Godspeed to Olympos, Thu, 21 Sep 2023 | written by Simon
Simon at a Cave, City, Mountain in Europe, Montenegro

My toe is feeling better today and I’m pumped up with some seaside energy, do time to resume the action!

Last night, I drove up to Podgorica’ famed Niagara waterfall and… found it empty. The rock water bed with it’s massive formations contained but a tiny trickle of a stream. Turns out that the waterfall is seasonal and now it’s simply not the time! But that is absolutely no loss, because the river bed with it’s jagged rocks shaped by the seasonal flow is amazing.

The club restaurant that’s next to it is also rather amazing. It’s huge, all wood, and has a waterfall inside! It’s no high art, but it’s got style for sure.

I took some scenic roads passing by a gorgeous viewpoint of a long arm of the Shkodra Lake, snaking between the mountains at Pavlova Strana. I explored the nearby villages with their medieval Bridges and communist memorial monuments. I wanted to find my way into a wild cave called Papa but it turned out that I’m getting that requires 3-hour hike.

Instead, I went to the more civilized Lipa Cave. That’s your stock standard active limestone cave with the usual rock formations. Still, it was nice to break things up a bit, seaside, monasteries and mountains do get a bit samey after a while. Also, the Guide was fun and knowledgeable.

I got to the cave just as it started raining. I can’t complain – so far the weather has been absolutely gorgeous. For the rest of the day it was all cloudy and mostly raining.

Later in the afternoon I got the Cetinje, the old Royal capital of Montenegro. It is surprisingly tiny. It’s really just a little town stuck in the valley between mountains in which someone has put a bunch of (rather modest) palaces. It does have a very pleasant chill feel to it though.

The road from Cetinje to Kotor is meant to be one of the most scenic routes in the whole of Montenegro. I started ascending it from the southwest side heading for the Mausoleum of Petar II Petrovic-Njegos, which is on top of the mountain. As I was going, however, the gorgeous views gave way to more and more clouds and rain. In the end, it was a proper downpour. As I got to the top, it cleared up for a little while, but with the coming darkness there was little views to be seen. No matter, the forecast for tomorrow is good, so I should be able to get the best of views of Montenegro.