And then we got on the road to the Montenegro border. We knew we were taking the backroads option. Most people would head down to the coast and go the easier route, but we like the road less traveled!
And that's exactly what we got... the road less traveled.
Apparently the road less traveled is also the road less repaired!
It was mostly paved... sort of!
Beautiful scenery though.
We were stuck following this guy most of the way.
Yes, this is the main road leading to the Hum border crossing between Bosnia and Montenegro. We figured it couldn't be that bad, but we were also a little concerned about how it would be on the opposite side of the border. Better, or worse?
It was about 18 kms (11 miles) of pretty bad road. But, we were in no rush and just went slow and stopped to take photos.
Ruth took this video for you...
Scenery along the way.
Hm. Well, if he made it over this, I guess we can!
Cemetery.
River rafting camp.
So it turns out that this area is very popular with river rafting. It must be a big deal because of the number of camps. Some of them even have RV hookups. But of course the season is over now and it seemed like most of them were doing repair and maintenance to the camps.
Zip line.
Once you get to the other side, we wondered how you get back.
Fall colors.
Max!
As I said, there are lots of these rafting camps.
Some of them are pretty fancy!
Made it to the border.
This is the exit station before the bridge.
The guy at the booth stamped our passports, and then there was the bridge...
Yikes.
But, the bridge was rated at 16 tons and we are less than 3.5.
So it must be stronger than it looks!
Ruth's "Welcome to Montenegro" photo didn't come out so well.
Country #49 for us!
The guy at the entrance booth to Montenegro took our passports, asked for our vaccination cards, and that was that. Total time from exiting one country and entering the next was about four minutes!
And, look at that beautiful road!
Yikes. Is that another bridge up ahead?
Wow. How do they even build a bridge like that?
That's a long way down.
The road is freshly paved.
Bridge and tunnels.
Ruth took another video for you...
Very cool... and almost no traffic!
I'll take this over the motorway any day.
Stopped for a break.
The Piva Reservoir dam.
The water level is low, which is normal for this time of year.
Around this time, the weather started to deteriorate. The wind picked up, and we had known that there was a lot of rain in the forecast from the afternoon on... for the next three days or so!
Our tourist SIM card from Bosnia stopped working when we crossed the border, so we needed some internet access. The nearest place where we could fix that problem was the city of Niksic (pop 55,000), so that's where we headed.
It was a little tough to find decent parking, but we found a free spot at the railway station. We didn't plan on staying in the city, but it wasn't a bad spot and we thought it would be fine for an overnight. GPS 42.770318, 18.945195
In the pouring rain, I set off to find a bank machine and a cell store. Ruth stayed behind with Max. No point in both of us getting wet. Fortunately, both things came together fairly easily. We're right downtown, so there was an ATM nearby and there was no service charge. Montenegro is not part of the EU, but uses the euro as official currency, and we didn't have many euros left.
Nearby, I found a Telekom outlet and the guy spoke some basic English. I bought a 7 day SIM card with 500 GB (yes, 500 GB!) of data... essentially unlimited, because you could never use that in 7 days. The cost was €10 ($14.50 CAD, $11.50 USD). Super cheap!
It poured with rain all night, and it is still pouring this morning. The forecast for Montenegro is not good for the next week. As much as we would like to do more exploring here, it doesn't make sense to hang around. The forecast for Shkoder, Albania is much better and it's less than a three hour drive. We might drive as far as Podgorica where there is a nice campground and stay there for the night. We'll see.
On the bright side, at least it's not cold.
Yesterday's drive.
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Blink Outdoor Cameras 2 Pack... record low deal!
And in Canada...
Wow, what a drive!!!
ReplyDeleteIt certainly was! It was definitely up near the top of our list for most beautiful and interesting drives.
DeleteThe Tunnels!
ReplyDeleteYep, lots of tunnels! I lost track of how many we went through.
DeleteWow! Those tunnels had no re-enforcement in the middle. I wonder how old the tunnels are? They look fairly new. Other than the bad road, the area looked beautiful.
ReplyDeleteNope, some of the tunnels didn't but the rock was solid. The road wast finished back in 1965 but not paved until later. It was only the Bosnian section of the road where it wasn't in the best of shape but it was still better than some roads that we have traveled on in Sherman. The Montenegro section of the road was in great shape and it was the section that had all the tunnels. The drive was gorgeous!
DeleteAbsolutely gorgeous fall foliage on that drive! Wow!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! It is right on par with gorgeous fall colors that we get back home in Ontario. We honestly weren't expecting to see such beautiful fall foliage over here.
DeleteLocal sim deals are great value especially Montenegro. UK roaming sim deals are pricing themselves out of market with data caps and daily roaming service charge.
ReplyDeleteThey certainly are, we couldn't get over both the price and the amount of data that you get. The UK sounds similar to Canada and Canada has some of the most expensive cellular prices in the world!
DeleteBeautiful Fall colors!! Enjoyed your video of all the tunnels too. The roads in Montenegro look to be in pretty good condition. Safe & enjoyable travels! Enjoy!!
ReplyDeleteIt was a beautiful drive, and the fall colors just add to the fantastic scenery. The roads definitely seem to be in good conditions at least the ones we have been on so far.
DeleteThanks
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome! :-)
DeleteWow! What a gorgeous drive! And the fall colors are a bonus. Thanks for sharing your journey!
ReplyDeleteIt was a beautiful drive and the fall colors just made it all the better. We are happy to share our journey and we hope that you enjoy following along with us. :-)
DeleteI had done the drive in 2017 when I was in Montenegro and went to Bosnia for....yes rafting.
ReplyDeleteSo I knew what was coming when we drove to the Bosnian border but I still enjoyed the drive as much as the first time. The first 18km from Bosnia weren't so familiar to me but you guys warned us. Stil we where very surprised how bad the road condition was and it was already dark when at the time we where driving. But I do hope that next time you guys are in Montengro you will have more time and good weather so you guys can drive through Durmitor National Park, that drive is on of the best in Montenegro.
Yep, that drive between Brod and the Montenegro border going along the M18 road was pretty rough it places but boy the scenery was gorgeous. We would definitely love to go back there and go rafting sometime and we would definitely love to visit Durmitor National Park. We had it on our list to visit on this trip but the weather just wasn't cooperating for us. We really want to go back and spend more time exploring this beautiful country.
Delete