Up the Hill at Kotor
I promised you a boat trip but...
I launched myself out of bed, shower, into my shorts and headed to the 3euro toll booth to the turret walk before I talked myself out of it (oh you'll miss breakfast, it will be hot, you only have jandels on, you don't have a map etc etc).
Now, yesterday, Ivan (Intrepid Tour Guide) said "I encourage you all to climb the track to the fortress - don't go in jandels though" or words to that effect. Bah, last year I walked it in jandels, and sto raditi (what to do), I left my sports shoes in France. In the bin.
Up I went - by half way I was dripping like a tap, and it was only 7.15am.
Check out those steps!
My actual destination was a little church which two local people said didn't exist ('no, there is only one church up there') until I said, no, you climb 'kroz', through the turret wall. This church is my mecca so to speak. Small. Photogenic.
I climbed through said hole in the wall, down the track following the obvious red dots painted on rocks. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. I was disappointed to see that the roof has started to cave in now, which means the colours of the remains of the frescos will fade quickly. I think the church is Sveti George. I was decidedly sweaty by now and had guzzled half of my bottle of water. And this is when sh*t gets crazy. I've told you before that you just need to show me a path and I will follow it... and I saw some red dots and saw other people walking. Just a bit up wouldn't hurt, right? There was a loud voice in my head reminding me of the jokes about Czech tourists in Croatia who set off up the Biokovo in jandels with half a bottle of water, and there I was, a seasoned tramper if you will, behaving irresponsibly. Of course I managed to suppress the voice by justifying my behaviour by telling myself that I had four young people (loud mouthed Americans saying "like" and "I" more times in a sentence than I had heard for a while) and another three of the same genre behind me. Ha, if I slipped or was bitten by a snake, then they could help me...
An hour further up the mountain and I passed the Young Americans sitting in the shade of the one tree - I asked if they knew how much further it was (not having a map and having absolutely no idea where I was going except for up) and they thought it was a five hour round trip. I'd been walking for two. Five minutes later there was a fork in the road, a direction sign (cue weird music).
I picked the closest destination, a village an hour away. The gravel path changed to a narrower track, steeper and harder to walk in my jandels, with trees on either side. Not a sound.
Ok, at this point I really acknowledged I was being stupid, (down to a third of a bottle of water, a Small Bottle) and gave myself ten more minutes. The forest seemed to be clearing, so gave myself another ten minutes... and lo, I heard traffic and I was in the village of Zanjev Do (with a zh on the Z). With a cafe, and a toilet and water. See, not so stupid now huh...
(check out how high above the town this is)
I chatted to a man who was doing his old house up - he asked me why I spoke Serbian, and asked me why I had no shoes on (didn't I now about SNAKES?). Well yes, I do know about snakes, but sto raditi - when you are stupid and want to walk, what to you do..
I asked him what this interesting thing was and he explained that it was for grinding wheat and millet. With a horse walking around pulling a heavy thing - gone on, use your imagination. The rock on one side says 1904. Cool.
The walk down was a lot faster, motivated by the black clouds and the sporadic heavy drops of rain. My timing was perfect - boat trip departing at 1, check, currently 12.10, check. Enough time for a drink in a cafe - check into the wifi - oh... text from Ivan, boat trip time advanced to 12 - missed it! So sorry guys, took you up the mountain, but not on the boat trip. It was thundering by then anyway, you wouldn't have enjoyed it - quietly glad that after 5 hours walking, dripping in perspiration, I could shower and just sit quietly in a cafe and watch the hilarity of cruise ship tours in the pouring rain!
I launched myself out of bed, shower, into my shorts and headed to the 3euro toll booth to the turret walk before I talked myself out of it (oh you'll miss breakfast, it will be hot, you only have jandels on, you don't have a map etc etc).
Now, yesterday, Ivan (Intrepid Tour Guide) said "I encourage you all to climb the track to the fortress - don't go in jandels though" or words to that effect. Bah, last year I walked it in jandels, and sto raditi (what to do), I left my sports shoes in France. In the bin.
Up I went - by half way I was dripping like a tap, and it was only 7.15am.
Check out those steps!
I climbed through said hole in the wall, down the track following the obvious red dots painted on rocks. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. I was disappointed to see that the roof has started to cave in now, which means the colours of the remains of the frescos will fade quickly. I think the church is Sveti George. I was decidedly sweaty by now and had guzzled half of my bottle of water. And this is when sh*t gets crazy. I've told you before that you just need to show me a path and I will follow it... and I saw some red dots and saw other people walking. Just a bit up wouldn't hurt, right? There was a loud voice in my head reminding me of the jokes about Czech tourists in Croatia who set off up the Biokovo in jandels with half a bottle of water, and there I was, a seasoned tramper if you will, behaving irresponsibly. Of course I managed to suppress the voice by justifying my behaviour by telling myself that I had four young people (loud mouthed Americans saying "like" and "I" more times in a sentence than I had heard for a while) and another three of the same genre behind me. Ha, if I slipped or was bitten by a snake, then they could help me...
An hour further up the mountain and I passed the Young Americans sitting in the shade of the one tree - I asked if they knew how much further it was (not having a map and having absolutely no idea where I was going except for up) and they thought it was a five hour round trip. I'd been walking for two. Five minutes later there was a fork in the road, a direction sign (cue weird music).
(check out how high above the town this is)
I chatted to a man who was doing his old house up - he asked me why I spoke Serbian, and asked me why I had no shoes on (didn't I now about SNAKES?). Well yes, I do know about snakes, but sto raditi - when you are stupid and want to walk, what to you do..
I asked him what this interesting thing was and he explained that it was for grinding wheat and millet. With a horse walking around pulling a heavy thing - gone on, use your imagination. The rock on one side says 1904. Cool.
The walk down was a lot faster, motivated by the black clouds and the sporadic heavy drops of rain. My timing was perfect - boat trip departing at 1, check, currently 12.10, check. Enough time for a drink in a cafe - check into the wifi - oh... text from Ivan, boat trip time advanced to 12 - missed it! So sorry guys, took you up the mountain, but not on the boat trip. It was thundering by then anyway, you wouldn't have enjoyed it - quietly glad that after 5 hours walking, dripping in perspiration, I could shower and just sit quietly in a cafe and watch the hilarity of cruise ship tours in the pouring rain!
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