Well I normally start with what happened when I woke up at 7am but today it started around 1am when I heard the pitter patter on my inside tent. The nights have been hot so if I get the chance I just put up the tent and not the cover sheet. The night before last night I was lucky to have the storm pass me and I just slept in the sleeping bag and last night I was under some trees so I thought id be fine.
The rain started to get heavier, I quickly flung the outer sheet over the tent and it pretty much covered the corners so I was happy. The rain got heavier and the rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning suggested I was not going to get away with a quick shower! The next thing I know, I'm in the middle of the biggest electrical storm I have ever been in. Flashes are as constant as what Russell Crowe experiences on the red carpet, the thunder is shaking my waters like a scene from Jurassic Park and I am in the centre of a storm that lasts for over an hour. I couldn't believe it, the most unbelievable scenes of nature that I have experienced and I'm in a tent wishing I could just enjoy it all from a holiday balcony like the rest of them!
When I woke up to assess the damage there wasn't too much water in the tent as I hadn't actually clipped the outer sheet down but the trees took the brunt of the rain. The things outside were under a sheet but unfortunately Nigel took a soaking but he can handle it.
I had to head towards a town called Ulcinj today then head east to Shkodra and my 11th country! The road to Ulcinj was tough. My legs were tired, the road was poor and busy and the weather was hot. My challenges yesterday became a common occurrence today and I had to navigate through 3 pitch black tunnels. They've mastered the tunnelling equipment but not so sharp on the electrics here in Montenegro!
I stopped for a rest in a town called Bar where I tried to take in the Montenegrin way. Today was a no music day as the battery had ran out and my solar panel seems to be constantly occupied with the phone. When there's no music, there's a lot more self chat and philosophy.
My insight into Montenegro and Croatia combined goes as follows. If you want to get a good idea of both countries then imagine both are school mates. Both have been given a construction project called "The Adriatic Coastline." They work together on the project because they both share the same interests like driving like nutters and beeping their horns. Croatia notices Montenegro's ability to produce beautiful work, you could say (natural talent) so they decide to make billboards either side of each of the their coastline towns showing tourists the beauty's that they offer. Trouble is, whilst Croatia was busy turning those billboards into real life working towns, Montenegro enjoyed beeping its horn too much and attempting to kill cyclists so it's towns will look beautiful but they're just not finished yet. And there's your difference. Both countries have the billboards and trust me, if you see an unbelievably beautiful picture of Croatia then it's probably true, if its not then its probably Rijeka. If you see an unbelievably beautiful picture of Montenegro then that's probably true also, unfortunately the photo was taken from a construction crane that will ruin your balcony holiday snap.
After arriving in Ulcinj which is Montenegro's most southerly town pretty much I headed inland towards Albania. Feeling very tired at this point I wanted to find a restaurant but enjoying the rare silence on the roads and change in landscape I carried on cycling through mountain ranges and tiny towns until I got to a roundabout roughly 10 miles from where I wanted to initially stop. There was a market and a bar called "Ali's" across the road with about 5 men sat outside. It was around 3pm and I had a choice, either keep going and have my sandwiches in peace, or go to Ali's maybe have a beer and buy a sandwich. I went to Ali's and in this area of Europe bars are bars not restaurants so you get served drinks and that's all, not even peanuts. I was allowed to have my own food so I relaxed for a while talking to the locals and enjoying a couple of beers. This calmed me from my outburst that I gave the last person who beeped me on the road out of Ulcinj. I had held it in and held it in but eventually I flipped and as the van beeped me even though we had two lanes, they had one and there was nobody coming the other way! I kindly showed him that there was at least another two lanes he was able to go around me in and he turned out to be a school teacher in a minibus which I like to think i taught a lesson in front of the two lads sat in the front of the van.
So I relaxed with Montenegro's finest beer and had a chat with the locals mainly about my solar panel. They were happy guys, I sat there whilst they laughed about things I didn't have a clue about. Two of the guys owned shops over the road so in between beers they would dash over to the shop if they saw someone enter etc. The atmosphere was good and after maybe 2 hours I was ready to move onto Shkodra. For the first time in weeks Nigel was quiet, the roads were quiet and I had a downhill all the way to the border.
My feelings changed completely for the better and I was ready for Albania. It turns out you don't have to wait with the cars if you're a cyclist as 3 lads showed me, so instead of standing there i shot straight through. What was waiting for me the other side of the border no one can ever prepare themselves for. The man on the border could've said, "Welcome to Albania, forget your rules, forget what things are supposed to be like and expect anything to happen." This still wouldn't of helped me prepare myself.
