Thursday 12th October

My original plan was to head across the border into Montenegro after the weekend, on Monday, but I’ve an eye on the weather forecast. This spell of hot and dry weather is unusual for the time of the year here, and is forecast to break on Monday, with more cloudy conditions with some rain moving in, and much cooler temperatures.

The Durmitor National Park has been high up on my agenda since I cycled through it 5 years ago. So I decided to cross the border today, have 4 cloudless days, before the weather changes. It is high up here, peaks at 2,300 – 2,500 metres, and the town below at almost 1600 metres, so there is the first snow of the winter in the forecast, and I expect the peaks may not be visible. My plan is though regardless, to be around the National Park for a week or so.

My other concern (of course) is to have a decent 4G signal for the quarter finals, but on that score, I needn’t have worried.

The campsite in Tjentiste was good. Last night I ate at the restaurant with a Swiss couple, and it was fine, and definitely cheap, at less than 10 euros for a couple of beers and dinner.

I had chance to admire the stress-free job of the guy in the next field, who from half an hour after first light, about 7:30 am, until dusk at 6:30 pm, watched his 4 sheep, along with his dog..

The road I took heads north to Foca, then cross the famous Drina river, and follows a tributary of it, the Tara, eastward. At Foca the Piva river meets the Tara river to become the Drina. The Tara canyon extends about 140 kilometres, and the first part of it, in Bosnia, is renowned for rafting. There are about 30 companies with campsites and cabins on the riverfront offering trips in season. In Montenegro there is some rafting also, but the sides of the gorge have now become vast and steep, and it is a popular tourist destination for the viewpoints alone.

The road along the river side, about 30 kilometres into Pluzine, goes through 56 tunnels, and though never wide, and quite rough, is a fantastic drive. I cycled it in the opposite direction 5 years ago, and in fact was in Pluzine for my 57th birthday, having descended the 1200 metres from Durmitor high above. This time, I headed up that road.

Include the 20 hairpins, with another 15 tunnels up the side of the Tara gorge, and two-thirds of this incredible route is complete, but arguably, the best is still to come, as the single track road heads across the mountains on the south side of the National Park over the pass at 1750 metres.

For the last few years, and obviously right now, this is my number one National Park, and pleasantly quiet, with a few other tourists, today.

I drove through the National Park, and on for another ten kilometres to the town of Žabljak where I stocked up at the supermarket for the weekend and picked up a SIM card. Montenegro offers tourists the deal of no less than 1 TerraByte of data for 30 days for 20 euros. There’s an unwritten challenge to see if anyone could actually use that much data.

Then I headed back into the Park, having seen a couple of places for potential stopovers, but they offered little shade, and the afternoon was hot, and the weekend forecast to be more so. I found a small farm, the last one before the Park begins, and called in to see what was offered. Here, a young family has just opened some old cabins, which in time they will fully renovate. They offer campervan spots also, with just basic facilities.

It’s an ‘eco’ theme, so all the power and water is heated by solar (the shower in the picture above). The highlight though, and the first stage of their renovation, is cafe / restaurant, which I headed up to for a beer in the evening. The food looks good also, so I will try that out in the next day or two, and again, it’s very cheap. The only other people here are a group of contractors working locally, and staying in the old cabins. They ask just 5 euros a night for staying over, and it seems perfect for the weekend, also, by chance, with super fast 4G at 60-70 MBps.