Montenegro, Hercig Novi and return to Croatia

After the inconvenience of not being able to check out and pay the bill without first going to a cash machine we were glad to finally leave Kamaria and head back towards the border and Croatia.

After a short while we arrived on the outskirts of the fortified town of Hercig Novi and although the main road was dusty and scruffy it seemed bad manners not to pull off into the side streets and visit the old town. This was easier said than done because this is another town with a parking problem and we crawled in a queue of traffic as everyone was searching for a space. Finally we found one as close to the old town as we were likely to get so we accepted that this was the best we would be able to do. It said that it was a pay car park but there was no ticket machine or attendant so we were thoroughly confused. I made enquiries in a couple of shops and finally established that tickets were on sale at the newsagents so I bought two hours and nervously left the car. There were some conscientious parking wardens scrutinising windscreens and tickets and a yellow mini being towed away on a car transporter and I began to worry that I hadn’t understood the procedure and might come back to find the car removed and a long walk back to Mlini.

It was quite a long walk along the busy road and getting hotter under the late morning sun so were glad to reach the entrance to the Stari Grad old town and find some respite from the impatient traffic and the increasing heat. Inside the old gate and within the confines of the walls there were a succession of basking squares with an unhurried pace of life and we walked from one to the other to take in the sights. We were immediately glad that we had stopped off because this was really very nice and most probably a place easily missed by tourists heading for Kotor and Budva going one way and Dubrovnik going the other.

After the squares we climbed a stairway of worn shiny steps to get to the entrance of the fortress which stands at the top of the town overlooking the harbour below. Inside there were walls to walk and views to admire, nothing like Dubrovnik of course, but pleasant all the same and worth the small admission fee. It didn’t take long to complete the visit to the fortress so we walked back down and had a welcome cold drink in a bar in the main square next to the town’s old drinking fountain and the Serbian Orthodox Church in the centre.

After a short rest we walked the other way through twisting lanes and down steep steps towards the harbour but it was a long way, very hot and time was running out on our two hour parking ticket so we abandoned the walk at the half way stage and climbed back to the squares with their balconied buildings and tall shady trees and then retraced our steps back to the car which was exactly where we left it and no parking ticket tucked under the windscreen wipers either.

Getting out of Hercig Novi was no easier than getting in and we sat in a snarling traffic jam and followed the line of cars through the narrow one-way system and finding the right road included quite a lot of guesswork because although there was a sign for every hotel and grill bar the road signs had a curious absence of helpful information if you are looking for directions to the next town but eventually we threaded our way to the main road and prepared to leave Montenegro.

There was a wait again at the border as the immigration police thoroughly checked the documents of a convoy of camper vans from the Netherlands and as we waited we reflected on the Montenegro experience. We had liked it but not as much as we expected to, there was a clear sense of being somewhere different, even more so than Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2008 and to be honest we were glad to be going back to Croatia and we took a leisurely drive back to Mlini and the Villa Carmen.

We had a different room this time, not as good as the first but with a nice secluded balcony, which was cool and surrounded by greenery but required the precaution of plenty of insect repellent. After we had settled in we walked to Mlini for lunch at our favourite restaurant and then just let the rest of the day slide away as we swam in the soft blue water of the Adriatic and then sat at the edge of the water getting a swim suit full of tiny pebbles that we later transferred to the hotel room when we got changed.

Sitting on the terrace in the early evening we watched the colours of the sea and the sky go through their daily transformation and I was struck with how different it is here to Greece. In the Cyclades the sky is a consistent blue that explodes into a vivid sunset but here I have always found it more subtle with a greater variation and range of colour as the sky goes through several stages as it progresses through to the end of the day.

And the end of the day meant a final stroll into Mlini and another meal at the favourite restaurant which may not have been very adventurous or imaginative but we liked it there and we enjoyed an excellent final meal.

Croatia to Montenegro

There was an unexpected early start today when Kim got up and threw back the shutters announcing that it was half past seven. Even though I was still asleep it was clear to me that it wasn’t anything like half past seven and sure enough it was only half past five and Kim has read her watch backwards!

Although we went back to sleep we needed an early start anyway because today we were driving to Montenegro. Over a second excellent breakfast we had to keep this to ourselves however because our Croatian hosts were not especially impressed that we were visiting the neighbours who caused so much damage in this part of Croatia only fifteen years or so before and certainly weren’t keen to encourage us to go there.

