The whiskey did it’s job and we slept comfortably warm that night! These campgrounds with hot showers are a luxury and in these cheaper Eastern European countries they’re also somewhat affordable! Packed up and back in the muddy Troopy we hit the road again northbound for Serbia. This was a potentially problematic border crossing as due to COVID restrictions, Australia was not on the approved list for entry via land borders. Not for any other reason that we believe these countries worked on a reciprocal basis; if they’re not on Australia’s approved list, Australias not on theirs. This was the route we needed to take though to get to Romania so with clear copies of all our documentation in hand we decided to try our luck and attempt the crossing. The border lies over a canyon and due to the topography the gates are actually kilometres apart, connected by a road which runs along the bottom. Arriving at the Serbian border it turns out we had nothing to worry about, the crossing was seamless, the officials friendly and welcoming, and we were on our way again.
Our destination for the day is a large snaking river canyon known as Uvac Canyon. We had two options to get there - Google, or Maps.me. Following Google would see us continue on the nice smooth easy road through the gorge, Maps.me had an alternate route which apparently was an hour faster. Although main roads may be easy they can also breeze past culture and are often altered with niceties for travellers. We prefer to see more of a country’s everyday life and as our time here was short we opted for the wild card Maps.me route. Climbing up and out of the populated area it didn’t take long before we were off the black top again and into the mud. Passing a huge dairy farm we found Maps.me evidently hadn’t been updated recently and the road had been washed away. Thankfully we still had reception and managed to make out on Google satellite what looked to be a road (unmarked) not far back that traversed around the damaged section.
Now back on course the new track bought us out of the muddy wooded slopes and on top of a gentle rolling plateau. A shepherd moving his herd blocked the track so we stopped for a quick chat. We were a long way from any western tourist route up here so it must have been an odd sight for him. Oddly, hiking across the field was also a group of Serbian landscape photographers. They happened to make our social media details on the back of the Troopy and sent us some pics later of us trying to break through the herd. So thanks if you’re reading this!
As it turns out, and to no surprise or care, our Map.me adventure costs us double what it said it was going to save and we made it to the canyon just as the sun was setting. The walk from the parking area is several hundred metres over a small hill to a little rickety timber viewing platform. The platform sits over the edge of the canyon as it takes an incredible form, carving through the landscape, continually folding back on itself as if it’s been compressed end to end. The high water mark forms a perfect contrasting two tone divide along the canyon walls., something not usually visible earlier in the season. The sky is clear and filled with countless golden eagles and vultures (endangered griffon vultures) soaring collectively in the evening thermals. We watch the sunset over the farms on the opposing side and as night falls the temperature plunges so we hastily make the hike back to the warmth of the Troopy.
Welcome back to Montenegro. In the last episode we made our way out of the incredible Albanian
Alps and into the muddy mountains of Montenegro. In this episode we have an unexpected change
of direction and head west as we edge closer to our final destination.
So this is the campground where we stayed last night and the restaurant is just up in
this building up here. I had a pretty good night's sleep. I think it was definitely something
to do with all the brandy shots that he kept giving us. Yeah it was pretty cold last night.
It's definitely cooled down a lot today. We've had to pull out a few of our warmer jackets.
Now we are actually heading off to Serbia. So it's about a 50km drive from here to the
border and then we're going to continue about another 50km to a viewpoint of a river that
has these S-bends in it. So that should be pretty cool. And the truck is still absolutely
filthy so if we see a car wash we might just stop there and give it a quick little bath.
But yeah, that's what we're doing today. So we've just stopped in at this town here. I
had to get some money out because we didn't have any left on us so I thought I'll just
get 200 euros out hoping that it would give me 50s and then I can just use them to exchange
for whatever in the next couple of countries. I have never been to an ATM where it's given
you more than a 50 but just then I got two 100s out and that is so inconvenient when
travelling because literally nobody wants to change 100. And they're suspicious as well.
Yeah they're always like, is this real? It said it's Sunday so the bank's not open. Nowhere's
open for me to change it into anything smaller. It's only fun buying lunch. Anyway, so we've
got about 20km till we get to the border. The sky has cleared up a lot so the sun's
come out. It was actually forecast to come out at midday and it was like bang on to the
minute the sun came out. It was lovely. It's the first time in the forecast it's actually
been pretty right. Yeah, not complaining. So we've just crossed into Serbia and nice
and easy border crossing which was awesome. I think it was like 5 minutes either side
a few kilometres between each border post because we're actually driving through the
middle of a gorge or a canyon. So now we're just going to follow this up to where we're
going tonight to the river. So I think it'll be a nice day driving through these beautiful
mountains. So I just went for a walk up the track. That's why I'm a little bit puffed.
And actually you can't get through anymore. It's all washed away and there's exposed all
the rocks and they're about a metre high. So not even the trooper will get past that.
So I just checked on Google Maps. It looks like they've cut another road in which bypasses
the whole farm. So we're going to just turn around and go back there and just try and
get around that way. I've got a funny feeling that we're going to have a dirty trooper again.
