Day 6: Split - Perast, Montenegro 185 miles

After my usual early breakfast I was on the road to Dubrovnik, there is still no motorway south of Split, so it was onto the coast road with the trucks and buses belching diesel fumes and the occasional suicidal driver.

What a fantastic ride that was, perfect blue sky, not too hot about 25c and a twisty road with a spectacular view of the sea and the islands.

It took longer than anticipated to get to Dubrovnik, its not the sort of road you can do quickly, due to the great views and demanding nature of the road.

Following the breakup of Yugoslavia the geography of the countries can be a little confusing and you have to drive into a bit of Bosnia Herzegovina then back into Croatia to get to Dubrovnik.

The traffic jam getting into Dubrovnik was crazy, and by now it was getting hotter, I stopped at a cyber cafe for a cold drink and search for a cheap hotel in town, but again nobody seemed keen on a one night stay, the guy running the cyber cafe was very helpful and rang around to see what was available, but no luck.

Dubrovnik is a truly beautiful city, but gets very overcrowded in peak season, plus there is a motorway being built from Split which will make the traffic and overcrowding much worse, so if you want to see this lovely city, go now.

So it was back on the bike and head further south. Despite the clear blue sky on this photo, I was in heavy rain 30 min later.

Soon I came to the border with Montenegro, a lot of bike insurance/green cards do not cover this country and a insurance guy was doing brisk business selling extra cover to hapless travellers. The border official briskly ordered sight of all my bike documents, but I was already covered, so reluctantly they let me go on.

The road in this part of the world require very special care when it rains, some is OK but occasionally its like riding on a diesel slick.

The local currency in Montenegro is Euro so very straight forward, but I found the language very difficult, but again my German was understood in most places.

The first few towns in Montenegro I passed through were not as picturesque as Croatia, but fairly soon the rain cleared and I found a real gem, Perast. A village with origins in the 16th century this picturesque village matched anything I had seen around the Med.


I get a small double room in the Conte Hotel, expensive but very comfortable.

After putting my bike panniers into my room I take a short ride down the coast and go for a swim.

Like most of the coast in this region its a stony shoreline, but the water is very clear and after a hot day on the bike fantastically refreshing and quite salty.





That night for dinner I order a "sea food platter" a magnificent selection of large juicy prawns, squid, etc etc and a very good bottle of Montenegro Sauvignon white.