Van Life On The Edge: Terrifying Drive in Montenegro

We had a good night here at our little parking lot campsite down here just outside of the old city of Kotor. We had a fantastic day yesterday so if you missed that video you're going to want to see that. This city is amazing. But today we have secured the van. We have taken the kitties for a walk. We have cozied up all Vanna's pillows on the couch because that's where she feels comfy. And we've built G a fort back in the bed. He loves a fort. Now they're getting a little extra special loving this morning because today we are headed up to the top of a mountain. Which means we go up a road. What's the name of the road? The Kotor Serpentine. A snake. And on the map it looks pretty gnarly. We've read the reviews. It says if you know your rig and you're comfortable driving it you can get up there. I think we've got enough experience to say we know the rig. We've done some crazy serpentines and some crazy death roads that's for sure. And there's also a national park at the top of this mountain so let's go for a ride. Yeah and I'm telling you guys this Bay of Kotor is special. Yeah we're supposed to get the best views of all from up top. All right we are pulling out of our camp spot. It was $15 per night to stay here. There were no sort of services. No water, no electric, anything like that. But it was super close to this little old downtown walled city and the magical bay. And it was kind of quiet and convenient and we were able to walk the cats. So we're not complaining about nothing. This place is amazing. Snow are you ready for this drive? Yeah first I gotta get out of here. Okay here we go. I guess I'm ready. Right in front of us is that big old wall we climbed. Wow look at the old town and that wall and those stunning mountains back there. Guys this place is just gorgeous. Wow. I am starting to get butterflies and I gotta tell you the higher we get up the views just keep getting prettier. But I am glad snow's driving today so I get to watch this beautiful serpentine. And we're not even there and if you guys can see how sharp this curve is our van will barely make it and stay inside the lanes but at least that was the case. At least for now. One of the things that's nerve-wracking about the serpentine is it's only one and a half lanes wide. So if you encounter another vehicle especially if you're as wide as we are somebody's probably going to have to back up. Now we've been on roads like this where it was just one lane wide and we've had to back up and it is scary when it happens. If we get lucky we will only encounter other cars at suitable passing points. Who knows what it'd be like to back down the serpentine. Here we go. It's going to be a good one of those guys. All right the roads just got narrower by you know that's 50 percent. This is now a one lane road and I when I say one lane I do not necessarily mean one-way traffic and on that particular curve snow had to back up to make it around. This is gonna be interesting. I missed one as co-pilot but the Google lady took us this way which is sort of a little more of a back way kind of a sketch road versus sort of the more main path. So I actually believe this part of the adventure might be harder than the serpentine. Snows happen to back it up and these hills are this is steep. This is really steep guys. This is one of the steeper roads we've probably ever been on. It's steep. So we're gonna have to just consider it a warm-up. Now it's turned into like a concrete road that's hand poured. It's really rough. Watch this rock hun. You want me to drive it? Branches are hitting the side of the van. That is about as steep as we can go. I think we need to pull over here and rest the engine for a second. This is steep guys. We're gonna we're gonna stop and rest the engine for just a minute here. Let it cool down. We are we are pushing this thing to get up here. Oh this is a tight one guys. Take my phone off the floor. Take the next right onto R-1. It's a serpentine right? Watch these branches over here. In 200 meters sharp left onto P-1. I think I can go right here. Yeah you can. Are you sure? Yeah. I hope you don't bottom out. Should I back up? Let me get out and look. I don't know if we can make that turn. She's got us making down there. Is this the road? I don't think so. This road's not on there. No okay so we keep going. And we're kind of a ways from that. Yeah I'm gonna back up and I'm gonna go like she says. All right. Yeah I think we might end up. Yeah easy peasy. He's trying Kurt. It's gravity. I got the brakes all the way All right this is crazy. We're having to back up here. The road is too steep. We bottom out trying to top over that. See what I need you to be ready to do is pull the emergency brake Kurt because we're we're going whether she wants to go or not. Okay I'm gonna make the serpentine look easy I think. I think this is gonna make the serpentine look easy. This is crazy guys. This has gotten real intense real fast. Some of these slopes are not only tall for the van but some of the angles make it a little scary too. We're gonna make this turn right here. And we have a big huge s-curve coming up. Take the next left onto P1. Looks like there's a little driveway or something. We have to go up this slope. There ain't nothing to do going this way. I hope we don't bottom out. There ain't nothing to do. Kind of try to go that way and then we'll swing wide and back up. Yeah. All right if you guys look down this road right here that's the road that google should have taken us on. Or the co-pilot should have looked at the google and made sure. Let's share the blame a little. But I should have checked it too as the driver. But we are. That was a heck of an adventure. Sweaty hands. All right I think we're better now. That was nervous guys. That was nervous. But look at the view. Wow. I gotta tell y'all that is the first time I have ever told Kurt be ready to drop the emergency brake when we had to back up. Because I didn't think our brakes would stop us as steep as that was. But we didn't have to do it. So down here on the right is Kotar. So there's just where we came from. You can see this little serpentine. That was easy peasy. But then we came up through all this residential mess on the back roads. Oh man that was all the stress