Wednesday
19th July 2017
I set off in the cool morning air to ride
the first section of the trail. To connect upto the TET trail I had figured out
a way that would wind around behind the rocky summits that Lucy was to walk up.
The mountains in this area are beautiful, no doubt about it, they appear to be
the continuation of the Albanian northern range, but somehow they seem less
austere, less weather worn and more friendly.
I dropped to the actual start of the trail
on the GPX file I have and it starts right in the middle of a series of zigzags
half way up a hillside, which is odd. The route winds through upland grazing
pasture and even at 8am the haze from the coastal heat starts to obscure the
view, but what a view whilst it's there! There is no technical difficulty at all, the trails are easy to ride, which is even better to enjoy the views unfolding before you...
After an hour of traversing hillsides, the
trail drops down into the forest, then continues along the river bed until it
reaches the tarmac road at Opsanica, here the TET turns north to follow the
tarmac for a few km's then heads west to the E80, but for me it was back to the
van in a loop via a little shop in a tin shack on the side of the road to pick
up much needed supplies.
The rest of the day was spent lazing and
reading in the sun waiting for Lucy to get back from her walk. Tomorrow we move
from this idyllic spot to near Kolasin, a bit of a 'sporty' town it appears to
continue on the TET.
I'd recommend following the road to
Orahovo, then upto Bukumirsko Lake, stunning views turning up the on the way
from Podgorica to the start of the TET, the views are spectacular, it's good
tarmac to about a third of the way up the hillside, then narrow older tarmac to
the lake. There is a dirt road variation on the Bt Tt4 after the initial good
tarmac to Korita, but it goes through some very tame forest, then into an area
that looks a bit like a weird holiday camp before crossing a col and dropping
to the beautiful lake of Rickavacko. North West of this is where the current
TET starts. You can still get good views of this with a little detour from the
above route but you can’t see all of the lake due to the trees.