I had cycled no more than 2 miles and already I had a experienced a wacky racers version of the Generation Game. No cuddly toy at the end but within the first 10 minutes I witnessed, 3 QUIET stray dogs running together like brothers, a man on a moped dragging a pony, a mule and cart, the oldest lady you've ever seen pushing a wheelbarrow load of rubbish to the recycling bin, a man sat on 2 bags of cement whilst on top of a moped, a kid driving an old man on a moped (I'm guessing a 12 year old driving his grandad to the pub) a man texting on a moped and my first real sighting of a Zebra's rear end! On top of this, it seemed like the people of Albania were informed of my route through their country as everybody I rode past either waved or shouted something at me. I would cycle past the most scary looking people, one was just staring at a poster on a pylon, then the next thing you know he had turned around with a big smile and waved at me as if I was leaving port for 6 months. I would hear whistles from a distance and turn around to see farmers having stopped cutting their grass to wave or kids stopped playing football and ran across the road to high five. It was the most surreal experience ever, the car horns must have been turned slightly higher in pitch to give me a more welcoming "Hello I'm behind you" compared to the annoying Montenegrin horns because I was even enjoying those! Everybody and I mean everybody either waved or said something (each thing different) but whatever they did, spurred me on like I was wearing the yellow the jersey in the Tour de France!
Now I've touched upon it briefly but i must digress as I laughed a lot about it after. The Zebra's behind wasn't obviously an actual Zebra but in the land of Alb-mania where anything goes, a mini bus had been full to the brim of old, rather large ladies. They all clearly didn't have seats and it just so happened the lady wearing the Zebra print dress had to stand up and bend over at the back of the van. Well this just produced ruptures of laughter from me as I followed closely behind the mini van and looked up to find a Zebra's rump squashed hard up against the back window! I thought I had had my fair share of bloomers!
Anyway, after slowly adjusting to the fact that the lines in the road are pointless, age restrictions for mopeds are pointless and clearly having a seating capacity for mini vans is more of a challenge then a safety precaution I had to find somewhere to sleep.
I was looking for what looked like an open welcoming home. In all honestly I could've gone anywhere, a lot of space combined with no fences makes Albania a wild camping haven but I wanted somewhere legit for once. I chose to stop at a house behind an unfinished house. The unfinished house was just breeze block walls that was it, but the other house was nice and there was a lot of land around it. I wheeled up to the gate and like most the houses, the garden gates are locked fences but the house doors are either open or rugs. I called out "hello?" And a very timid woman eventually arrived at the door. I said the speel and she said well the other house isn't being worked on yet so I could stay in it. Perfect, I set up to dry my things and as I put the pasta on in which I guess will be their future living room, a car pulled up beside the house. The rest of the family arrived consisting of mum, dad, friend, grandmother (I don't know whether she was mum of friend or mum of mum) and the daughter who I had initially met. Out of everyone, only the daughter could say a few English words, dad said "problem" a lot and no one else knew a word. The nan would shout, grit her teeth and point at me like the angry monkey from Family Guy which had me in hysterics and she would apparently be only asking me about my family. The conversation I had with these 5 people would turn out to be my trickiest yet. I was ok to stay the night, we established that but I had a bad feeling of some kind of arranged marriage was getting sorted between myself and the daughter. Also, with each time I smiled and said ok I would get a completely different reaction from the group. Sometimes they would laugh like I was Michael Mcintyre and then one more "good," "ok" or "yes" and I've just agreed to all the ladies looking fat in what they're wearing. At one point they said something and I guessed they said "what do you sleep in at night" I pointed to my sleeping bag and they burst into roars of laughter! Haven't a clue what they actually said but if it was "where do you go to toilet?" Then i guarantee they wouldn't be laughing if I told them the truth.
So after about an hour of awkward silences, some umm ing and arr ing I was moved to the unbuilt en suite I'm guessing. It was a snug room but all the things fitted in nicely, Nigel was safe and I settled down with just the first liner of the tent as it was a very hot night.
An absolute culture shock of a day that changed from tiredness, a bit of stress and me not standing the noise of annoying car horns to super grannies, kid motorists and absolutely loving the noise of a helpful toot.
Must've been those beers but whatever it was, I have fallen in love with Albania!
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