Stari Bar
Date: 22 – 26 June
Stari Bar | June 22 – 24
We had heard about Stari Bar on the southern coast of Montenegro, described as a non-commercialised old town (stari means “old”), which is almost unheard of in Europe. We’d seen one earlier on the Ciro Trail at Počitelj, but most restored historic areas tend to succumb to the same formula — neatly paved streets, every house converted into a café, souvenir shop, jewellery store or big-brand outlet like Esprit. Tourists love them and the locals move out. We usually avoid them.
Stari Bar turned out to be a good combination. The old castle and fort are run as an open-air museum with good, unobtrusive signage and very little restoration, aside from repairs to earthquake damage from the big one in 1979. The densely packed TMZ is limited to the original street leading up to the castle gates, and we missed it completely by taking a side route.
On the way — thanks to a Jill-led detour — we came across the oldest tree in Europe. Really! A 2,400-year-old olive tree, scruffy, gnarled, twisted and pockmarked old sweetie. Nearby groves are filled with 2,000-year-old olive trees still producing fruit – a testament to Bar’s long-standing title as the olive oil capital of the Balkans.
Our apartment for the two nights was a bit special. It sat high above the sea (290 steep steps up), with a wide view of the ocean. The owner also runs a four-table restaurant right on his private, concrete “beach,” serving food mostly caught by his own hand. As the sun set over the horizon and he delivered a plate of perfectly grilled octopus, I was inspired to make all my friends back home in wintery New Zealand as jealous as possible.
Tirane | June 24 – 25
We had to backtrack to Shkoder to rejoin the TD route, which meant a couple of long, hot days on the flat plains heading towards Tirana – 90 km one day, 83 the next. Some of it felt a bit third world: pony carts, and in one small village, a boy under an umbrella trying to sell canal fish from a bucket of warm water. But there were also cool motor scooter carts and a tiny tractor pulling a mountain of hay, with a few hitchhikers perched on top.
Tirana, on the other hand, is a different world. It’s full of tall modern buildings (Google “architecture in Tirana” – it’s worth a look), along with large mosques and the powerful Bunk’Art 2 museum. That one tells the story of Albania since 1913, with a focus on the Hoxha years from 1944 to 1993, when the country was heavily repressed and isolated. It was grim, but air conditioned.
It’s 35°C now and we’re taking a day off to plan our next steps. Rather than heading south into even more heat, we’re going north into North Macedonia, then back to the coast. From there we’ll cross to Corfu, then over to Italy, where we’ll fly out of Rome. From now on we’ll be riding in the early mornings and finding air-conditioned shelter in the afternoons to survive the Mediterranean summer.
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Max elevation: 173 m
Min elevation: 4 m
Total climbing: 611 m
Total descent: -567 m
Total time: 04:51:00
Max elevation: 231 m
Min elevation: 34 m
Total climbing: 492 m
Total descent: -484 m
Total time: 05:22:33
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Max elevation: 223 m
Min elevation: 0 m
Total climbing: 784 m
Total descent: -830 m
Total time: 06:57:05
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Max elevation: 252 m
Min elevation: -34 m
Total climbing: 798 m
Total descent: -686 m
Total time: 07:55:58
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Hello Steve & Jill
(I wrote a note, checked back to your diary for a moment and it’s disappeared. I’ll start again).
Thank you for your amusing and educational accounts of your travels. I have learned much about that region.
I also appreciate the technical analysis, I can’t imagine I would attempt a 500m serpentine!
Chris
Well we do have ebikes, but you do have to learn how much power you can use to eke out the battery so that it lasts all day. On Some of those big days we end up with empty batteries and empty legs.
There are people older than us doing thiis tour on manual bikes and with much heavier bags!
At my book club yesterday one person talked about Rebecca West’s Grey Lamb, Black Falcon. Interesting.