Motorcycle Ride: Montenegro To Albania | BMW R1300 GS Adventure Motovlog (S1EP15)

WORLD TOUR CONTINUES – Ride Montenegro’s Panoramic Roads!

Welcome to another episode of our motorcycle world tour on the BMW R1300 GS Adventure! In this motovlog, we ride two-up from Montenegro’s Bay of Kotor to northern Albania, exploring one of the best motorcycle routes in the Balkans.

This ride has it all — coastal roads, mountain passes, dramatic views, and a surprise off-road section that pushed us and the R1300 GSA to the limit. If you’re planning a Balkan motorcycle tour, looking for motorcycle trip ideas in Europe, or just want to see what it’s like to travel the world by motorbike — this video is for you.

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Good morning from Montenegro. We’ve been staying here at the Bay View Hills Hotel for the past couple of nights, just catching up on editing, relaxing, and having a few days off. But today, it’s go time. So, we’re starting the day with coffee and breakfast. And in a few minutes, we’re going to leave, pack up the bike, and then head on to the Serpentine Pass, which is pretty famous and iconic here in Kotal. We’re going to ride that. We’re going to ride through some of the roads. We’re going to head back down to the coast and hopefully make our way over into Albania today. So, let’s go and suit up and get on the bike. Right, time to head off. See a little bit of Montenegro. E, not a bad view to start the day. Hey, not bad at all. All right, I’ll hop on. That was 10 out of 10 mounting considering that the foot peg wasn’t down on the other side. Yeah, not bad that air in fairness. That was a great stay there. Appreciated that. Yeah, it was lovely. I’d do it again. So, there’s the cable car just up ahead. Uh you can get to the top of the mountain with that one. But I think we’re going to get the same, if not very similar views when we take this serpentine road up in a bit. But first, we’re going to ride around the bay and pop into uh is it Talava or something like that? Yeah, Tivat, I think. T I V A T. So, we haven’t been this route before. Um we kind of missed it when we arrived the other day cuz it was getting dark. So, we thought we’ll do it on the way out instead. Plus, it’s not that long a detour. And then we can head up on the Serpentine Road. I haven’t done this road before. So, I’m Which one? The Serpent Time. Yeah, I haven’t done it. No, you haven’t, have you? I did it some years back when I was on my SV000. It’s one of my first uh first big bike trips, actually. It’s quite a cool road actually cuz the um the view gets increasingly better as you get to the top. So really, it’s probably best ridden from the bottom to the top. Oh, I’ve got all of the heated elements on. Let’s turn them off cuz it’s roasting. Is my heated seat on? Uh I’ll tell you in a second. It is indeed. You’re on number two. Oh no. So we are approaching the center of Tivat now. It is hectic today. The traffic’s finally flowing again, so we can uh resume. I don’t know if we should go into the center or if we can go into the center. Otherwise, we’ll be I think we can just skirt around it, can’t we? It looks like it’s um a nice place. The center’s down there. Okay, maybe we go in. All right. At least we get to see what it’s like. Little ride through. Not sure how far you can go into the center. Looks like the center’s just down there. I guess this is another good base to stay if you want to see the whole of the bay. Maybe a little bit cheaper than Cotor to stay here, I’d guess. Yeah, I’d imagine. So, and there’s all those boat taxis, then it could be a good option. Also, the airport is here. I didn’t realize they had an airport, but we could see it. We could see it from the hotel, couldn’t we? From the planes taking off and landing, nice seafront, nice little boardwalk. Perfectly nice little town. I think we’ll head back on the three road now around the lake. Yeah, I think so. It doesn’t appear to be uh like an old town like Cotor, but certainly another option somewhere to stay. A lot cooler down by the water. Yeah, it’s nice. Have that breeze going. So, we’re going to head all the way around the bay and tuck back on the other side. We’ve just gone past where the ferry drops you off. Um, so the other day we came in on the other side. So, we’re actually going to be back in Cotor probably in about 20 minutes. It’s not um it’s not a big ride to to get around the bay here. It’s a nice ride to do though cuz you get to see all of these old uh houses along the bay and the ones that are kind of looking at Cotor. It’s It’s a nice ride. It’s just really narrow. It is. Yeah. You can see why the cars prefer to take the the ferry across. But some lovely spots by the lake to sit at. I can imagine it’s not so busy