FROM MONTENEGRO

(click on images to enlarge)

Answering a Mountain Call: Back to Sea Level...

MONTENEGRO, May 10, 2008 - I decided to go back a different way from the route I took to Mt. Durmitor.  Which meant passing by Mt. Djurdjevic again on the way to the main highway that connects Belgrade to the Adriatic coast (the red route on the map).

So I got say goodbye to my mountain again from different angles...

... as I was passing by.  I stopped to do the same to the Djurdjevic Tara river at a spot where in season they launch the river rafts.  Later on, a friend told me about a rafting trip that turned deadly (for the skipper) when the raft hit a big boulder.

A few miles down the road, I encountered some four legged travelers.  :-)  And after about half an hour's spectacular drive through the Djurdjevic Tara gorge, the canyon widened the road joined the main Belgrade-Bar highway.

The scenery in the Moraca river canyon was also beautiful, even though the travel was slow and arduous at times for about 30 miles through an area of tunnel and road reconstruction.  By the time I made to Podgorica, I had been traveling for over four hours.  I had intended to go to Cetinje, but changed my mind and headed straight home (meaning to my apartment in Przno).

Just getting through Podgorica seemed to take forever.  I needed to go to the bathroom badly after this long drive and no opportunity to stop.  So I pulled over in a relatively desolate part of the road south of Podgorica to do my business in the bushes.  When I returned and tried to drive away, I discovered that my car was completely stuck.  I have been "bogged" once before in the sand of Western Australia, an Aussie expression for getting stuck, but never have I gotten stuck in the rocks.  My front wheels just seemed to drop right through them.  And there was no traction to pull them over. 

I got out and tried to build some fortifications under the rear wheels, hoping to improve traction that way.  No go.  By now my black jeans were completely covered in white dust.  My hands were full of dirt as I was shoveling the stones with them, with grime and grease lodged under my nails.  I looked a sight, I realized.  Worse, I had a no way out.  I tried rocking the car back and forth between the first gear and the reverse.  It moved a little but still would not budge.  Meanwhile, a blue smoke of the burning rubber was rising from the passenger window.  That's when I realized my car had a front wheel drive.  Duh!

So I got out and started digging stones again with my bare hands, this time under the front wheels.  When that did not work, I realized I would have to take some more serious remedial action.  Like stop someone and ask for help.  Luckily, the first car that came along was a four-wheel drive, Land Rover, I think (right shot).  And just as luckily, they had a rope.  We attached it to the rear end of my car, and little by little, the guy pulled me out. I thanked them profusely.  "Happy travels," the Good Samaritan said cheerfully.

As I drove on, I was smiling ear to ear.  That Al-Khadir/St. George is quite a character.  Always making sure i don't get too complacent and self-contented.  So just as I get bored and tired of driving, he creates excitement and uncertainty.  And then when I respond without being flustered, he also helps me solve the problem and resume my journey with minimum hassle or damage.  A-K has been known in ancient mythology as the spirit that destroys, renews and nurtures.  And he has been proving it over and over again not just on this trip, but throughout my entire life, as I have been realizing recently.

As I was thinking about all this, I heard stones rattling all over the car.  They must have gotten lodged under my front fender, so each time the car hit a bump or I made a sharp turn, which was all the time, the stones would come careen out of the bumper and rattle against the undercarriage of the car like tin drums.  So as I was ascending again up the coastal mountains, I kept deliberately making very sharp turns, trying to shake out all the rocks.  The ride became very musical.  Tires were squealing around the bends, stones rocking, engine whining.  And I was having a ball.

I did stop occasionally to take some pictures of the magnificent views of Lake Skadar.  The far mountains you can see in these photos are in Albania.

I though that if I were not alone and had a woman next to me, there'd be hell to pay for the way I was driving.  As it turned out, there was next to no traffic on the right in this section of the highway (most people seemed to prefer taking a long tunnel to driving along switchbacks).  So I had my fun acting like a race car driver for about 20 miles or so, until I finally shook out all the stones.

Once on top of the coastal mountains, I decided to stop at Petrovac.  This has always been one of my favorite coastal towns, and hopefully you will see from the above pictures why. And yes, love was also in the air there, as it was in Belgrade a few days ago.  Some people even braved the cold water to swim in it.  It was a fairly warm day, but it would take a lot hotter temps to get me into that ocean.

As I walked the length of the Petrovac riviera, I could not resist that ice cream stand.  It was one of many, as it turned out, but this one was home made.  And delicious!  I took a few more shots from the other end of town, and then headed back home.  My mountain adventure was at an end - mission accomplished, and then some.

TO BE CONTINUED...

CLICK HERE to Montenegro DAY 5, Part 1...

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