Pedaling from the Black Forest to the Yellow Sea

today’s distance: 69km
total distance: 2485km
riding time: 4h

Feeling better today - no more problems breathing at night. Woke up to a bunch of Bosnian construction workers enlarging the house not too far away. Took off soon enough and climbed the actual pass between Kotor and Cetinje. More switchbacks with a great panorama. No clear blue skies though, always a bit hazy today. Bad weather looming?

The Montenegrin cousins of the Italian caterpillars were out in full force - and similarly unsuccessful in crossing the road they had set their sights on.

Downhill into Cetinje, where the first thing I noticed was how hemmed in the town is by the mountains (it’s the former capital), the broad boulevards and the massive amount of people standing opposite the president’s palace. Not sure what was going on.

Hung around Cetinje, did lunch and eventually after updating the website and speaking with Aleksander (the son of the internet cafe owner, who is learning English on a U of Montana website and through playing Counterstrike from the sounds of it), left town.

More uphill I thought, but the it soon turned into a constant downhill into Rijeka Crnojevica, complete with almost no one on the marble promenade but with a pleasant atmosphere. The views on the downhill section were great … birch trees had taken over from mostly rocky terrain and the surroundings were lush light green. Good stuff.

Headed on, went the wrong way, returned, took the right way and off I went on a roller coaster. Kirsi had promised a “varied landscape” and she sure was right. The road doesn’t follow the river to Lake Skadar, but rather goes up and over some good climbs, the road going through various small hamlets and villages and the mountains taking on a range of shapes. Eventually I reached Virpazar, which I had thought would be much bigger. Found a great camp spot for the night and will check out Lake Skadar in the morning.

today’s distance: 38km
total distance: 2416km
riding time: 3h

Not an entirely restful night. I woke up sweating a couple of times, coughing quite strongly and with a good amount of clogging in my nose. So much for that. Easy morning I decided and enjoyed the scenery from outside my little apartment. Breathtaking. Clear blue skies. Very slow start and not sure where I would end up today. Headed for Kotor again, roughly 10km and stopped all over to take in the scenery. I was glad to have cycled back since I now have seen the brooding atmosphere in Kotor Bay as well as the sunny side. Both have their own very appealing characteristic I must say.

In Kotor I just wandered around for a while, bike included. Not so simple in the little alleys and certainly not as free as one would like to be.

Eventually decided to have a bite to eat and chatted it up with an American couple. They thought their hotel might be helpful and so I went to the Hotel Rendez Vous (their spelling). I asked whether they would have a place for the bike for a couple of hours and they did. So off I went to visit the fortress towering above the city. What a great climb. Still feeling sort of not 100%, but it was worth the climb I think. Great views of the Bay and of Kotor itself. Or so I thought. Met the couple again before heading out of Kotor and thanked them for their suggestion. Great guys.

So … then came something different. I had been in touch with Montenegro Travel before the trip and Kirsi had suggested to not go to Podgorica via the coastal route, but instead use the inland route through Njegusi and Cetinje. So followed her advice and I knew it was going to be uphill for a bit.

Remember yesterday I told you about the cliffs falling straight into the sea? Well, today I went the other way, straight up into the sky. At first I thought the road was looping around the other side of the mountain. I had seen a couple of light reflections up on the mountain, thought they must have been some local traffic of sorts. That was not to be. Turned the corner and saw this:

(clicking on the picture will let you enlarge it, you can see the road better)

Yep, the road. Kirsi, what have you gotten me into??? I thought I was sick and shouldn’t do this. But it was not steep and so far I had felt good. I also thought that I had covered a good deal of it already. I was so wrong. Up and up it went, not steep but without a break. The views however got more and more spectacular. It was simply amazing and exhilarating. I pedaled and climbed slowly - a good number of cars beeping their horn in encouragement (except for one guy who was not pleased at all to have me on the road). When you look up halfway through the climb, you see the road pretty much straight above you. But thankfully the road remains at a constant relatively low grade. Good stuff.