around here. A that’s awesome, isn’t it? Yeah, really nice. That can really smell the sea. The um the air is very salty. It’s like a mixture of the the salt of the sea and the the trees. It’s really fresh. Wow. Ah, that’s that place we went past yesterday. That’s a That’s the nice uh the nice village on the sea. Oh, yeah. Apparently there’s um there’s like a bunker, isn’t there? Like a submarine base on here as well. Yeah, it’s it’s underneath. I think it is on this side um that you can go and see. And then also the there’s obviously there’s two islands and one of the islands has a church on it and something sacred happened there and that’s why they built the church. But the tradition is to throw a rock off the island into the sea to help grow the grow the island almost make the island bigger so it’s more of a spiritual place. But you can go and see that. There’s loads of day trips. Don’t worry about booking anything before. Just come and walk through Cotor and there’ll be a million people trying to sell you one. So, don’t worry too much about it. That other um town over there is gorgeous. It also looks like it’s got a little castle or a fortification on it as well. I wonder how long these houses have been here. These ones that are right at the front, you know, with the Yeah, they look pretty ancient, don’t they? There’s no dates on them. So, looking at the top of the hill over there, we might not be able to see anything from the top of the serpentine road. Ah, yeah. With the low cloud today. Might be. It might be riding into the cloud. It’s okay. It really mustn’t be um used a lot this road because we haven’t come across another car really coming the other way in a long time. Everyone must take that ferry. No, we haven’t, have we? just as well really cuz there’s not much space. No. And they have that big ditch on the right side as well for the water. Yeah. It’s quite unforgiving road. This is the small town of Don Stoviv. Obel Tower. Couple of restoration projects ready for the uh for some work there. What a view they have. Yeah, I think we can just about see Cotor now in the distance. It should be coming around the corner any second. The weather is changing so fast at the moment. We actually heard yesterday that the the Stelvio had another dumping of snow. Yeah, it’s a bit mad what the weather’s doing at the moment in the Alps. I think we were actually quite fortunate that we uh we could ride what we did manage to ride. Yeah, I think I would actually quite like to cycle around this bay. It’s super flat, which means it would be easy, but it’s also like a lovely ride. We’re now closer to Koto. You can see the uh the castle snaking up that mountain and also the cruise ship that’s come in. Cruise ship of the day. I think they must only let one in per day. Yeah, you’d have thought so. This section of road has no barriers at all. It’s like I’d rather be on this side of the road though. Yeah. To be forced out onto the other side. Nice ride to start the day though. Right. This I believe is the way to the snake bus. the Seventine Road. Is this the first one or is this just like the preliminary? I don’t think it’s officially started yet. Okay. Well, it might have done. Uh, no, not yet. Looks quiet. That’s good. This is the uh the pre-ass pass, like the warm up. Ah. But uh looking at that cloud that was on top of the mountain, we might be riding to the rain, but we’ve got to do it. I reckon these guys have all been dropped off at the top and they just ride it down. Oh, wow. You ride over the under over under the um gondola. That’s cool. Cars don’t seem to move over for a bike at all. No, they they’ve got plenty of space like maybe start using your horn. Might have to. I’m sure they’ll move over then. Dazzled them with the dazzle them with the Denali. Give him a Denali dazzle. Oh, it looks busy. It is. It’s very busy, isn’t it? I didn’t expect there to be so many cars coming up here. Unless they’re driving to the vantage point. Yeah. Must be quite a long gondola ride up to the top. Looks it doesn’t look like they can see anything at the top today. At least we’ll get the views as we ride up and ride down again. Just not the the pinnacle. I think the pass is officially about to start in a second with the first switch back. Yeah, looks like it on the on the GPS. There’s a load of squiggly lines. A bit more traffic than I’d have hoped for though, roughly. Wonder what this road was originally built for. It’s a lot narrower than I remembered it. I thought it was wider than this, but it’s cool. You had a smaller bike. