Dober dan Montenegro!

The camping night went well, and we woke up to noises of chirping and a lone tractor. What a joy to start the day's ride with a dunk in the cold stream!

Our shirts were dry after as we pumped away at a series of uphill sections, and then wet again with sweat. The road was mostly quiet, and snaked over the hills towards the Vitaljina border crossing. A long line of cars were waiting with their motors running. We cycled past them and went to the border guard. He looked up with surprise as we stood there in human shape. We saw even sharper surprise a few kms further (uphill of course) from the border guard at the entrance to Montenegro. He must have seen Kiran and I bump fists as we rode away after his first overland crossing.

We followed the road down hill to Herceg Novi and jumped into the first beach that we found there. It was sandy and certainly busy but so large that it was not crowded. A lunch and a drink later, we rode on.

Instead of the road, we took the walkways along the water, threading our way through the ambling beach goers. Well, these 'beaches' were mainly large concrete terraces overhanging the water. They housed beach bars, restaurants, sunbathers, family picnics, vendors. Everything you find at a beach except sand castles. We rode through 30 kms of this crowded, yet bizarrely communal and chill beachscape.

We pushed on till we reached Kotor Bay. What an atmospheric setting, with the rocky giants standing with their toes in the water as the dusk painted subtle shades of orange and red across them. Kiran was puzzled to see me so excited as I jumped into the water before him. I tried and failed to express the poetry that this beautiful bay inspired. No need, he felt it too and we splashed around to end this long day.Read more