I arrived at the top and just took in the view. Coming down on the other side, the scenery was yet again totally different. A high altitude (I was at 1000m now, starting at sea level) valley lay in front of me, the sun was just about to disappear behind the mountains. I could have moved on to Cetinje, but my guidebook said there wasn’t much in the way of accommodation there any way. So I decided to stay where I was. Asked in the local bar and the owner said, just pitch on my ground. Feeling alright (sort of again) and hopefully without much of a fuss during the night.

Falling asleep was sort of a classic - the movie they had watched in the bar was Cocktail featuring Mr. T. Cruise and the music was positively the same age: INXS - beautiful girl, Soul Asylum - Runaway Train, The Clash - Rock the Cassbah, you get the drift …

This time, there are many more pictures on the flickr site.

today’s distance: 77km
total distance: 2378km
riding time: 5h

I woke up several times during the night, sweating intensely and feeling the onset of something bad coming on. Fever. Slight one, but still. I had figured that something was wrong already when I went to bed. My nose had clogged up entirely. Not good. I must have caught something a few days ago as I had felt a slight itch in my throat on the rest day. The two days of battling the rain and wind didn’t help much.

At any rate, on the bike I went and I figured that I could at least make it to the first major town in Montenegro. Wind from the front … what else is new? And up the hill to climb what is known here as the thick mountain. It is also where the Croatian border crossing is located. Not much of an uphill, but I could feel that I wasn’t 100% for sure. Made it up and arrived just after having been passed what seemed like a convoy on a mission consisting of four BMWs of various models hailing from Zurich.

When I got to the top, all was well I thought and the treatment at the other border stations must have been an exception. I was wrong. The first guy I looked quizzically and he motioned for me to pass. When I did looking around for someone else, someone in the booth to the right barked at me. Did I mention it rained right there and then? Crewcut guy with nothing to do in his booth tells me to get in line behind the cars in the other lane. He was reading a magazine. The line was no longer under the roof. It was raining, I think I should mention that. I said “Can I stay here and wait?” “No!” Me: “You’re joking, right?” “No!” Me: “You do realize it’s raining right now?” Shrug. Shrug on my side also. Stepped back two meters, plunked my bike right there - not in anyone’s way and looked to see which car was the last one and thought I would wait my turn. Barking behind me. Didn’t want to turn around. Out he came and snapped “Passport!” - I gave it to him and he disappeared for 10 minutes in the booth where the cars were lined up. A bus driver behind me had seen my passport and asked what was wrong and I said that I didn’t have a clue. Turns out it was a bus full of Kosovars and they didn’t get the royal treatment either. We struck up a conversation, they thought I should go through Kosovo and shouldn’t worry about anything. Nice invitation, I might just go! We passed the time by them asking me about the trip when eventually Mr. Crewcut comes back and presses the passport on my chest. My cheery “Thank you!” didn’t leave much of an impression with him. The Kosovars only raised their eyebrows and shook their heads. They wished me well and off I went. Not sure how much longer they had to be up there.

Downhill a truck overtook me and right on his tail one of the BMWs … and this guy was positively insane. Narrow mountain road, truck doing 60km/h downhill, was doing OK, but it was curvy and the guy tries to overtake. Truck moves to the left, signaling to stay behind. Sharp right hand turn. Oncoming traffic. Truck moves right, BMW just barely makes it behind the truck. I reach the Montenegro checkpoint a couple of minutes later, see the truck driver still shaking his head and overtake the Beamer at the control post. Family of four in a BMW X5. Couldn’t quite believe it. Montenegrin border guard gives me a cheery hello when he sees me and the bike, asks me where I’m going, figures I have gone nuts when I give him the answer, but sees me off with a smile and an honest-sounding good luck. Wow - what a difference to the higher altitude Croatian border guard.

I reach the first town and see this “institute” and just when I snapped my picture encounter two Dutch guys who happen to heal some ailment in the “institute”. We chat it up for a bit, they warn me from all the traffic.

Buckle down I thought, but turns out it is like BiH sort of. Much more relaxed. Much more space - for the most part. There is the occasional idiot of course. Headed into Herceg Novi, updated the website and now the sun is coming out a bit more. Visited the center, which is quite nice and relaxed there for a bit and eventually move on. I figured that I would either go to Kotor or find something on the inbetween.

