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year index
It's Not Flat! Montenegro is about half the size of Wales, but apparently the locals joke that if it were ironed flat, it would be the size of France. We cannot vouch for the accuracy of this statement, but we can certainly state that it's a bit hilly. Montenegro? What's that all about then? So when we got back from Australia [blog], we had our holiday for Amanda's birthday already booked, in Portugal [blog], but we needed to think about what we might do in September for mine. We didn't have any particular preconceived ideas, but were looking for something broadly similar to the Portugal plan: not long-haul, not silly money (because we have Antarctica in 2026 ticking both those boxes in very black ink!) but not too touristy either. Oh, look, it's the latest Wild Frontiers email, promoting the Balkans... Hmm... "Walking in Montenegro"... Hmm... We've done trips with WF and others that included walking segments, but we've never done a pure walking holiday. Well, we could agonise over what to do or we could book; guess which we chose! We're not totally unfamiliar with that part of the world generally, but really know nothing about Montenegro. We had a great time in Slovenia and a not-so-great time in Croatia (not Croatia's fault, I fear, more ours for choosing family resortland in school holiday time). To my surprise, there's no blog for either of those trips, but we're talking 2018-19, when most of my blogs were about running and not every holiday got featured. [I think I mentioned in a previous blog that I was in a potential employment discussion with a Croatian company and while it didn't work out, I think I'd love their location far more than the Istrian coast!] (Oh, and Amanda visited what was then Yugoslavia as a child with her family, but not this part.) So we can't fly straight there: we have to travel via Dubrovnik. Well in that case, maybe we should add on a few days there too. This trip isn't with WF's tailor-made division, it's a standard group tour, so we'll need to sort any extras ourselves; however, they say that when we return to Croatia, depending on the local operator we may be able to get dropped in the city, otherwise we can make our own way from the airport. Ok, we're signed up, let's see what we can find on the web for Dubrovnik... Booking.com is our friend: we find a self-catering apartment inside the Old Town near the wall which has a terrace and looks really nice. We'll do the WF tour and have three nights -- basically two full days -- to explore. All sorted then, we have a holiday plan. Let's go! Day 1 ~ 6 September ~ London to Montenegro (Herceg Novi, Tivat) Day 2 ~ 7 September ~ Tivat to Virpazar Day 3 ~ 8 September ~ Virpazar to Biogradska Gora National Park Day 4 ~ 9 September ~ Biogradska Gora National Park to Poscenje Day 5 ~ 10 September ~ Durmitor National Park Day 6 ~ 11 September ~ Poscenje to Cetinje to Kotor Day 7 ~ 12 September ~ Around Kotor Day 8 ~ 14 September ~ Kotor to Dubrovnik Day 9 ~ 14 September ~ Dubrovnik Day 10 ~ 15 September ~ Dubrovnik Day 11 ~ 16 September ~ Dubrovnik and Home year index |