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Oh. Uh-oh. Oh, that Are they really going to take a coach up here? Whoa. Drama on the Serpentine Pass. It is. Oh, that’s not fun for anyone. No. Oh, and a mobile home. Why do they do it? Oh. Oh, madness. Like, what’s going to happen here? What’s the rule in Switzerland? Like who has to reverse? Can’t remember. Reverse downhill, isn’t it? You can’t really reverse uphill. I guess with the fact that we’ve got a camper van and a coach, we kind of get priority. Yeah, I think so. Oh, and the first hair pin is here. Oh, this is not nice. Feel like you should cut in front of the coach probably. Yeah. I will stop if he doesn’t allow anyone to go past him. Oh, he is. There he is. Beep beep beep beep. There we go. Good man. Well, good luck with that coach making it all the way up to the top. He’s going to have to stop time after time after time. So, we got past the camper van. He pulled in at the uh the second hairpin. Temperature’s dropped. Sean’s in dynamic pro. Oh, no, not dynamic pro, just dynamic mode. Thinking about putting my heated seat on if it gets any colder. Actually, update him. You don’t even know what altitude we’re at, do we? I know. I’ll put it on convoy going though. Yeah. I think we’ve got a local guy up ahead in the pat. He seems to uh he doesn’t seem to be holding back. He’s just trying to get home for his lunch. This is his route to the supermarket. He’s like, “Come on.” Oh, damn. Tourists looking at my road. Done about six of the hair pins now. They’re not too cambered. I would say they’re not, are they? They’re quite shallow. Yeah, there’s a lot of them. So, I think that makes We’ve got another We’ve got another coach. Oh, no. Oh, we’ve got two coaches. Oh, it’s a disaster. [Music] Oh, no. And the fun stops here. Not much of a flow, is there on this road today, unfortunately? I can’t believe that so many come up here. Is it part of the tour? Must be. Why is he on this side of the road? Well, he’s letting the coaches swing out. Ah, okay. The view is immense. It is, isn’t it? When you just catch the the glimpses through the trees of like the sky, the mountains, the the way that they look like islands, but they’re not is spectacular. It is. It’s just been overshadowed by the fumes from these coaches. Sean, bringing it back to reality for bringing it back down. Bring it back down. Oh, that’s the right car for this. Either a bike or a Fiat 500. Absolutely. Yeah, they know. This is hell. It is hell, isn’t it? It really is hell for everyone. This is how we like our passes. Nice, chill, calm to ourselves. Good news. Em, I’ve turned on the altitude on the Cali Moto app. Ah, so I can know. Yeah, we’re only at 806 m. Well, I guess that is sea level down there. It’s not like you’ve climbed up to the pass and then do a pass, is it? That’s true. Yeah. Would you say we’re halfway at this point? Um, I think so. I don’t think we’re that far off. Actually, we only got a few more turns. I think we got the two more turns and we’re done. Wow. And that’s it. We’re at the top of the pass. There’s no more happenings. From what I can see, maybe on the other side as we head down. I don’t actually think we head down. Um, we pretty much scoot across the top now. Oh, really? Yeah. And then we like gradually drop down through through the villages. Okay. You can actually see how thick and heavy the cloud is. There’s like it’s like a a shelf of black cloud. Oh, yeah. That that doesn’t look nice cloud, does it? He is. He has got a wet car. He did have a wet car. I can’t smell rain though. I could see it though. I trust my nose more than your eyes. Right. This is kind of cool though. It’s like It is a great vantage point, isn’t it? And we are at the top. According to Calioto, 922 m. Nice. Toilet there at the top. That’s nice. Very kind. Good amenities. Good amenities. I would rate that pass six out of 10. A six? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe the traffic brought it down. Traffic and not enough pull-in spots to admire the view that came down. Cafe was closed at the top. That lost a point. Um, not enough patch shops. No patch points. And yeah, I really don’t think large vehicles should be allowed on this road. It’s It’s too narrow. It is, isn’t it? It is too narrow. What do you rate it, Sean? Um, yeah. I think a six is fair enough, isn’t it? Five or six. Oh, the view is spectacular, isn’t it? You get a really good impression of the landscape from up here. But if there’s constantly coaches on it, it’s never going to be any fun. True. I think also because there was so many switchbacks and and harpins and there wasn’t much altitude gain as other passes, you know, when they have those really big cambers. It was quite like gentleish on the the corners and it’s starting to rain. That’s big rain, too. It’s spitting. It’s spitting. Everybody in. Right, let’s find a hotel. All right, that’s it for today. Thank you very much. Join us in next episode as we ride another 10 km and this is round the