snow needed for today. But if you're looking this on a flat map you wouldn't know there's a big mountain out in sort of the middle of this bay that divides the bay up into different sections. And if you can see straight out in front of us right now out there is sort of the strait that leads out into the ocean. So this mountain right here is kind of a peninsula that sticks out. What a stunning bay from up here. And I think as we move up the views are only going to get better. So we started down here at about an elevation of 15 to 20 because we were pretty much at sea level. We've come through here. Here's where the Google lady took us down that residential little dirt road and tried to kill us. But we survived. All right we are sitting right here right now. We're at about 1200 feet elevation and we're getting close to, there it is guys, there's the Serpentine Road. I have us stopping at the first view point so we can gather our thoughts and make sure we want to keep going up. But the plan is to head all the way up there to that green area, that national park. But look at this road. All right let's go. All right we are really rapidly approaching this after a short break. Yeah we needed a break. And we thought that might be the hardest part. I think we still think that. But there are definitely cars coming down the hill. We're gonna pass. And so we're gonna pass people the other way. And early on we're about to come up to the first switchback. But early on there are places where two cars can fit and a lot of places where two cars cannot. So hopefully if we do meet one of those cars it's in the strategic location where neither of us have to back up. And at this elevation the trees are changing. We're definitely seeing some taller I guess pines or evergreen trees. Definitely much taller and greener. Some different shrubs. So I think how what's the clear 1850 feet. So we are 1850 feet. I'll put how many meters that is on the screen. But we are climbing. All right here's switchback number two guys. Plenty of room. Not a problem. And look at the view back there. Really getting up where we can see the full bay. Look in here. Turn two. We still got a ways to go. Just getting started. Another switchback right here. We got about another five kilometers to go. How you doing snow? Doing okay. I think the crazy Google road from earlier was a good warm-up. That was that was a scary road. Yeah you have to pay attention. You're worried about cars coming. But if no cars come in a backup spot then this is going to be an amazing road. Montenegro has been a country for since 2006. I don't know when this road was built but whoever built this road you got to give them some credit. They did a phenomenal job. But the switchbacks are tight and the road does get narrow so I hope I And the fall is straight down. Another switchback. We are getting up there guys. Look at that. Wow you can see the sea out there for the first time. Here comes a car. Let's just stop right here. Don't keep going. Lean back please. All right we're backing out for the first time. You can get a little closer. You got six inches. Six inches. Six inches. Four inches. All right we made it around them. Good driving snow. Good driving snow. All right we just had another pass and we had about two inches and on one side. I don't know what the other side was. So uh and really guys it's straight down so I couldn't film that but I mean if you can look down there it's just like straight down so it's getting pretty intense. So we'll do as good a job as we can to film this but we really got to pay attention. So at each switchback there's a retaining wall and they have them numbered. Took me a little while to figure out what the numbers meant but we just passed switchback number 22. And that doesn't include the crazy ones we did down below. Yeah that's like its own separate road. That's not part of the serpentine. That is the serpentine times 1,000. But this road is stunning. There are some moments with sweaty palms but it is definitely a beautiful drive. I mean it's as stunning a drive as we've ever seen. It's gorgeous. All right if you're wondering we are at 2,600 feet altitude. Again I'll put the meters on the screen. So what are we going up to? 4,000? A little over 4,000 I believe and I'm not exactly sure. I guess we'll find out when we get up there. But we started at 17. So over 2,500 for the elevation gain. And my ears are popping for sure. Switchback number 24. If the map is right there's only 25. So we're almost done with this. And our plan to get the kitties snug as bugs in their favorite cozy little spots in the van has worked. They are calm. They are good. They haven't moved around or meowed. This has been a nice drive. They didn't even realize how crazy the first crazy road was. Hey guys and things just got a little bit more interesting. I don't know if you know what that little white stuff is on the side of the road. It's snow but not me. That's the real thing. The real deal. We are up at about 3,000 feet right now. So I think that's roughly a thousand meters give or take. So the snow line is 3,000 meters meaning we are 3,000 feet meaning we have about another thousand feet to go to summit. Now the destination up at the top of the mountain is the national park. I believe it's pronounced Lovcen. L-O-V-C-E-N. L-O-V-C-E-N. But you can see we're up here above the tree line and it is opened up and I think the switchbacks are done. And over here on the side of the mountain it stays in the shade. Well there's snow and ice. Now the switchbacks, the big ones seem to be done but the road's still narrow. There's still curves and I'm still watching for cars. So we have not made it to the top yet. And look here guys. If the switchbacks weren't interesting enough, throw in some snow and now we have a tunnel. At least it looks plenty tall. Plenty clearance. This is not one of those fancy tunnels. You can see there's icicles hanging off the wall. Look at that big cave back in there. All right right after that tunnel we saw a little cave back here on the side of the road. So we found a pull-off so you know me. Gotta go in here and check this thing out. All right you can see overhead these big giant icicles just dripping down here. And well I'm sure whenever there's a lot of rain or anything like that this is