Week 24 (Sutomore): exploring Montenegro

For our first week in Sutomore our task work wise was to lay some concrete in the garden. This would be another first, for me at least. We weeded the area to be concreted, lay some miscellaneous metal parts down, which apparently makes the resulting area stronger, and then we got mixing. The process involved mixing cement, aggregate, sand and water in the cement mixer, tipping it out into a wheelbarrow, and then dumping it onto the floor and smoothing it all out. It's not overly difficult but it took longer to cover the area than I thought it would, and making sure it's all level takes patience. We had some great views of the hillside and of the sea to admire during our breaks though.



Charles and Tamara were happy for us to get involved with the twins and we were happy to help out where needed. From our first day we got involved with feeding the twins at meal times, and just generally keeping them entertained around the house. They loved a good chase. Tamara speaks to Sally and Stuart in both English and Montenegrin (Charles only speaks English) but the twins haven't started speaking yet so at least we didn't have a language barrier to worry about with them. They are adorable and already have different personalities despite being twins.

Sally (left) and Stuart (right)

We were lucky enough to be insured on Tamara's Suzuki Jimny (right hand drive) meaning we were free to go off exploring Montenegro at the weekend. On Saturday we took it relatively easy (we had been warned that the drivers and roads in Montenegro can be a little crazy) so we drove to Stari Bar, or Old Bar in English, the next town over. Stari Bar was destroyed by an earthquake in 1979 so the town was abandoned and the new town of Bar was established nearer the coast. We had a nice walk around the ruins and got some great pictures of the scenery.



On Sunday we set off on a bigger road trip. We drove up the coast, surrounded by mountains the whole time, with the top down on the Jimny. Our first stop was Kotor, on the Bay of Kotor. The old town of Kotor has a similar feel to Dubrovnik. The city walls disappear up the mountain side and you can hike the whole way along them. However, it was midday and VERY hot when we arrived so we just walked part-way up so that I could get the iconic Kotor photo.




From Kotor we continued around the bay to Perast, a beautiful much quieter town than Kotor.




From Perast we drove on around the bay to a car ferry to get us back across to where we started. From here we drove through Tivat and stopped at Sveti Stefan for another photo opportunity at sunset on the way home.




The day was so much fun and we are so grateful to have use of a car! We did encounter a little of the crazy driving we were warned about, but nothing too bad (although that's easy for me to say when I didn't do any of the driving!).

Our route

Total joint spend: €2765