I don't know how this keeps happening. There's another bit of mud flinging up. Maybe because
Google was telling us that we could have gone on the nice paved roads through the canyon
and it would have been an hour longer. But our GPS was telling us that we could come
this way over the mountain. And I thought, well, what have we got to lose? We've got nowhere to be.
And I'm glad we do. I mean, coming on tracks like this, it's just a forbidden path.
It's a part of the country. Nobody else. So in other words, let's just trust the GPS to
give us a good time. Let's trust the trooper to get us where we need to go. Look at this.
To where we walked to go have a look at the lookout of the river. It was a pretty fun drive
here. Don't you reckon? We've often joked throughout the trip like that. So we put open
source mapping onto our Garmin GPS. So we just go on these and it's the same mapping, which is on
the app Maps.me. So we've often joked that we go on these Maps.me adventures and
they always turn out to be fun. A much more unique experience. Yes, definitely. So anyway, now we're
walking up to the lookout. I don't think it's only maybe like half a kilometre or something,
not too far and just in time for sunset. I think it's good timing. As in Australia,
the sheep's tails are cut off for hygiene. And I've never seen sheep's tails that long
or kangaroo's tail. This is so long and fluffy. So that was the coldest night that we've had
in a very long time. It was negative five when we went to bed and it was about nine o'clock this
morning. It was still zero. So everything was frozen. There was a pretty heavy frost over the
ground. All the water and stuff from where we went off road yesterday over the car was all frozen.
The canvas. The canvas. So we had the roof up. We actually slept down the bottom again.
We had the roof up when we were cooking dinner and when I pulled it down, all the canvas like
creaked and cracked and it was just all frozen. But beautiful outlook here. This is where we came
after we went to the canyon. In this region, just like in the Stans, it's just pretty much open
paddocks. So we found this one pretty easily. We've had a few shepherds come by with their flocks,
nice guys, young guys, pretty curious, which we haven't had in a while. But we also woke up to
some news changing in Romania, which is the next place we're going to head to. And we're going to
explore the Western side of Romania, but COVID is not going very well there. And we're about two
weeks off arriving in the UK. So they've upped the category of Romania in the UK at the moment.
So we don't want to risk potentially that going again higher and then whilst having complications
getting into the UK. So we're actually going to go to the North of Serbia now and then start
heading West into Croatia and start trying to get into those far Western countries. So if something
happens in the East here, we still have easy access into the UK where we're going to finish.
We don't want any more hurdles at this point of the trip. I mean, we came back to just get this
back home. So that's the main objective and that's what we want to focus on now. So that's
what we're going to do today. We're going to start heading North and then West. And then we're going
to try and just kind of beeline across those central kind of European countries. So Croatia
and then Italy and then France and then into the UK. So we plan to be in France,
so the UK in about a week or so. Yeah. So we probably won't do as much filming as we have
done traditionally, but we will be covering a lot of ground in the next few days. So it's been
beautiful exploring this Southern part of Serbia. We will check out a bit of the North and then
yeah, we'll show you what we can about the rest of the countries. So we spent the day driving across
Bosnia and the sun started to come out about midday. So that was really pretty. It was a really
lovely drive. We pretty much just drove through the mountains the whole time. So we've driven to
a city called Mosta, which is famous for its bridge where boys jump off it at, I think,
at 16. Right of passage. And that's how they become men. Are you going to jump off it?
But yeah, so we just came to a hostel and asked if we could camp there and have breakfast there.
So she's charging us 15 euros. That's not too bad, considering the campgrounds are the same
and we're right in the middle of town. But yeah, so we're just going to go check out the bridge now
and go and find somewhere for dinner. And it is such a romantic view. And we've actually come to
one of the local restaurants to have dinner. So I've ordered a traditional Bosnian dish,
which is the dolma and I think it's stuffed peppers with some beef and some rice and a
local beer, of course. And we're actually next to the smaller bridge of the main one. So this
one was built first just to make sure it was structurally right before they built the other
one. And yeah, I think it was actually reconstructed after a flood. 2001. It must have been a pretty
crazy flood to wash that away. Anyway, it's a great spot and I'm pretty hungry. And Joey's double parked.
I know, I just ordered a red one too because of speed. You came really quick with it.
We finished our quick trip across Bosnia. We are now in Croatia. We are heading south just over
these mountains and then we're going to punch out just near the coast. Once we get the coast, we're
going to head west and follow the coast road. I'm not sure exactly where we're going to get today,
but we've played by ear. We're going to leave tomorrow and we're going to head into Slovenia
and onto Italy. But that's essentially, as I mentioned the other day, what we're going to be
doing from now on. So spending a night in each of the countries and trying to experience a little
bit of the culture in that short amount of time that we can. But doing that in Bosnia was really
good. The landscape, the architecture was just amazing. The people were really friendly. And now
in Croatia, it is a bit of a shame we are in the off season and we don't get to really experience
that. But it is very accessible, just like most of this part of Europe. So we can easily come back
here. The weather has significantly improved here. So it's nowhere near the temps we're experiencing
over in Serbia. So I don't know, maybe Dolly might be tempted to get in the water.
With the end right around the corner, make sure to catch the next one. Thanks for watching. See ya.
