Finally we wake to sunshine. We wasted no time leaving our room for the night and headed for Komovi. The mountain pass we had been waiting to climb. The climb didn't seem that hard because we kept stopping for photos and admiring the beauty. On our descent the clouds began to change. Lunch was close to an old settlement near water. Lots of small square stone walls huddled together high on the mountain side. Rain began to spit just as we finished eating. An exposed road walk along another ridge gave us more amazing views. A lonely old church stood in the pass. Old rocks marked the grave sites and a bell stood out front. I of course had to ring the bell. We are in the middle of nowhere, why not. The gravel road sidled around another mountain before meeting another pass. This is where we leave the Via Dinarica since we have no permits to cross the Albanian border. These mountains are beautiful. Most of our hike through Montenegro has reminded us of the Californian Sierras.
We stood looking at a topographic map on Shadow's phone. Do we walk down the North side or the South side of the pass? Either way, it's a long gravel road walk to a town. One way is more direct and the other follows the Albania border through more mountains. Our ultimate goal is Podgracia, the capital of Montenegro where we will head to the Adriatic coast. Neither of us were ready to end the adventure in the mountains so we decided to hike South following country roads. I say country roads, but that's all there is around here. How many days will it take? Don't know. How far is it? Not sure. Do we have enough food? Probably. I'm a Mills. A Mills' biggest fear is starving to death, so we always have too much food. Where can we find water? Not sure. I have a feeling that the people we meet don't normally see hikers that often and will help however they can.
Around 5pm we had just climbed back up above tree line after descending to a creek. Not 50ft later we found the perfect campsite with 360 degree view on a nice grassy flat spot. A small village sat higher on the mountain that we would walk through tomorrow. A dairy cow came to greet us while we set up the tent. She had a red flower made from yarn wrapped around her horns. She ate around our tent before heading back home around sunset. Shadow and I enjoyed a nice evening eating ramen with pepperoni with an awesome view of the day's hike.
At the pass.
Perfect spot.
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