Tuesday, 2013/09/10

Our destination is Sarajevo, but we assume, we will not reach it today. It is a bit too far from Rozaje.

First, we have breakfast in our hotel which is included in the price. Of course we are the only regular hotel guests and have the worst fears, as far as the breakfast is concerned. Fortunately, it does not get that bad. The atmosphere is already very strange. We suspect that the hotel is somehow in the hands of the mafia. Pretty obscure guys are around here and hanging out in the hotel lounge and bar. When paying the receptionist, who is obviously not the brightest light of the place, he can't give change, and so his "boss" has to help, who then makes the currency exchange from his own wallet and also puts our payment into it. Presumably he's the owner of the 100000 Euro Range Rover on the hotel parking lot. That he has earned the money for it in the hotel industry, we dare to doubt based by the occupancy of the hotel.

We have learned from our waiter for the breakfast service, that he is riding motorcycles too and has children and Rozaje in winter has a lot of snow. But whether they earn so much money during the winter season here? Well! We doubt.

We leave soon after breakfast. We ride along a river valley through beautiful landscapes.

However, the landscape does not really get exciting until the afternoon when we reach the nature reserve Durmidor.

However, just before we arrive there, we are waved onto the side of the road by a Montenegrian policeman. I ride ahead and of course not feeling guiltly, except perhaps the usual 20-30 kilometers we are too fast. But isn't there some tolerance? Well, the policeman is alone and he does not have a speedometer/camera or anything like that and I have not noticed any speed control along the road before. So I think by myself, I'll wait, what he has to say. And he has a lot to say. Of course, in his language, why should he as official authority change into a foreign language. However, to make himself somehow understandable, he has a small writing pad and a pencil. First, he writes the number 50 on this block with the unit km and draws a circle around it. Although there is not a general limit of 50 kilometers in Montenegro, I refrain from pointing it out in my own language. After all, there is a small chance that he understands German or English. I stay friendly and nod in understanding. While he continues his talk, he still writes the number 80 with the unit Euro on his block. He probably wants to tell me that we have to pay a penalty of 80 Euros if the maximum speed of 50 km is exceeded. He smiles friendly. I think: "If you want to have money from us, then only if you issue an official receipt. I will not get out my wallet otherwise!". Of course, I keep this only in mind and smile at him with my purest innocent smile. That results in a bit more montenegrian lectures and an even wider grin. The friendly policeman then returns to the other side of the street and gives us the signal to continue our ride.

Would like to know what he told me with so many words ;-)

The nature reserve Durmidor initially runs along in the spectacular valley of the Tara, a tributary of the Drina.

At a breathtaking viewpoint we stop. There we meet other motorcyclists. The international registration is not familiar to us. "UA" means Ukraine, which is confirmed by the rider of one of the two motorcycles. We chat a little bit in English, which the Ukrainians are not very good at. Then one couple wants to make a group photo with us in front of their bike. I feel a bit like in China, where I was getting on countless group photos. To make it even more international, some Israelis asked me to take a picture of their group. I give my business card to the Ukrainians, with the request that they should get in touch when they ever visit Germany and that they should send me the group photo. I'm curious! [Addendum of 2013/11/10: Today I received a mail from Sergej, who sent with the group photo. He has published an article about their journey in an Ukrainian motorcycle magazine and described the encounter with us.]

I also get into conversation with the three Israelis in English. It is a father with his two adult young sons. Apparently his father worked in Germany before because he recognizes that my friend and me speak German with each other. For a while I have an animated conversation with the three about all sorts of topics. Very entertaining, very nice travel experience.

A few kilometers further on we cross a bridge over the Tara Gorge, on which you have a wonderful view. We ride across the bridge and meet the Ukrainian again, who photographs us crossing the bridge on our bikes. I stop and have not recognized them, as they are now without a helmet. I'm trying to say that they should send us the photos. Hopefully it will work!

We continue to a plateau near Žabljak. From there, we are looking for access to a 20 minutes walk to a lookout with panoramic panorama, the Curevac, which offers both the view to the valley of Tara and the views to the Durmitor massif. We're wrong at the first try but the way we choose, however, leads upwards and we have a breathtaking view from there.

We meet aA Montenegrian cyclist with excellent English skills, who comes down the road from the mountain and we ask him where the Curevac is. He describes the way and tells us that he is helping a friend to build a cabin and that this friend is also a motorcyclist and that we can visit them for a drink or something. We meet him several times while riding down and he shows us the right way again. So we finally find the parking lot, from where you can hike to Curevac. At the parking lot we make a lunch break.

We easily make the hike to Curevac in 20 minutes. Here you have a really impressive panoramic view of the Tara valley on the one hand, on the plateau and the Durmidor massif. The panorama is disturbed only by countless mosquitoes, which start to attack us.

At 4:15 pm we are back at the parking lot and decide to dismiss the invitation to the cabin and ride on, unaware that the highlight of our day is still ahead of us.

A small one-lane road leads over the mountains and offers many impressive panoramas. The road is 33 kilometers long and every kilometer full of incredible views of landscapes. Again and again I think that there can not be more, but then again a sensational view. We get into a perceptive rush and have a joyful grin in our faces. This road is a wonderful pleasure.

Even horses in small herds run free here. This landscape seems to have fallen completely out of time.

Then a serpentine road leads us downhill, passing through short tunnels cutted into the rocks, down to a reservoir that shimmers greenish blue and where we will drive another 20 kilometers to Foča.

The arrival in Foča is rather sobering, it is a rather ugly place, with a brand new hotel with brand new rooms and a temporary elevator. Also, there is no breakfast, since the restaurant still needs to be built in. Again for 5 minutes no hot water and we seem the only guests once again.

We're going to eat in a restaurant (Mladic) to which my fellow rider directly heads us. There we eat excellent. Full and tired and happy from the wonderful impressions of this day we return into the hotel and fall into our beds.