Days 11-15

June 14-18 2019 Montenegro & Croatia (and 5 minutes in Bosnia)

Montenegro. What a beauty. The countryside is absolutely stunning, reminding us of a cross between the Swiss Alps with Yosemite national park. Steep mountains lined with fir trees, huge beautiful blue/green lakes, waterfalls and rapids with caves scattered along the coastline.

Last Friday we hired a car and drove 3hrs inland, along a beautiful scenic windy road to Tara River. One side of the river was in Montenegro and the other in Bosnia. We used the time to practice some times tables with the kids (which made the long boring journey even more enjoyable for them) and then Mia was stung on the wrist by something…this journey had better be worth it! It totally was. It’s one of the best day trips we’ve done as a family. The company were brilliant, taking a very laid back attitude to everything. We obviously had all the safety equipment but apart from that, the instructions were “when I say go, you paddle. When I say stop, you stop”.

The first 20mins were on the edge of being too much (even Matt thought we may have bitten off more than we could chew) but for the following 2hrs, it was awesome. As we drifted lazily down the river, we’d come across fast rapids followed by waterfalls as we took in the stunning scenery. We stopped on the Bosnia side for a quick dunk in a waterfall and it was all finished off with a deliciously cooked lunch back at camp.

The following day we met up with a family we’d been in contact with through a Facebook group called Kids4sail. It’s a way of meeting families cruising in similar areas so the kids have some social interaction (and the adults!) so we were all keen to meet them. I would say it took all of 3mins for the kids to get over their shyness before they locked themselves away in one of the cabins and started giggling away together. Brilliant. This new friendship also resulted in my first major hangover of the trip so I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of them when we all get to Croatia.

We left Porto Montenegro and sailed a few hours to a place called Kotor and anchored in the bay. After the sweltering heat of Porto Montenegro, it was so lovely to be able to jump straight off the boat and cool off (and it was free!)

The medieval old town of Kotor had pretty cobbled streets, lots of windy back lanes, restaurants, several churches and was set below an old fortress which could be reached by climbing 1000 steps, which we clearly had to climb. We got up early the next morning before the sun had a chance to heat everything up and started the climb. I don’t think a positive word came out of Mia’s mouth for the entire experience! The views were incredible though and it was definitely worth listening to Little Miss Whinge Bag for several hours.

We left Montenegro on Tuesday afternoon for Croatia and arrived into Cavtat around 7pm the same evening. It wasn’t far and we felt better prepared this time (remembering flags, paperwork etc) but still made the mistake of not berthing in the correct place and Matt getting a telling off by the police. We’ll get it all right one day…hopefully!

We’re now going to explore the islands off the coast of Dubrovnik whilst we wait for Matt’s Mum (Grandma Sue) to arrive on Sunday. We can’t wait to see her and explore this beautiful country together.