world in 12 years. What about um rain? Do you want some rain cover jacket on? These cars are dry that have been going the other way. I reckon as soon as we pass down the other side, it’ll be fine. You got to put it in rain mode, Sean. Not a bad idea. Good shout. I got a tunnel. We can stay here. That’s cool. I love a tunnel. Hello entrance national park per person. Three per person. Thank you. I think I have change. Oh, they they they have card anywhere. Oh, okay. Thank you, sir. Get my change back. Thank you. Thank you. You should get some sort of receipt. Okay, so we just got stopped there and it was €3 per person to enter the national park, so that’s fine. And we’re heading towards brighter skies, so the rain should stop. It’s barely spitting as it is at the moment, but the road does look quite wet. Yeah, you’re right. Well, I think the most of the weather is back there. Fortunately, this road has taken us even higher than the uh the Serpentine Pass. Gorgeous tarmac. Big wide road. Freezing. Lovely. Is that Is that it? That’s the bit you had to pay €3 for. I don’t know. I think it was. We’re really going to enter the C cloud now, though. I think this must be where the gondola comes in. Must be around here, you reckon? Yeah. Oh, it’s a little cafe. Next time you tell me that I don’t need my heated vest, I’m not going to listen. I didn’t tell you. I did not tell you today. I asked you, Emily, do you want your heated vest? No, I don’t need it today. Are you sure? Yes. I’m regretting my decision. Yeah, I have full deniability. Lovely view. Yeah, it’s like susten pass again, isn’t it? Oh, wow. There we go. Wow. That was quite good. That was good. It was like a little reveal. We We rode through a clap out to get to a clear part of the road. That was really cool. The rain hasn’t let off just yet, but we’re optimistic that it will do soon. This national park is quite unique with all these uh like rock formations and sparsely populated forest running through it. It’s really cool. Yeah. Road’s great, too. Winding through it. We haven’t dropped any altitude like you said we wouldn’t. We’re um feels like we’re just going along the top of the mountain. Yeah, there is another viewpoint that we just went past back there with a monument on the top. Probably not worth us hiking up to it today or riding up to it uh as we won’t see much, but um yeah, it gives quite a good 360 panorama of the area. Um, there is a little bit of a walk. I think it’s only 5 minutes, but you can um you can park the bike up the top and do the little walk, but I’m hoping there’s a small town down here cuz it is getting quite cold and kind of slippy through here. There’s a bit of rain on the road. They’re quite polished these roads. It’s actually a lot greener and more lush than we might first have thought. Montenegro. Ah, this is part of that panoramic road number three that goes around the um the bay as well. It’s quite a vista, isn’t it? There sure is. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to see the sea soon, but that was actually a really enjoyable ride through the little national park there. Good. Even in the rain. Definitely worth the €3 each entrance fee, I’d say. So, yeah, because the road was perfect. In fact, I think that road has been uh redone since I was last here, which was quite some years ago. I think um I think this one is going to take us back towards the coast. Yeah, it’s nice and sunny here anyway. Quite often when you go through towns like this, like you can’t see anybody, but it’s full of life today. Feels um feels very real here. Cotor is very um it’s beautiful and an old town and but it also is very shiny and touristy, isn’t it? Yeah, that’s true. It’s a bit more real life here, isn’t it? Yeah. We’re dropping back down to the sea level now and we’ve just got a view of Budford on our right there. It’s a much bigger city than I first thought it might be. It’s huge. In fact, it looks gorgeous this part of the coast, though. As we look further down, you can actually see one of the iconic towns that juts out from the kind of from the mainland. And it’s this whole town that’s just on an island in the sea. Oh, yeah. I just caught a glimpse of that one. It’s quite a fast road this one that we’re on. It is. Yeah. Yeah. People aren’t hanging about either. It’s good. We’ll be there in no time. Well, there is the town. It’s huge. You can just about see on the tip there the old town, which looks lovely. Yeah, the bit that jotss out. That looks like the really old part, doesn’t it? Where I guess you’d want to visit. That island looks quite interesting as well, doesn’t it? with a little stack that’s on the end. Yeah. Then got this bit that juts out as well. Yeah. It’s like a little mini Monaco, but uh I don’t think we’ll go into the