We had been dreaming about reaching the sea for several weeks, picturing ourselves lying in the sunshine on beautiful beaches, swimming in azure waters and generally giving our tired bods a well-earned rest. Unfortunately, our arrival on the Adriatic coast was not quite what we had expected as the rain lashed down, the wind knocked us sideways into roaring traffic, and the temperature dropped to 5 Celsius.
We decided to pretend that we had not yet really arrived, a pretence made easier by the fact that almost as soon as we had entered Croatia we left it again, crossing the border into the tiny bit of the Adriatic coast which belongs to Bosnia. After wandering around tired and cold looking for somewhere to stay, we were effectively abducted by an old lady who mimed the gesture for sleeping then hurriedly led us into a musty room with a rather stained bed. Too exhausted to protest we duly handed over 20 euros, dumped our bags and headed for the sanctuary of a rather grand hotel. A delightful couple of hours were then spent warming up with hot chocolates and Drambuie while we watched the. sun set.
The next day, we woke to glorious sunshine and set off feeling much happier with our lot. The coastal road was still very busy, but the views were stunning, and when we saw a beautiful empty beach we headed down for our first sea swim of the trip! This was quite a moment for us- the thought of swimming in the beautiful blue waters of the Adriatic had often kept us going through the snow and ice of France and Germany. Feeling refreshed and invigorated, we carried on along the coastal road, now ‘undulating’ quite extremely, into Dubrovnik. We spent a happy evening sipping wine looking out over the sea, and eating oysters in a restaurant in the winding streets of the old city.
It wasn’t a difficult decision when we decided to stay another day in this beautiful city.
Our departure from Dubrovnik turned out to be a difficult one, particularly for Harriet. As we cycled higher up the cliffs, the drop down to the sea became more and more challenging for the vertigo-afflicted one, resulting in her cycling straight out into the middle of the road, ignoring the beeps from the streams of lorries and tour buses. There were tears, and a roadside meltdown, and for at least half an hour we stood on the verge as she tried repeatedly to cycle past one particularly vertiginous drop. Her bravery overcame this challenge, and we carried on across the border into Montenegro!
The landscape suddenly changed- lusher and greener than in Croatia, with palm trees dotted all around. We cycled through Tivat, a rather snazzy port full of oversized yachts, before a family very kindly allowed us to camp for free on the beach in front of their house. We ate supper looking out across the sea and feeling very peaceful, and humbled again by the generosity of the people we were meeting.
The next day took us further down the coast, on a route full of hills which tested our bodies and traffic which tested our spirits before arriving in Bar, a lovely seaside city where we prepared ourselves for the new adventure of the next day – Albania.