Balkans_2018...You Only Live Once!

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Leaving our little Albanian Paradise...for the delights of the incredible P16 along+above the Montenegrin parts of Lake Shkoder.
To me, one of the TOP5 roads of the whole 3 weeks :glu




Shkoder (Albania) -> P16 -> Lovcen Nat. Park -> Kotor -> Lepetane (Montenegro)

https://goo.gl/wuAphA

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...and Gmaps sort-of has it right, ~240k and 6.5hrs before various stops, lunch, photos and a VERY slow descent down the Kotor Serpentines behind a long line of traffic stretched it all to about 10hrs on-the-road



Another chaotic 8-morning-kilometers from our Lakeside stay into Shkoder town.....2 old farts on push-bikes side-by-side treadling towards the city, flanked by a 3. old fart on a moped with a wicker-basket strapped to the back. 4 long geese-necks bobbing along with the potholes, the birds apparently quite happy about the scenic ride (or just hanging onto their beaks).
A kilometer of campers, black Mercs, black Golfs, schoolbus, a couple of tractors belching their Diesel clouds while slowly following the chatty Trio.....as a horse drawn cart trundles around the flashy, new roundabout while a couple of wrinkly matushkas try to force their vegie-carts into the oncoming crawl for better visibility...and hopefully the odd sale.
It's all starting to feel a little like "home" by now...:killingme


Out the south of the small city and across that Bojana-bridge underneath the Rozafa Castle.

Barely 20mins later we're up to the old Customs-routines of melting-in-the-sun-for-30mins, passports/rego-papers/Green Cards/ gloves on, gloves off/helmet off, helmet on/ pull over + stow paperwork...a quick fill-up at Fontana Derves and we're out of the traffic immediately by turning onto the P16 :woot::clap:


The narrow road climbs the hillside back to the Albanian border and to a set of comm-towers, before tacking north-west for the next 3 hrs. along the spines of the mountain-ranges between the Montenegrin Coast and Lake Shkoder.
ABSOLUTE GOLD!
If there are issues with vertigo, I'd suggest to stay away from the P16 though...some of the views give that queasy feeling in the gut and the smallest goof-up or mishap/ tech-issue
will be very high-priced.


Up, up we go...


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Just about back in Albania, there's the turnabout....



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:slobb:slobb



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Tiny villages along the lakeshore...


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Ducking down one of those tiny hairpin-riddled singlelaners, it's hard to sort private driveways from the "main road" down to the beach and the enterprising local with a timber tub who wants to snare us for a boatride to one of the small islands.
While his mate tries to nick us a couple of Euros each for parking the bikes on the public carpark :bs


Donji Murici


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Back up the P16, skimming the ridges and balconies above the lake....


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:glu



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..."I wanna build a house here, RIGHT HERE!!"



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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Things don't end in Virpazar on the main road... they just continue with a great lunch under a grape-laden , shady canopy.... and a host choosing our lunch from his supplies in the kitchen.
:woot::chug:



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Back into it and there are more single-laners along the ridges towards the main Montenegrin feeder area of Lake Shkoder...Rijeka Crnojevica and the famous River-Elbow.
A couple of bends along the way, too :thumbs:



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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Rijeka Crnojevica.... the famous River-Elbow that decorates all the Tourist brochures.



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There is a tiny, somewhat overgrown driveway right next to that abandoned, old villa right opposite the main lookout signed to Meterizi....and within 30m it's down to 6ft wide, tall weeds growing out of the cracked center part of the single-lane asphalt, the hairpins are steep as hell and "foot-down" affairs
feathering the clutch in first gear....but it seems to keep going.
A few minutes later we're on the main M23 to Cetinj.



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Mt. Lovcen in the background....




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Looking down at Cetinj and the way we came....




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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Some low cloud knocks out some of the blue skies and the brandnew 3-lane racetrack across the top of the mountain from the turn-off towards Kotor turns to shyte not long after it started....W-)




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Looks like the coffee at the top was at about the same quality...:D



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Dropping down the Kotor Serpentines on the P1 in a foggy haze....it's a shame not having the views....or at least not being stuck behind a loooong line of (Diesel-) traffic.

