Sunday
23rd July
We drove away from the Mokro campsite early
this morning, heading to Plusine with a plan to find a campsite, then ride the
Savnik to Plusine section one day and the final section to the Bosnian border
the next. The drive up took us past some fabulous hanging high plateau before
dropping down to the azure coloured lake that is the home of the little town of
Plusine. It’s a picturesque place, perched on the side of the lake shore, with
little red roofed houses, a tiny campsite, a really good cafe with pretty good
wifi, shops and a fuel stop.
We had a mooch around after having
breakfast in the cafe but couldn’t find a place to park the van, so headed up
to the plateau above where the TET runs through. We picked up the trail as it
wound through tarmac roads to a junction with a trail, this was where the TET
turns south heading back down to Savnic. I pulled the bike out and rode this
section whilst Lucy took the dog up a nearby hill.
This area is on the edge of probably the
largest national park and certainly the busiest in Montenegro with the Tara
Canyon running through it. (This is the second deepest canyon in the world
after Grand Canyon). Why this is ironic is that as you ride through this
section, there are some of the more ancient style of mountain farms I’ve seen
to date in Montenegro, they look a little like the high farms in remote parts
of Nepal, with well used & weathered wooden shacks, tethered dogs and the
little old lady doing the washing by hand in a wooden bucket. I felt very alien
as I passed by on my little orange bike!
The trail winds down to the villages above
Savnic where the road becomes tarmac again, then on into Savnic itself. I went
a little ways down this but knew what was entailed so turned back to save my
precious rubber for the more fun stuff!
We wild camped up at the trail junction for
the night, with a plan to ride the last section tomorrow, then head over to
Jablak the day after. After this is back open to debate as we’ve just met a
lovely couple who are from Slovenia, they were raving about the beauty of
Bosnia just after you cross the border, plus the nearest places to get a rear
tyre for Lucy is either back to Podgorica or up to Saravo, both of which are
two hours away. Belgrade is a 5 hour drive from the border, so back to debating
for us... Meanwhile it’s wine time!
