After one last Camp Grab breakfast, we packed our bags into our tiny rental car and headed up the steep winding slope that led away from the river bed and to the top of the mountain range and the main road. Today is Susan’s birthday and we had prepared a little sign for her to wish her a happy birthday. We stopped at various spots along the mountain range where there was a particularly good view to take a picture with us holding her birthday sign. Kory had devised an alternate route – i.e., the scenic route — that we were going to take back to the Bay of Kotor where we will be spending the next four nights. We were going to make a large loop through Montenegro in order to see the Durmitor National Park. Montenegro had different plans for us. We followed the map directly into a heavy forest. We were on the main “road” but it would barely qualify as a trail and definitely wouldn’t be worthy of taking up any space on a U.S. map. We were sure we were on the right road, but couldn’t believe that we were. We were on the road for at least 45 minutes before passing another car. The road itself was a pot-holed, rock-filled, extremely narrow dirt trail that winded deep into mountains full of pines. Occasionally, we would come upon a trail marker, and – even better yet – the occasional road sign. At one point, we turned the corner only to see that road construction. A backhoe had pushed a huge pile of dirt onto the road completely blocking it. We waited while he cleared it off for us so we could drive through. Finally, we came to a little clearing and then drove onto a paved road. We decided that we had better not try to take our tiny rental car all the way to Durmitor. The remainder of the drive home was similarly challenging. Another road that we were supposed to go on was completely closed due to road construction. We didn’t know what to do but followed all of the other cars onto a detour that led through a very wash-boarded dirt road. The road was so narrow that only one car could go on it at a time and we frequently had to maneuver around other cars.
Finally, the driving adventure ended and we arrived at our destination – Dobrator, Montenegro. A very small town that is right on the coast of the Bay of Kotor and only a short drive from the famous city of Kotor itself. We checked into the Palazza Radomiri and then relaxed for a few hours before heading off to dinner. We found a pleasant little restaurant with outdoor garden seating. The roof was covered with a vineyard and kiwi vines and grapes and kiwis hung down above our heads. It was quite romantic and a nice way to end the night.