The scenery that I encountered was breathtaking. The fjord is downright gorgeous, steep cliffs seeming to fall from the skies straight into the water. Some towns and a decent road clinging to the edge of the water. Nice towns, not fully renovated - but enchanting. More smiles on the faces of people, big hellos. I decided to go all the way around the fjord instead of taking the ferry and thus the shortcut to Kotor. It was so worth it. And I also came across what must be one of the best basketball court locations in the world.

My system was alright, I took it slow and the scenery was so worth it. At a town about 8km before Kotor I got something to drink and when I asked about a place to stay one guy struts off with me to his friend Dusan. Speaks excellent German, his mother was German, his father Hungarian. Just came out of surgery the day before. Wanted to go home and not stay in the hospital. Turns out that Montenegrin hospitals have sort of closing hours … along the lines of “You can get sick from 6 am to 7 pm on weekdays, all other times, there are not meds in the hospitals and any medicine you need you must buy at the pharmacy.” So, he went home and said that he was glad to have done so. I wasn’t sure about whether to stay or not. Headed into town and looked around - all accommodation was booked out or not available for a night or not for a biker. There was one place … But I decided to head back the 8km I had come from and we chatted the evening away for a bit longer talking about the EU (Dusan doesn’t like it), his daughter (8 years, with excellent German), life in Montenegro (getting better) and the building boom that is setting in here right now (look around ye will see).

Still not feeling all that great … will to see what the situation is tomorrow and decide whether to stay and wait another day to move on.

Promise to be shorter from now on. Rambling on too long.

And as almost always, there are more pictures on the flickr page.

today’s distance: 86km
total distance: 2301km
riding time: 6h

This is what I was going to write: See yesterday’s entry.

Then the day changed in more ways than one. Wind and rain - not quite as bad when I woke up and so I set out with a determined look on my face thinking that this will be doable. Left Neum in good spirits and then the pummeling that I got yesterday started all over again. For the first km things were alright - crossed into Croatia again and something clearly hit the fan. And I mean big time. Wind coming from all front angles, rain beating down hard. Crossed the border, the power of the small man in that a border guard waved me over beaten as I must have looked and just before I pulled out teh passport as he had told me to do waved me over to his colleagues. Not a good start into the day peoplewise. The rest is quickly told. More of the same. I became stoic and just took the beating as it happened. When it got too much I took cover and then started anew. Eventually I passed Dubrovnik without seeing much of it. Didn’t feel like stopping and so wanted to move on to Cavtat. Passed the now closed and bombed out hotel where I stayed as an 8-year old kiddo and just before pulling up the hill to get to Cavtat I met Marko. Another Marko. It had stopped raining now - I was happier again. He asked what I was doing in this weather on a bike. Where I had biked from. Turns out he used to work in Germany and now is back in Croatia. Worked in Heidenheim and told me all about it. Then he invited me for tea into his place which was a few km further on. Figured what the hey and went along. Great family, three kids - one daugher speaks good German from watching cartoons on German channels that I had never heard of. Sunshine by now. Then Marko said, we will find a place for you. We went all over, turned up empty. Fully booked, not wanting someone for one night or completely out of price range. Mostly a good combination of 2 and 3. Marko was distraught … said that the whole area had become insane and that all you can afford these days was a birdcage. Went back and had wonderful homemade salami and meats, pickled peppers and other good stuff. More phone calls and more running around … still nothing. I opted to bike a few more and am happily writing this in a dry tent in a not-yet-dry meadow a few klicks behind Cilipi. This means that the idea of visiting Dubrovnik had to be discarded. Pictures on the web abound though.

Marko made all the difference in the world. Thanks a million. It’s people like him that make the trip what it is.

today’s distance: 83km
total distance: 2215km
riding time: 5h

LEFT MOSTAR STOP DID NOT MAKE IT TO DUBROVNIK STOP STRONG GUSTS AND RAIN PREVENTED MADE RIDING UNSAFE STOP PULLED OUT IN NEUM STOP AWFUL DAY FOR RIDING STOP