Durmitor to the border
Date: June 13–17, 2025
June 13 | Trsa to Žabljak
On the TD plan, this looks like a rest day: just 40 km and 866 m of climbing, ending at the same altitude we began. It would have been an easy morning stroll if it weren’t for having to dismount so often to give our heads time to absorb the place.
We were in Durmitor National Park, one of Montenegro’s top attractions, especially for motorbike tourers, who were there in their hundreds. We seem to belong to their tribe — they wave and shout encouragement as they pass, even though our bikes would almost fit inside their giant panniers and their motors are 200 times more powerful.
It’s a good day when you end up with empty legs and a full head. Notes I made that evening will have to do:
1000+ m vertical mountain face that looked like someone had folded thick layers of toffee, then stomped on them – millions of years of work. A small farm at the base was barely noticeable with its steep A frame house with a pen full of calves with the zoomies, and vegetable crops on recently tilled plots going right up to the base of the folded, twisted layers of rock dwarfing them.
Turkish coffee in a tiny isolated shack.
Shepherds with bell-ringing flocks, forcing us to live at their pace for a while.
Wildflowers stretching to the horizon.
Isolated scatterings of the typical narrow steep A-frame houses, looking like giants’ axes.
Stecci – strange medieval tombstones scattered all over the Balkans, but especially around here.
A 500 m swoop down from the 1900 m pass into Žabljak.
June 14 | Žabljak
We’d noticed a chairlift operating as we rode into town last night and chorused, “That’s us.” It climbs the 2300 m Savin Kuk – a ski field in winter – using old-school open chairs, the second lift almost vertical, leaving only a short 200 m walk to the summit. Usually views are like fireworks – you go wow, then get bored and want to leave. But I didn’t want to move. Ever.
We did move, because another of Montenegro’s Great Sights lies a few kilomtres out of town – the Tara Canyon. It’s a short 30-minute walk to the rim during which we saw a snake and a deer, and met a wonderfully grizzled cowherd who fist-bumped us in greeting because we had walked very gently past his small herd. He talked to us passionately and unintelligibly, and I regret not taking a photo as he thumped his chest trying to express how proud he was of his country.
The canyon itself took up no storage space on my phone
June 15 | Žabljak to Kolašin
I hate it when dad jokes become earworms. All day I was muttering, “Kolašin – soothes while it heals” and “Ask your doctor if Kolašin is right for you.”
This was a beautiful ride for an eMTB. Both the TD notes and the TD Travellers FB group warned of “the climb” and the gravel. It started innocently enough – 30 km, mostly downhill, with a tailwind. Then came the 500 m twisting and winding ascent over 5 km – up to 18% in places, and mostly well over 10%. This is exactly why we brought eMTBs – nice to have on most days, essential today.
The 20 km of gravel was much easier than the infamous Mostar leg. We were treated to the usual gobsmacking scenery and the best serpentine downhill so far, an 800 m vertical drop into Kolašin.
We stayed at the supremely hospitable Guesthouse Sandra, where our host greeted us with apple brandy, washed our very dusty bikes, and made us mountain tea after dinner – a short walk away in the pedestrianised town centre.
June 16 | Kolašin to Stavna
A 600 m unbroken climb took us to a saddle in the Accursed Mountains, then another 200 m up to our best overnight stay yet. A cluster of privately owned cabins nestles into the national park at Komovi. Ours had no windows, minimal cooking, a fridge, two beds, and firewood.
Usually there’s a restaurant operating up there – not tonight we were informed, rather gleefully I felt, by the young woman next door, which turned out to be a good turn. Leftovers from Sandra’s breakfast and some rice, eaten by a crackling campfire as the sun set on the mountains, made for a meal better than any restaurant could offer. Free-range cows tried to join us, locals waved as they walked to the communal well (we had plumbing), and we felt profoundly privileged to be there.
June 17 | To Gusinje and Our Last Night in Montenegro
The Accursed Mountains are the range around this part of the border, and there are two theories about the name. One involves Satan chucking rocks around which I’m inclined to believe, based on what we saw attributed to him in the Apennines a few weeks ago. The other blames a woman who cursed the mountains after being annoyed by her children while crossing them – if true that would mean there’d also be Accursed supermarkets and GP clinics, so I’m going with the devil.
The day started with our first real rain of the trip. We skipped the TD’s recommended gravel route in favour of sitting it out at the café at the saddle (also because The Navigator made a small, understandable and totally forgivable error). Edit: The Navigator calls this a fortuitous decision as the gravel route would have been ghastly in the rain.
We got our gravel anyway on the so-called sealed road alternative route – 10 km of heavy roadworks that turned the road into a deserted wonderland of wet switchbacks as the heavy traffic was delayed and we were ushered through. We descended fast, wet, and increasingly cold until salvation came in the form of Café Radmilica.
Blanketed, drying by the fire, sipping hot cappuccinos, we were looked after and allowed to linger. I wrote their five-star Google Maps review while thawing, bless them.
A few hundred vertical metres later, the road flattened, the sun emerged, and in the town of Andrijevica we found fresh bureks straight out of the oven. We sped on to Gusinje – our last stop in Montenegro.
Except we have a plan. We’re not quite finished yet. Once we’ve played in Albania for a few days, we’ll be back for one last thing.
Max elevation: 1901 m
Min elevation: 1376 m
Total climbing: 1037 m
Total descent: -1015 m
Total time: 07:55:43
Max elevation: 1546 m
Min elevation: 1428 m
Total climbing: 513 m
Total descent: -504 m
Total time: 06:57:46
Max elevation: 1747 m
Min elevation: 938 m
Total climbing: 1233 m
Total descent: -1739 m
Total time: 06:39:00
Max elevation: 1764 m
Min elevation: 943 m
Total climbing: 981 m
Total descent: -201 m
Total time: 04:30:20
Max elevation: 1763 m
Min elevation: 756 m
Total climbing: 814 m
Total descent: -1624 m
Total time: 06:52:14
This is glorious cycling Steve & Jill. Stunning stuff, love your photos, maps of your daily rides, the altitude maps and your blog. I say, you doing some climbing there and wonderful downhills in such impressive landscapes. What a fabulous ride.