tiny village or an old building left to be reclaimed by nature. It was nice traveling over level roads again. I haven't had the chance to make great distances in a short amount of time for the past week.

Near Gacko the valley widened, thereby making ample space for the powerplant and quarries situated there. From Gacko I took the road northeast past the lake Klinje to Jasenik. The choice was motivated by reducing the amount of steep unpaved sections. I would later find I might've made a happy little accident: another route might've been more manageable cycling, but Klinje and the views I had on the way up were breathtaking.

I somehow expected there to be a guarded border crossing into Montenegro, but it was just a little opened gate. As I passed through and looked back I saw the sun setting over many little hills and mountains. It was such a breathtaking view that I decided to camp with the spectacle in my sights, reading until the stars came out overhead. I felt very lucky as I headed to bed.

The road to Durmitor

The morning began with a sunrise that offered a new view of the previous day's sights. I packed up and made the descent into Pluzine, where I spent a reasonable amount of time chasing a SIM card and free wifi, both fruitless attempts. So I continued the road to Durmitor. The valley near Pluzine with the river Piva were left behind me as I took the serpentines up to Trsa.

Along the way all kinds of drivers, tourists and Montenegrans, were honking, smiling and sticking up their thumbs in encouragement. My legs were used to the mountains again, but it acted as good motivation. Near Trsa I saw my first Spomenik, and took a break in a cafe for my first Montenegran coffee (which is Turkish coffee, I would later hear how Montenegro, as the exception among the neighbouring countries, has been practically undefeated by the Ottoman empire).

Both the road to Trsa as the subsequent road to Durmitor were breathtaking. On other tours impressive natural beauty was seen occasionally inbetween sections of relatively unimpressive surroundings. Montenegro is an exception to this rule, I kept being impressed by the various sights.

Near the peaks of Prutas and Selena Greda I met some Italian cyclists. We were all planning to quickly cycle the remaining kilometers left in the day, but we found the time to exchange some tips. I left with some useful knowledge regarding busy roads to avoid.

Besides the few cyclists there were a lot of European tourists with impressive four-wheel driven vehicles with rooftop tents, ready for adventure with their oversized vehicles on the nicely asphalted roads of Montengro. It contrasted humourously with the Montenegrans themselves, driving around in relatively simple and old vehicles over those same roads. Oh how silly they are, and how different I am: I am traveling with a really sturdy bicycle with wide mountainbike tires over... wait a second...

For fear of being called a hypocrite I quickly went offroad near the mountain Selena Greda. I camped inbetween the boulders with a nice view towards the south. The sky was looking angry, as if a thunderstorm was looming, but remained calm throughout the night. Conversely, I had a not so calm visit of the canine variety that night. I shaked my tent a bit and shouted various Dutch discouragements, but my leftover food was gone in the morning nonetheless. Something new to take into account as I make camp in the future.

The next morning I continued my journey on rocky roads to lower elevation amongst the neverending beauty of Montenegro. The route was chosen wisely in hindsight, as the alternative route over the M-6 would've been amongst a neverending stream of cars. At some point I found one of my planned unpaved escapades to be completely overgrown, so I shortly ended up on the M-6 anyway to arrive at Savnik. Not much later I decided to take a break on a grassy knoll. There I had an exchange of words with a man (albeit onesided, as I could only guess at his questions and then respond through google translate), and an exchange with a kitten of fish for purring.

To avoid further travel over the M-6 I took a detour through Bijela, returning to that road a bit later after gaining some elevation, and ended up on one of Montengro's "panoramic roads". It had a roughly similar landscape as near Trsa, but this time the landscape was sparsely dotted with farms, sheepherders, and windturbines. It was the beginning of a rather long descent towards Podgorica, which I was planning to complete as soon as possible in order to take some rest there. But the fact that there wasn't a whole lot of daylight remaining in the day, and that I was close to a city where it becomes harder to camp, led me to decide to go to sleep before passing through Niksic.

A warm welcome

It is still relatively hot. I think that I've experienced temperatures above 30 degrees for the past few days. Certainly at higher elevations the evenings are a lot better, but the sun doesn't shine any less brightly during the day. Honestly its getting to me a little bit, each day hoping for cooler weather or a bit of rain. I'm sure that once I'm traveling in cooler weather I'll be hoping for the opposite. Also here in Montenegro, having talked to various people, do they realise that their climate is changing. The heat here, at this time of year, is unusual. Additionally a lot of rivers and streams that are supposed to flow throughout the year have dried up, or have little water flowing through them. It appears this bicycle journey is starting to have a theme...

Under that enduring summer sun I'd cycled to Niksic the next day. I had thought to eat something and replenish my water in a park, then quickly making my way to Podgorica as planned. A man from Montenegro asked me who I was, where I was from and what I was doing. After the initial niceities he assured me that Podgorica would be as hot as Mostar, and that Niksic is a much more interesting place anyway (like Rotterdam is a much nicer place than Amsterdam). The reduced heat in Niksic had already convinced me to stay. The initial conversation led to a shared cup of coffee, which escalated to a bite to eat, which led to me getting a tour of the city and a view from the hill Trebjesa, which escalated to me staying at his place in Niksic for two days.

I had a joyous stay. I learned a lot from him and his friends about the peoples that live here, the country of Montenegro, and their histories. We spent our time talking, eating, drinking, kayaking and swimming. I also got some advice about some potential next destinations, the plethora of suggestions confirmed that you need to spend a lot of time in Montenegro to be able to see all that it has to offer.

I left my new friends and Niksic behind with a heavy heart. Continuing my way to Podgorica. Along the way I'll visit the Ostrog monestary, and decide on a subset of all the places I'm able to visit here.