city center. It’s going to be a bit chaotic. Like uh I was saying that that’s a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be a small town. I think we’ll just continue trying to keep on this coast road south for a little while. Yeah, it looks like a nice route anyway up and over those hills. Be nice to get back on the coast. This place is epic. It’s pretty impressive, isn’t it? That’s amaz That looks like AI. It does. It’s like it’s like some futuristic um futuristic way of life. Can we live there when we finish? I say so. That’s really impressive. I’m going to have to Google how much they are as soon as we get into the Duckley Gardens. Let’s try and put my back on here. Yeah, it’s nearly nice, isn’t it? There it is. Do people live on it anymore? I don’t know. They can’t. Doesn’t look like it with all the Everyone’s got their shutters closed. Like everyone has got the same shutter as well. Looks like a model island from here. It does, doesn’t it? It’s really cool though. really really cool. I would like to know more about that island. Yeah, there was one chaotic pull-in spot there. There was there was nearly two accidents in the like 5 minutes we were there. Look at that view from up here. I um would have thought that was like Cambodia or somewhere like that, wouldn’t you? It’s a really unique uh coastline they’ve got here, that’s for sure. It is. We are actually heading back in land now. We’re taking this Well, don’t know if it is an official pass, but it feels like a pass. And that’s going to drop down to one of the lakes on the other side. Uh and then we’ll make our way over to Albania from there. Well, we’re heading to this lake now. Look at that vista. That’s actually a lake in the for in the background there. It’s huge. It is. And I think it’s shared. I was going to say, is that Albania? We can see. I think it is. Yeah, that cuz that lake is shared by Albania and Montenegro. Gosh, it’s humongous. I almost thought it was the sea then when I was zooming out on the satnav, but no, it is the lake. So, in the past hour, Sean and I have probably pulled in at four petrol stations, and every single one of them hasn’t had any fuel. I don’t know if there’s like a fuel shortage or something happening. Luckily, this one did have fuel, so Sean’s gone in to pay for the fuel now and grab us a couple of drinks, and then we’ll hit back on the road and hopefully ride around that lake. But that’s what we’re up to at the moment. Um, yeah, it’s all going really well actually. There’s nothing really to to report other than things are running very very smoothly and uh I’m excited to get over into Albania. We’ve only seen a very small portion of it so it’s going to be fun to spend a few a few days there. Well, this looks popular. Looks lovely. Oh yeah. This is called the great bridge. Nice. That looks a little bit Soviet. That statue up there, doesn’t it? It really does. Big fancy hotel as well. Seems quite popular here with the tourists. Little boat trips and things. Where are we going? I think we’re going up. All right, let’s go up. That said, boat tour and coffee and a quaffle for free. That is a great bargain. I love a package deal. Package steel boat tour. Wow. There’s the start of the lake then. It’s a very like pyramid shaped mountainish thing, isn’t it? Yeah. Seems to be a lot of hippie dippy types around here. There did seem to be a lot of hippie dippy types to cross. That kind of people. This road’s pretty unique though. The view is awesome. It is, isn’t it? There’s even big mountains in the background though. We’re stuck behind this little get high. Wow. We’ve just stopped briefly in the middle of this little path that’s going through the national park just to appreciate this view. It’s absolutely spectacular here. I didn’t even know this was here in Montenegro. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] You really can’t appreciate how big this lake is until you’re right here seeing it with your own two eyes. It’s absolutely beautiful. So, we’re going to go now and ride around around half of the lake um towards Albania. Yeah, I think so. I think we’re actually headed up those squiggly passes up there and then over the other side and then as you say we’ll drop into Albania. So, let’s go and explore another country. There’s a small village at the uh midpoint of this trail. It appears to be a wine making region, doesn’t it? There’s a lot of people selling wine. Yeah, a lot of vineyards around. And we’re still on this three route. Yeah. Is actually the official panoramic route that’s recommended. I don’t know if they should be sending all the camper vans down here. Well, this is quite a find today, isn’t it? I’m glad we did this section. You kind of have those two options, don’t you? To stay on that co road or