When we met Jim and Anita Carter in Cavtat, we shared that we were both planning to head northwest to Dubrovnik (they were planning to leave their boat on the hard there for the winter) and agreed to stay in touch in case our paths would cross again. We had not stopped to tour Albania or Montenegro and we had read good reports from other cruisers, so we decided to rent a car in Dubrovnik and backtrack to at least visit some of Montenegro. Having appraised Jim and Anita of our plans, they asked if they could come along. So we spent a few days sight-seeing in Dubrovnik (not hard to do as there is plenty to see there) waiting for them to catch up with us.

We spent a few hours on the Internet identifying various sights to see and mapping out a driving plan. When we met with Jim and Anita for their input, they just said, “We’ll go where you go.” The next day, we filled our picnic ice chest with water, soda, crackers, cheese, and fruit. Just before we left, Anita said, “Wait! I have an auto GPS, let Jim go get it.” Glad we did as it got us out of Dubrovnik and on the right road to Montenegro after Dennis took a few wrong turns (even with his Google Maps directions).

Our first destination was the Piva River Gorge in Pluzine, Montenegro. Our route would take us through Bosnia-Herzegovina and we were worried that the double border crossing would take a lot of time. Not a problem, not only was there no traffic, but the border officials passed us through quickly and with barely a second look. Same with the crossing into Montenegro. It was about 2.5 hour drive to Pluzine and we made a pit stop at a small restaurant about 30 miles from anywhere. After the four of us flowed through their single bathroom, we felt obliged to place an order, so we bought a sandwich and some fritters (sort of like unglazed doughnut holes) which we snacked on in the car. We saw numerous road-side stands selling wine – that was a first! Between the restaurant and Pluzine, we discovered a little church hidden all alone in a valley that looked like it had been there for a few centuries. It was not one of the planned sights but we were so glad we stopped. It had beautiful old frescoes on all the arched ceilings and walls.

Shortly after, we arrived in Pluzine and headed down the road that followed the river. We couldn’t drive the entire route and decided that we’d turn around in about 30 minutes. But in that short time we were treated to amazing scenery and road engineering. Imagine going to the Minister of the Interior and saying let’s build a road following this river. Oh and by the way, it’s going to require hundreds of tunnels through solid rock. In 30 minutes of driving we had encountered 54 tunnels and it was clear that the next 20 miles of the gorge would require at least four times that.

From the gorge we set off on a narrow, winding road that was supposed to take us into the Durmitor National Park -reported to be another beautiful drive. Unfortunately, the road was motion-sickness inducing and to add insult to injury, the paved road abruptly transitioned to dirt leaving us no interest in continuing (the Carter’s GPS did not include Montenegro –rats!). So we back-tracked to Pluzine, stopped to settle our stomachs with cheese, salami, crackers, fruit and sodas, and re-evaluated our route. We decided to head to the capital city, Podgorica, where a relatively new cathedral had been built and was worth a look-see. We arrived, found the cathedral in short order, and did the full (free) tour. Every inch of the walls and ceilings were painted with frescos and much of the decoration was done in gold leaf. A fabulous gilded chandelier hung in the center. We had less luck getting out of the city. Took three stops to ask directions but we finally got on the right road to the coast and our route back to Croatia.

Our route back took us past fresh water Lake Skadar which lies on the border of Albania and Montenegro, the largest lake in the Balkan Peninsula. Crossing over the lake at one point, we could not see the other side –it’s a big lake. We finally hit the coast (after a few more tunnels through mountains –Montenegrans are tunneling fiends). Along this coast is Sveti Stefan, a popular spot for the rich and famous during 1960’s-80’s. Formerly a village, the buildings were seized during Tito’s regime and turned into a high-priced hotel which remains today. This wasn’t on our list but Anita assured us it was a ‘must see’, so we stopped and had a look.

We knew that it would be night before we got back to the marina but we wanted to get back to Croatia before dark. We had Boka (the Bay of Kotor) to get past and we could take a ferry across or drive around it. Google Maps said it was faster to drive around it but Dennis couldn’t believe that based on the distance, so we headed for the ferry. We ended up on a long, narrow road skirting the bay with houses on one side and only water on the other. It became one lane in many places causing us to slow or stop to let opposing traffic through. It was slow but very scenic and we were all glad we took that route. The sun had just set as we finally got to the ferry station and we were the second to last car to load before they left. From the other side it was only about 30 minutes to the Croatian border and again we had no problem at re-entering but we were fascinated by how thoroughly they searched one car ahead of us –all baggage out of the car and opened. We were now back on the Carter’s GPS and it was very helpful getting back to the marina from the coast road. We hadn’t stopped for dinner and it was 2230 when we arrived at the marina. Fortunately, our favorite restaurant hadn’t closed and we finished off the night with our new friends, already missing them as we would be leaving the next day.

We didn’t see all we had on the list but the list had grown a little and we naturally had planned for more than we had time but managed to stuff a lot of Montenegro into one day. Jim and Anita were taking lots of mental notes and planning a return trip to some of the areas we visited.