After walking my bike up that 17% grade hill and riding a few more kilometers, I entered a new country.
Despite its ominous name – Black Mountain or Montenegro – the mountains weren’t black and as far as the road was concerned, it wasn’t ominous. Outside of Herzog Novi and Budva areas, the road was rather pleasant. It ran on the edge of the water following the relief of the Bay of Kotor.
A few years ago, when Julie and did a tour of the former Yugoslavia, we visited a couple of places around here, so this was nothing new to me. I briefly stopped in Perast and Kotor to take pictures. Then I was off to a new place for me: Budva. I rode a few extra miles to see it because my campsite was located just short of Budva, in a place called Jaz. I could’ve gone there tomorrow on my way to Albania and save myself 10 kilometers uphill, but I did it today. It is a nice little walled-up medieval city, but it was very similar to Kotor and Dubrovnik, so it wasn’t really worth the time and effort. But I stocked up on water and beer for tonight.
Jaz is essentially a beach. On Saturday during the summer, it’s crazy populated. I could hardly find a place to put my bag down. Tomorrow I’ll go inland, so I used this opportunity to soak in the sea once more.
And today – drum roll please – I broke in 3000 kilometers. What’s left is peanuts.
Today in numbers:
112 km – distance covered
6h39m – riding time
10 – countries I set my foot in
3019 km – total distance up to now