turn inland. It’s It’s a tough choice, really. Yeah. I think this was a good choice though. I prefer to see this uh inland lake than more coastal roads. Well, you just remember that one. We’re in landlocked Kazakhstan. Oh, yeah. Missing the ocean. Yeah. Well, we lived in Switzerland for 8 years, so we all we know all about being landlocked. We do. But this is really cool road, isn’t it? It’s almost single track. There’s a few passing points for cars and things. Right, we’re heading up here. I think we’re going to gain a little bit more of the old altitude. This is quite a fun road. This is a great way to go to Albania. This road’s got sections of like bumpy bit. It’s almost like one of those test tracks they do to test new cars out to destruction. We’re still on the three route. It seems like locals are mostly using this road though. It appears to be. Yeah. Look like the sun is trying to break through as well. The guy at the hotel today said that today the weather will be a little bit iffy, but afterwards full sun cuz it was strange that hotel they were not set up for rain. Like the restaurant was outside and there was no alternative. So, they must get consistently good weather here. Says there’s a beach down there. Steep. There was a no shooting sign then. No shooting. Okay. Does that mean shooting is like allowed normally? Wow. Pretty uh pretty spectacular views when you see a break in the hedge. It’s another old golf. Tell you there’s hundreds of them. They’re great. That’s the car you’re getting when we quiet back, aren’t you? I think so. Yeah. A low mileer. It smelt good. Wow. This lake is huge. It is, isn’t it? There’s a little island there. It’s got a full house on it. It’s obviously a ruin, but it was a magnificent structure in its day by the looks of it. Oh, did not know there was a harp in there. Was looking the complete wrong way. Sorry about that. We’re really riding through a canyon now. There’s a big gorge over there. It looks spectacular with all the trees growing on the rocks. I wouldn’t know where this country where where we were if I only saw photos. No, I think you’re right. I think it helps having or being able to explore it like this when you know we’ve seen where all of the the tour groups are, haven’t we? We’ve seen where the the cruise ships pull in and seeing countries like this is just different. You just you just get to experience the the roar a bit more. Yeah. They have like certain images of a country that circulate, don’t you? You know, the famous photo, Cotor Bay, spectacular as it is, but that’s pretty much all I would think of when I think of Montenegro is Cotor Bay. But being able to ride these little roads here, you see that there’s so much more and so much of the natural beauty as well. It’s quiet as well here, which what something we really like. Look at that. You stopped a little bit too close to the edge there, Sean, for your liking. Okay, sorry about that. But wow, look at that. That is amazing. And you’ve got like a layer of rocks and trees here, then a lake, then more trees, then another lake, then some mountains, and then in the background is some huge mountains. This is a really special place, isn’t it? It’s amazing. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s really starting now, isn’t it? The new the exciting. Yeah, absolutely. The new places are starting to to come onto the horizon. All right, let’s go. Let’s go. A truck comes or a car. Oh, we’ve got another view here. M as it turns into a balcony road. I hope so. Nice, Benzo. Oh, wow. There’s more little islands with houses on the middle. That over there is Albania. We’re not that far away now. I feel a bit um ignorant. I didn’t realize that there was a lake this size here. No, I guess it’s just not an area that you you look at very often, is it? I guess not. No, it’s tucked up down there. But even that mountain range is pretty epic in the background, though. Yeah, I think we’re actually going to be riding that in a couple of days on one of the roads. It’s like the SH20 and yes, be impressed with the fact that I remembered that. That is pretty good. Yeah, well done. That goes north and it used to be a gravel track like up until a couple years ago, but it’s been completely tarmaced now. I think we’re going to take that up and it goes up into Kosovo. Oh, okay. Yeah. And then there’s another road that’s through that range called the SH21 that goes to a place called Teeth. T E T H. And that road again, it used to be like a very much wow that’s amazing. It is awesome, isn’t it? Used to be gravel, but I think now up until T is paved, but coming back the other way, I can’t find any recent reports on the road conditions. So, okay. Not really sure what we’re going to get up to in the next couple of days, but stage one