We wanted to go to Montenegro because we were aware of it up and coming status as a holiday destination and with the Montenegrin Tourist Board making big claims like,

‘Montenegro is the pearl of the Mediterranean situated in the south of the Adriatic, there is nowhere else that you can find, in such a small place, so much natural wealth, beauty, beaches, clear lakes, fast rivers, gorgeous mountains, history, culture, tradition, good weather, clean air, beautiful nature, blue Adriatic Sea, everyone should visit Montenegro sometime’

we felt obliged to go there before it gets too busy so when we left we drove out of Mlini and took the main coast road south, back past Cavtat and the airport and then towards the border.

Driving is not straight forward in Croatia for a number of reasons. First of all there are the unfamiliar rules like driving with headlamps on even during the day, which seems a bit pointless when the sun is permanently shining. And then there is the issue of speed limits: Because the main road runs through every town and village along the coast these change frequently and you have to keep your wits about you to make sure you are not speeding. These speed limits however to not apply to the Croatian drivers who quickly become impatient when held up by an inconvenient tourist and I frequently found myself at the front of an increasing queue of traffic who didn’t share my resolve for dutiful compliance with the limits. Whenever I could therefore I had to practice my impression of a Lincolnshire tractor driver and pull over at a convenient spot and let everyone pass.

South of the airport there were two more hazards, first of all the potholes that had to be carefully negotiated and secondly, caterpillars. Yes, caterpillars! I saw some things wriggling across the road but it took a while and a few casualties to realise what they were. There were hundreds of the little things making a dangerous crossing from one side to the other and the smears on the road was proof that a lot of them didn’t make it. I have no idea why they were doing but I have been doing some calculations to try and fully appreciate the risk. Each caterpillar was about five centimetres long and the road about eight metres wide so this would be the equivalent of an average man attempting to cross a busy motorway the length of three football pitches without getting run down and was therefore fairly hazardous.

As we approached the border the scenery stared to change, the mountains retreated further inland and we drove along the edge of a large lush green valley flanked by gentle hills with an abundance of trees and then the valley disappeared and the road was squeezed into a narrow pass that brought us to the border controls.

First of all we had to get out of Croatia and this involved a fifteen minute wait while the only man on duty was dealing with traffic coming in the opposite direction before a second man finally arrived to deal with traffic going into Montenegro. And then after a couple of kilometres we had to stop again and be processed by the Montenegrin border guards. These guys were really thorough and although there were only two vehicles in front of us this took another fifteen minutes of passport and hire car details scrutiny before we were allowed to proceed.

While we waited the environment police checked the sticker in the windscreen to make sure our environment tax was up to date, which luckily for us some previous hirer had paid for and which saved us the €10 tourist tax scam. The Robin Hood style tax is explained by the Montenegrin Government “as being in response to the increase in the number of vehicles which have additional negative influence on the air quality and the general degradation of the environment as such. The increased number of vehicles effects the emission of pollutants and dangerous substances and endangers the environment, especially during the summer season, due to the increased numbers of foreign tourists”. What a load of bullshit!

Now we were somewhere different but the first sign we saw was the familiar blue EU sign that announces the funding of an improvement project and this surprised us because they are not even in the EU: is it any wonder that we have an economic crisis I wondered? Montenegro is classified as a highly developed country by the Human Development Index but one of two former Yugoslav republics which are marked as ‘Moderate’ on the Failed States Index. As it turns out Montenegro has been receiving more European Union funding per capita than any other country for the last few years and €131.3 million has been earmarked by the European Commission for Montenegro to assist it achieve what is called European integration. Montenegro became a recipient of the EU funding through a new mechanism, the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, or IPA, and most of the funds have gone towards ‘strengthening the infrastructure and management of the transportation sector’.

Well, we didn’t see much evidence of that and just as in Croatia I was being careful with speed limit compliance and once again I was irritating the local drivers. I wasn’t deliberately trying to make a nuisance of myself it was just that I was being mindful of the Foreign Office advice to take care when driving in Montenegro because the traffic cops can be rigorous in enforcing the law especially with foreign motorists and I was very conscious of having a Croatian number plate. It was a good job that I was being careful because in the thirty kilometre drive to our accommodation we passed four speed trap patrols that were waiting to pounce.