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The going is so slow that a possible visit of the old WW1 Fort Vrmac would end in the dark, so it's down the main road into Kotor and a quick exit via the tunnel and airport to Lepetane, the ferry town waiting with a bed and tucker to end the day....
....but finding the booked cots is another matter!!
The tiny ferry-town only has maybe 100 houses and all I know is that it's a place just set back from the waters' edge by maybe a house-width...
We cruise back and forth the 8ft wide "Esplanade"...nothing looks like it did at Booking.com.

Walking into the small local grocery shop, I get a rap-over-the-knuckles for my willy-nilly parking from a local lady with a shopping bag....the shopkeeper tells me to chase her as she's the mum of the owner of the "Apartment Aleksandar" :wot:....HOO-FARKIN-RAY!!

I chase her down and hand/feet-converse that we're "ze Australians" that are booked for tonight!
She shows me the "offstreet parking" :killingme for the bikes and I zip down the other end of town to fetch the rest of the crew...

Happy pisspots after the complimentary bottle of Rose....hey man, we're cruisin'.


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Better late than never...checking the forum to make sure it's open after the daily backup....


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The ferries keep going till 10pm.....time for some tucker, methinks :chug:


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Bikes tucked away in an open garage within 10ft of the lapping surf... I just can't see how they would ever get a car in here without a 5-point turn...and blocking all through-traffic while at it.:doh:


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
The Lovcen Restaurant is further up the road than what I like after that bottle of Rose... but the tucker is good and plenty.

Oops, wrong "tucker" W-)


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Rog isn't believing any of the lies I'm telling :bs


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Good stuff!!


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Lepetane.... the mouth of the Bay of Kotor



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Ripper of a day :clap: , too much vino, g'd night, buurp...seeyas in the mornin':gday:
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Kotor/Lepetane (Montenegro)-> Sveti Illja (border ridge)-> Fort Imperial (Dubrovnik) -> Trstenik/ Peljesac (Croatia)

https://goo.gl/FdzfC3


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Our lovely host...communications no problem despite not speaking a word of the other ones' language. :chug:
And what a great place, too.



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An early "shiiine a light on meee" ....and the heavens do.


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Room for bikes downstairs ...room for riders above.
Then turn around and you're just about in the drink already.



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Lepetane main road... 2 ft above the waterline.


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"Aye!!! ...there goes our ferry!!"


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Looks like the "Love-boat"...including a live wedding! :so



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This one's our turn...it's barely 10 mins across the narrow harbour-mouth of the Inner Kotor Harbour.
The 2 Euro fare saves around 50km.
It also feels like another warm day coming up...



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Don't mix that up with the Iced Tea...


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Circling the Outer Bay, the small northern peninsula to the harbour mouth
is bisected between Montenegro and the southern-most tip of Croatia....the border running right along the spine of the central line of hilltops.

And right along the top is supposed to be a small chapel with stunning views across the whole lot.

Steep + narrow....:glu ....and right they were!

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More steep ...and narrower again....and a good stretch of chopped up sandy gravel.


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....and 2-up on a 300cc coffee-grinder :bs


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OH YEAH!!



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Back down through some small villages to the coastal road....


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
...for a 45min "boil-up" in the mid-morning sun at the border.
No idea if it's the Montenegrins or the Hrvatskis, but some clown in that border-hut is taking his shoulder-stripes way too seriously.
Even the locals are getting edgy....



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Maybe there's a herd of those on the loose?? :bs



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It's all Croatia now...right up to the bottom edge of those hills :thumbs:



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Time for a break at one of the many small restaurants/ guest-houses along the way towards Dubrovnik.


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They also sell produce from the fields in the back...


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Hwy8, Coastal Route.....once the most prolific killer-road of the Balkans, sweet cruising on smooth-top nowadays.



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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
With Dubrovnik being one of the Top3 tourist-centers along the Dalmatian Coast for the last 30 years,
we duck into one of the small holiday resorts further south to try and find an ATM for some local currency
without the need to enter "Tourist-Central"....



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....before looking for the awkward turn-off into a narrow, unsigned lane up the hill
to lead us to Fort Imperial, the historic fortifications above coastal Dubrovnik....and top of the cable-car.
Yes, one can ride/ drive up there among a hotch-potch of single-lane roads and multiple turn-offs.


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The rewards....


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