The second coming?

Today we had a good breakfast - muesli and yogurt instead of sticky cakes and salad. We left at 8.30 for the one hour drive up into the Accused Mountains through the dramatic Rugova gorge. The road had been hacked into cliffs leaving an overhang which would have left the van roofless. After an hour of wending our way up hairpin bends where bits of road had crumbled into the ravine below, we reached the alpine area of Boga where the bus parked. Some stayed at the restaurant while others went with Tedi to climb steeply up through the trees to reach a pretty lake at 1800m not far below the snowline. Mr C wandered in to Montenegro just because he could. I decided not to do the walk as I knew it would be too steep for my arthritic knees, so instead of staying in the restaurant I walked with Marilyn and Janet up the track to another cafe about 1.5 miles higher where we enjoyed sitting in the sun with a coffee to admire the view. When we returned I had as beer and read my book till the walkers arrived over 3 hours from setting out, around 1pm after which we had lunch. As usual I had to have a salad as there was absolutely no other option. It was rustic with huge tomatoes quartered, a spring onion of leek size, 3 olives and 2 inch chunks of cucumber on top of 3 large lettuce leaves.

After that we drove back down the mountain, stopping to take photos of a waterfall then calling in at the church complex of Peja Patristch. It was surrounded by high walls topped with barbed wire. Tedi was very nervous of what he called the scary nuns. They had very pale faces contrasting with their black habits and in groups swept the paths with witchy brooms. It’s a shame they didn’t take as much care of their loos which were the worst we’d encountered in the Balkans.

We got back to the hotel about 4.30. Tedi wants to take us to an “authentic local restaurant” tonight but wouldn’t tell me the name - I wanted to google the menu because I can’t face just salad again.

News from home is #3 daughter had been chatting to the producer of the play Nathaniel is in and he was brought up in Yetholm, the next village from where I went to primary school. Rehearsals are going well.