April 27, 2023
Near Bar to Budva
Camping with a toddler was a significant improvement compared to last summer. We still got up at 5:30am, but that happens wherever we stay it seems. At least when you camp you go to bed earlier so it feels more appropriate. The problem with 5:30am starts is that it was still pretty chilly and no one except Tobias "all done bed" really felt like getting moving.
Despite the early start we still weren't underway until closer to 10 than 9. Tobias was having a super clingy morning (perhaps tired from getting up at 5:30) and packing up camp solo is just harder. We enjoyed the descent into Bar, except for the angry pet dogs that came out on the road to bark at James then turned around delighted to have Tobias and I to snarl at. I had to stop because they were getting too close to my ankles. The owner came out and yelled at them so we could get under way. Once we hit the coast we turned straight into a headwind on a busy highway. We both felt hungry, probably after yesterday's efforts, so we stopped at a store for snacks.
Satiated, we got back onto the highway and started climbing. The road was terrible - narrow and busy and full of buses and trucks. We've specifically not included much riding on the coast for this reason, but today was unavoidable. Most traffic was pretty respectful except one orange truck that passed us twice (or 2 orange trucks with similarly shitty drivers). The first time we were climbing on the inside of a corner and it came past us giving us no room and blasting it's horn right alongside us. I'm not sure where they expected us to go or what they wanted us to do with the knowledge that they were right there. The second time was on a descent where we were stuck behind a concrete mixer but the orange truck decided to pass us on a blind corner anyway then pulled into James blasting their horn when traffic came against them. They were never going to get past the concrete mixer safely, so I'm not sure what they expected to achieve.
We stopped not long after in Sutomore to get some lunch supplies then carried on uphill with the traffic. We gave a big wave to some cycle tourists heading the other direction but we didn't stop because they were flying down and we needed to get moving. A biggish tunnel surprised us so we stopped and put our lights on. It was pretty terrifying in the dark hearing the trucks coming up behind us, but it wasn't too long and we didn't die. We needed to stop and have some lunch, but it was pretty tricky to find somewhere with space for Tobias to move around. Eventually we found a seemingly abandoned driveway for our sandwiches then hit the climb again. Tobias was asleep before we even got moving.
The last part of the climb had a slow vehicles lane so that was much better and we could get a proper rhythm going. The descent was glorious, except for the orange truck incident, then after no time we were back on a steep climb to almost the same elevation as we'd just left. Tobias again complied and slept through all the climbing and woke up as we turned off the highway into Sveti Stefan. We pushed on and took a chance turning down the the beach near Przno. It paid off and was a glorious tiny sandy bay, complete with some kind of Montenegrin dance party.
We enjoyed an ice-cream, dipping our toes in the water and people watching before getting back on the bikes for the last 8km to Budva. We had the last proper climb out of town. Tobias was very supportive "go Mama go". Again, we had a slow vehicle lane which gave us a bit more space. We rode along the beachfront in Budva then uphill to our apartment for the next 3 nights. I didn't screen it very well so we had about 50 stairs to climb with all the gear and the bikes which was a bit much after the climbing of the day, but we made it.
After a quick shower we headed down to pick up groceries for dinner and give Tobias a blast on his own bike. I was too tired for grocery shopping and bought too many of not the right things, but we managed to get everyone fed and a very tired Tobias off to bed. I'm not going to be far behind him.
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Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 483 km (300 miles)
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1 year ago