probably an active waterfall. You can see a little bit of ice dripping water dripping out but not a lot. Oh I see a bat up in there. Wow. Look at this huge cave up in here and you can see the light all the way. So the water comes right down through there. That would be an absolute stunning waterfall when there's water coming. I don't think you could get up in here to see it. Wow how cool is that. All right let's finish this drive guys. It really is just postcard view after postcard view. I'm still recovering. So there you can see Love Chin. All right we made it up here towards the top and we're kind of now we're in the mountains. We're just kind of wrapping around in amongst them. There is snow all over on the mountains up here. We told you we got to go to about 4,000 feet. We are at 3,800 feet right now and I can tell you we are still climbing and this road is pretty steep. And the view off and we can see back into the bay again and out into the sea. The views just continue to get better. You can see the big mountain range back behind us. Wow. I bet if there wasn't clouds there we could easily see Italy. Stunning. So we climbed from 15 feet to 4,000 feet in elevation. We went through 25 extreme switchbacks on the Serpentine Road. 10 minutes on one hell of a road that the Google lady took us on. That was quite honestly one of the scariest we've been on as far as the van being able to make it through. But we have made it to the top. About one hour of driving and it is worth every every sweaty palm gripping the steering wheel white knuckle moment. It is beautiful up here. We're gonna have some lunch with this magnificent view. Open the door for the kitties. Wow. The Serpentine Road of Montenegro. It ranks up there as one of the top. Guys this is an odd moment. G is on the dash. It's normally Vanna that's on the dash. I wonder what he's up to up there. G are you sculpting out Nanner's dash butt? You're a little too big for the dash buddy. Vanna's like hey get off my dash. There you go. I can't think of a better place to have lunch. What are you whipping up? We're gonna have some steak and chicken tacos. I got some cauliflower, some broccoli, some onion, some red pepper mixed in there. We're gonna go with a little cumin, a little paprika, a little garlic salt. I mean garlic and yeah we're gonna have some some nice tacos. Nice. Kurt is the chef and he has tips and tricks. I am the cleaner which means the forever dishwasher and there's not really any tips and tricks other than when you live in a van you really have to adjust to using a very little bit of water and washing dishes is a water hog. But I would like to think after almost five years I've gotten pretty good at it. But we had a good lunch. It's beautiful up here but guys we're up at 4,000 feet elevation and it's going to just get too cold up here tonight. Down probably in the mid to low 20s and we just don't want to do that so it's time to head down but we're not going back to Kotor. We're going somewhere else so let's go. There is a new driver in town. I pulled my duty this morning getting us up here. Kurt's got to get us down. For some reason she's still on the dash and so is Vanna. We are still in the national park and one thing about this national park I don't know if we're going to see it or not but somewhere within this park is a really big mountain that is mainly black stone so it's a black mountain which is how the country got its name Montenegro. Black mountain. So we'll keep an eye out for it. I don't think we're going to see it. I think you might have to hike up to it to get a good view of it but I still thought that was a cool way for a country to get its name. Big giant cool mountain. Now these trees kind of resemble aspens. Of course there's no leaves on them right now but I bet if these leaves turn yellow before they fall off this makes a beautiful drive because it's pretty just like this. Look at all the snow. Well today has been a roller coaster of emotions on this road. It started with the nerves and the butterflies knowing we were going up the switchback serpentine road and then it quickly turned to total and extreme fear when the google lady took us on the road that was a thousand times worse than the serpentine road. Then we made it off that road and we leveled back out. We went up the beautiful curvy road looking at all those beautiful views. We had lunch up top with one of the most magnificent views we've seen on this entire journey and lunch was yummy so that was high level for the day and then we got surprised. We got a huge surprise coming down off the back side of the mountain through the national park with the snowy treed landscape. It was absolutely stunning. Now we've come down out of the mountains and we've landed in a city. Now I'm not going to try to pronounce it. All I know about it is it's at one point was the former capital of Montenegro and it is spelled c-e-t-i-n-j-e and it's a pretty cool little town. So yeah lots of ups and downs and different emotions today but stunning stunning drive. We're about 20 minutes from what we hope will be our campsite. We are finally down in elevation enough that we are below the snow line so there's no more snow along the side of the road but we came around the curve we got one little glimpse of the sea out there and then these eerie clouds started rolling in over these mountains. I don't know if it's the sea breeze bringing in some haze or whatever but we're in the clouds. Yeah we can't see nothing. Well we can see a little bit but things are changing. Things are changing. So we drove out of the haze down on some switchbacks with some amazing views over the coastline of Montenegro looking down on one of their major cities Budva. We are about five minutes south of there where we have found a place where during the off season we believe we can keep the van parked. So this is going to be home and this is our front yard. Look out there at that beautiful sea. All right guys with that we're going to wind this video down. We will see you in a few days. Cheers guys. Cheers. If you like this video be sure to subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell so you guys know when we put out new videos. And don't forget you can always follow us over on Instagram to see what's going on in between videos. Cheers guys.