We left Kotor for part 2 of our tour and headed high up into the mountain range, passing small villages nestling on the mountain slopes, olive groves and small farms. We stopped at one point to look down over Kotor with its safer harbour, beach front, the Old City on the point and the new city high rises capturing the best views over the Adriatic. We had a great view of Hawaii Island where people go to enjoy the sandy beaches and quietness of this unihabituated isle. They usually return, boasting that they have been to Hawaii. We also looked down upon a beautiful cove with a deck-chaired beach, a range of water sport amusement apparatus and clear turquoise waters. It was quite hot by now and a swim in those waters would have been wonderful but we had a mountain trip to complete.
After climbing even higher over winding roads we arrived at the village of Njegusi where more panoramic vistas of the coastline awaited us. There was only a handful of village homes scattered amongst a blend of small market gardens, goat farms, orange orchards and olive groves. We finally stopped on top of a mountain above these villages at the home of a hotel owner and his family. They have owned the hotel and a prosperous but small smoked ham business that has been in the same family for over 100 years. We were treated to a tour of the traditional smoke house which is a double levelled room under the hotel owners living area. Today ham is still smoked using hickory bark as fuel and as the smoke rises it flavours the ham, blackened the walls and outer skin of the ham, over many weeks. These then hang for another few weeks before being stored for sale. We then had a simple but satisfying lunch of local goat's cheese, very thin slices of smoked ham, fresh Italian-style bread, tomatoes grown locally -" my childhood memory of what REAL tomatoes once tasted like. We listened to local music, smelled the fresh mountain air and felt the coolness that accompanied it. In winter it snows here and sometimes the hotel is cut off for days but it is peaceful and not a car passed us the whole time we dined and indulged here on the mountain top in Montenagro. This was a special experience for the 8 of us - a moment to remember.
After admiring some of the goat-hair woven scarves and jackets and fine lace work completed by the hotel owners elderly mother we descended the mountain a a fast pace through numerous hair-raising 's'-bends until we reached the large village of Cetenje, which lies in a sleepy valley. Our guide gave us a short history review and showed us many of the important sites. It is quite a large village with many historical buildings. A monastery, the Presidents offical home, a small Russian Orthodox Church , several Catholic Churches.We really enjoyed the relaxed stroll we took through this town with its wide tree lined boulevard-like
streets, friendly shops and hassle free window shopping - we did not have one hawker
approach us the whole time we strolled in and about the town. Ken and I had a beautiful cappuccino and then searched for and found the church which has created its perimeter fence from antique rifle barrels, all still with their sights.
After heading back to the port in Kotor we had one last tour to complete in the ancient Old Port Town which is also has a fortified high wall around it. Within its walls are enchanting architectural buildings full of historic pasts, of wars and take overs, peace and prosperity and poverty. Today the 2 churches within the walls can be visited, along with many art galleries, guest houses, markets and tourist shops. Too tired to take in any more sights we headed to the port to catch a tender to our floating hotel where a hot shower and a cool drink awaited us.
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