We start early, and see frost on our car. The early start allows us to get in a hike
before we start driving along the Tara Canyon.
This is the second longest canyon in the world, and one of the
deepest. It is Europe’s answer to the
Grand Canyon, yet it is not very well known.
Our hike is short, only about 3km long, and only going up 100m from the
car park to a viewing spot over the canyon at about 1625m, yet it is almost
1000m above the canyon floor. Later we
drive to a viewing point at almost 2000m, which is nearly 1500m up.
We leave Durmitor and begin the long drive back to the coast. This involves driving up the Tara Canyon for over 50km (although this is only a third of its length) and it is an amazing drive. At times the road seems to be touching both sides of the canyon, other times it can be quite wide. We lunch by a famous bridge across the canyon, risking our car’s ability to get out by driving down a very steep road to get to the water’s edge.
The Tara Canyon drive is one of the great drives in Montenegro, but we still have another one to go, the Moraca Canyon. In any other country this would be one of the great drives, and engineering marvels, but here it plays second fiddle to Tara (actually the Zeta from yesterday would be number 1 in most places, here it it’s not even in the top 3). I said yesterday that Montenegro may be second to New Zealand, but now I think it may be number one for beauty per square mile. Again we stop many times for photos, and by the end of this canyon Dorota and I are both so overwhelmed by the beauty that we are beginning to get quite blasé about it.
Our beauty meter can take a rest as we drive through the outskirts of Podgorica, which is not very pretty like so many citires. We get another hit as we rejoin the coast and drive along it at sunset. We end up in Budva, which is a real built up Mediterranean type resort, although again it has an old walled town, and again with a bit of help from tourist information we score a nice apartment in the old town.
We leave Durmitor and begin the long drive back to the coast. This involves driving up the Tara Canyon for over 50km (although this is only a third of its length) and it is an amazing drive. At times the road seems to be touching both sides of the canyon, other times it can be quite wide. We lunch by a famous bridge across the canyon, risking our car’s ability to get out by driving down a very steep road to get to the water’s edge.
The Tara Canyon drive is one of the great drives in Montenegro, but we still have another one to go, the Moraca Canyon. In any other country this would be one of the great drives, and engineering marvels, but here it plays second fiddle to Tara (actually the Zeta from yesterday would be number 1 in most places, here it it’s not even in the top 3). I said yesterday that Montenegro may be second to New Zealand, but now I think it may be number one for beauty per square mile. Again we stop many times for photos, and by the end of this canyon Dorota and I are both so overwhelmed by the beauty that we are beginning to get quite blasé about it.
Our beauty meter can take a rest as we drive through the outskirts of Podgorica, which is not very pretty like so many citires. We get another hit as we rejoin the coast and drive along it at sunset. We end up in Budva, which is a real built up Mediterranean type resort, although again it has an old walled town, and again with a bit of help from tourist information we score a nice apartment in the old town.
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