The Ladder of Kotor
Is a track that leads from Kotor Old Town to Krystac Pass .. or if you happen to take the tougher route by accident (moi / me) to the village of Njegusi (good luck pronouncing that!) which is all of 1,187 meters (3,894 ft for all you imperial pedants) above Kotor. For centuries this was the only path that conmected Kotor to Cetinje (the ancient capital of Montenegro). I have stolen a photo from google images below to give an overall sense of the first third of the walk as it rises from Kotor. Remaining pictures are mine. To the right of the picture above Kotor is the Fortress I walked up to at sunrise yesterday. Wimps.
About 1/3 of the way up. Supposedly there are 72 switchbacks. I gave up counting after 8.
And then I bumped into Jonas who was brewing himself a coffee outside his tent (offered me a cuppa) and downing a saucepan of freshly made porridge .
The view from his tent wins the daily “Best view from your bedroom” award for today as far as I am concerned.
Interesting fella ol Jonas. 23-25 from an area just south of Berlin he is hitchhiking around Eastern Europe. When asked how long he planned to be on the road he replied nonchalantly “..not long just 4-5 months”. #livinglife springs to mind.
After a 10-15 minute conversation with Herr Jonas I pressed on with a view of the first cruise liner for the day steaming into port to disgorge its mass of humanity on the residents of Kotor.
The view from the very top was impressive ... pity about the egert in the foreground.
At the summit there was the chance to zip line about 300 meters across a gorge about 100-150 meters above a dry creek bed.
Now, I have done some adventurous stuff in my life but always with the concept of weighing up the risk-reward first. In this case it was a single cable affixed to a concrete pylon at either end. The two sullen looking operators were more interested in rolling their cigarettes than enrolling me to depart with some hard earned cash. However they did provide helmets ! Suffice to say this muppet let the chance pass and headed back down the “ladder” to Kotor.
Not before stopping for a self made sandwich for lunch and more spectacular views.
Don’t jump ! I kid you not (groooaan) she called to say you’re forgiven for being out late
Every day should be celebrated,especially when you get to a certain age, and a cleansing lager (or 3) on the Kotor Citadel at sunset with the Church of St Nicholas (smashing name for a church !) in the foreground and Kotor Fortress in the back ground seemed like a decent place as any.
Observation of the day - there is a universal dislike amongst Montenegrins that I have come across for Russians.
Shop owners, Restauaranters , activity guides, and even the disgruntled goat herder who I came across as I climbed “The Ladder” , are all unreserved in their dislike, disdain and disgust of the ol Ruskie tourist. Without inivitation they will eagerly impart their views on the folk from Putin-land. Quite telling.