Finding decent tyres for Dusty proved to be hard work. The first place offered us retreads that James saw cracks in! Then we spent half an hour driving around only to find smaller tyre shops either had no parking space, or only did scooter tyres. Finally we found one on the way out and Dusty finally got two new front wheels ( and I sorted some groceries). We left Athens at lunchtime and drove 200km to Rion, just outside of Patra, finding a campground with a view of the Rion-Antirro Bridge. The camp owner was telling us it was built and owned by the French. He also mentioned it was very expensive and that most locals take the ferry instead at half the price. We had a quiet night in planning our move towards the Balkin countries.
The next day we tried our luck at the port and managed to drive right up to a ferry and get on all for $6.50 euro. We anticipated a cost of 20-30 euro to cross the bridge so we were stoked with the saving. We drove the winding coast towards Igoumenitsa running into a massive lightening and thunder storm as we drove into the campsite 10km south of the town. The campsite was in a nice bay and we stayed right by the clear blue water but unfortunately the weather was too bad to enjoy it.
We did wake to a clear, sunny morning and the beach was just awesome. But we made an early dash to the Albanian border, via some very rough, mountainous roads filled with hunters and their dogs. I am not sure what they were trying to hunt but we thought it could have been bears. The Albanian border crossing was a bit nerve wracking and full of argy-bargy. Going through Greek customs I had to get out of the van and ended up being surrounded by locals trying to push in front of everyone else. The Customs Officer was very kind and made sure I kept my place, which was great, and we proceeded to the Albanian entry point, hopeful to obtain car insurance at the border. We got through we no problems and James left me in the van while he sorted the insurance. It was a bit of a rough area for a lady to be on her own in as I was surrounded by men in vans and people begging for money. James returned with the insurance (40 euros for 15 days) and we gave some small change to a child before filling up with petrol, the cheapest yet at 1 euro 30cents/litre. Immediately you could tell you had changed countries, not just in the landscape but also in the donkeys carrying loads of pomegranates and the many locals walking down the middle of the streets/motorways. At one stage James was really concerned he could smell oil, which proved to be an oil rig! We soon learnt that one of Albania’s exports is crude oil, passing two oil rigs and one oil lake on the journey, man did it stink. The drive to our campground in Durres (on the Adriatic coast) was the hardest yet. We came past close to 10 Police checks (thankfully they waved us through each time once we got close enough for them to realise we had a foreign licence plate). And the roads were horrendous. The tarsealed highways had potholes the size of paddling pools in them, frequently resulting in traffic being down to one clear lane and they were so bumpy. Poor Dusty got a thrashing, although full credit to James with his driving as it was a slow and arduous journey of 310km in 7 hours. We pulled into our campground which turned out to be a pine tree lined backyard of a hotel and restaurant. The lovely lady owner had her teenage daughter come to speak to us to translate and sort payment. A very basic campsite, with no internet, squatters for toilets and use of the hotel showers. We took a stroll to the beach and we were greeted by truckloads of rubbish on the shore and several stray dogs that proceeded to chase us off the beach as we ran for our lives back to the van. Such a shame to see the Adriatic shoreline in crap shape when we know it is in places so beautiful and tidy. That evening we decided to dine in the hotel’s restaurant. With low expectations, James ended up with some tasty calamari and I had mullet fish (which tasted similar to sardines), with a salad and fries. With two beers included, dinner cost us 15 euro-not bad at all.
Not wanting to spend any more time in Albania (as we have limited coverage of roads on our GPS) we crossed the border in Montenegro and drove up the coast to Sveti Steven, where we stopped for lunch. The attraction here was an old fisherman’s settlement on a small island close to the shoreline, filled with terracotta roofed houses. It also had an amazing stony beach with the clearest water we have seen yet. It was a stunning spot for lunch. After a few photos we drove back to Petrovac and settled into a campsite 300m from the beach. We spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach, with a third wheel in tow (a very friendly puppy).
The next we went headed off to the famed bay of Kotor. It was beautiful drive first up the coast through Budvar then around the Bay of Kotor. The road through to Kotor town was extremely narrow but very picturesque and didn’t dissapoint our eyes. Tucking Dusty’s wing mirrors in we drove to Auto Kamp Jadran, which was literally like parking on someone’s front lawn. An old couple who spoke little English greeted us and showed us the very clean squatter toilets (2) and the one outdoor garden shower (which had a taupoline shower curtain and a shower rose with a pullcord to release the cold water). Yip, no hot water-but this was expected as we had read about this campground and knew it was the closest to Kotor town and it had the most beautiful view of Perast Old Town across the Bay. We had lunch and caught the local bus into Kotor town (10km away). You basically had to stand on the side of the road and put your hand up when the bus drove past, rather than walking to any bus stop. Great! With Montenegro having a population of 400, 000, we soon realised this was a place where everyone knew everyone, as people were greeting each other on the bus and chatting away.
We walked through Old Town and decided to climb the 1350 steps to the St Nicholas fortress, which had the most amazing view of Kotor and the wharf. We explored an old church as well as the fortress itself, all which looked very fragile and crumbly (and authentic). We spent the afternoon wandering the Old Town before having dinner at Bastion, where James had squids stuffed with garlic and prawns and I had mussels in tomato sauce, all of which was very tasty. We managed to catch a bus home thanks to the local’s help by pointing us to the right place to wait-everyone is very welcoming and friendly here. James braved it to have a shower in the dark-he came back so frozen I completely chickened out!
We planned on leaving Auto Kamp Jadran the next day but it turned out the owners were not home (we waited until 1pm for them to no avail!). We passed the time playing with a mother cat and her six-week-old kitten so we were well occupied! I also managed to build up the courage to shower too-probably the fastest shower I have ever had in my life it was so cold. We suspected the water was pumped straight from the bay itself. Admitting defeat we decided to stay another night and make the most of our time, catching a bus around to Perast. We walked the small town admiring the old church built on a tiny island in the middle of the bay. We also were able to spot Dusty on the other side which was cool. We nibbled on local white wine (really not that great) and some traditional squid stuffed with smoked ham and cheese in a tomato sauce, absolutely delicious. We stopped off back in Kotor and tried some Kotor cake (basically a custard square minus the icing) and a Montenegro pancake (pancake in an orange sauce with figs, prunes and walnuts). Both were yum. We managed to visit a fruit and vegetable market too and picked up 4 apples, 500g beans and 1 garlic clove all for only1 Euro. It felt like daylight robbery! We topped off our majorly ‘foody’ day with a van-cooked meal of steak, potato and beans. Oh and we managed to catch up with the owners, so payed up before going to bed.