is just making it into Albania. Yeah, that’s our target for today, isn’t it? But at these speeds, um, I keep looking down and saying, “Okay, we’ve only got 60 kilometers to go.” And I look down again. Oh, he’s only got 58. We’re actually, as great as is, we’re not actually making that much progress. No, because the other people on this road are hooning it in cars around every corner. So, it’s a cautious ride. Really? It is. Yeah, it is a cautious ride. And there’s gravel scattered about as well. But look at that. Fantastic. What a road. This road is called the R16 according to the Na’vi, but it’s part of that number three panoramic roots in Montenegro. But they need to cut down a bit more of these bushes to make it panoramic. The the panorama has been obscured by the vegetation. Wow. Look at them. Wow. That’s That’s still Montenegro on this side. Yeah. It’s just like that bit over there, isn’t it? That’s the other side is Yeah. Those islands look inhabited as well. It’s got little They do, don’t they? I think that that one’s got a decent house on it. This has turned into a right balcony road. It really has. They’ve got some barriers on this, but back there there was no barriers and there was just big sheet drops just like here. Yeah. And we can’t go too slow because some of the cars are gaining on us behind. Gosh. I know it’s the same lake, but it’s a slightly different view. It’s a very um exhilarating ride. It is, isn’t it? Yeah. It’s like rough and distorted enough that it makes it feel like a little adventure today. Doesn’t help that the sun is setting and we are nowhere near where we should be at this time of the night in the evening. It’s already half 5, isn’t it? It’s coming up to half past 5 now. We might I reckon as soon as we get down from this, we’ll make quick progress. Like I said, we’ve only got 53 km to get to what’s it called? Scoda. Something like that. I think not not like the car. But like the place in Albania. Yeah, we’ll we’ll see maybe when we get down. If it’s a big town, then I might try and get a hotel there and cross tomorrow into Albania. We have those options. Do you remember if we need insurance purchasing for Albania? Um, I don’t think we do. No, they didn’t ask anything the last time I went or the last time we went either. Was only Montenegro that asked and they didn’t bother this time. Okay. Is that us heading back in land now? I think so. I think that’s our last view of the lake for the time being till we go around the other side. That is Well, that’s a big old car, isn’t it? It is a big Nissan Pathfinder. It’s a cool car. Yeah. Well, the cool car didn’t give him manners, did it? Where’s my thank you wave? Want to the thank you? At least acknowledge that I did something nice for him. And not anything. Oh, it’s the official viewpoint. It’s a good viewoint. It is, isn’t it? What an amazing place. Are they just stickers or are they patches? And they’re just stickers, aren’t they? They’re just stickers. All right, we continue on the three. Yeah. Oh, someone’s just cut grass here. M smells great. The smell of freshly cut grass. This has been resurfaced. Yeah, this is nice. It’s like we’re back in Wales in the hedgeway. Yeah. Yeah, it does, doesn’t it? Dry stone walls. Lovely smell of freshly cut grass. All we need is a sheep. Yeah. I haven’t seen a sheep today actually. And a 20 mph zone. That is a donkey. It’s better than sheep. We’ve got donkeys. Oh, I love them. Oh, there’s lots of them. Hello. Hi. Oh, they’re so cute. Hello. There’s a car behind. I don’t think they can get past. Can they get past? I suspect this might be your favorite day um of the whole round the world trip. Oh, they are so lovely. We’re literally surrounded by donkeys. This is so cool. Oh, he’s giving him a hook. Look, there’s another one down there. There’s another one. They’re not afraid, are they? No. They are posh donkeys, actually. So, he’s got like a stripe down the side of him. They’re well kept. Yeah. Okay. Should we go? Do you want another half an hour? We just need Shrek and Fiona to come out. All right. We can go. All right. Hope this doesn’t scare them too much. Sorry, guys. Not bothered in the least. No, they’re not. Oh, last donkey. T out. Bye. Oh, you got some more. M. Hello. You like it here? Do you think he always stands there? Oh, this road keeps going on and on. Apparently, in 22 km, we’re turning left. I am so glad I got fuel before we started all this cuz I didn’t have too much left in a tank. And the last three fuel stations coincidentally all said they were changing their fuel tank or refilling or something. So, yeah, the last one that we tried was fine. So, we tanged up and now we have 500 km to the tank. So, we’re not worried in the least. But this road is lots of fun. I’m doing a constant speed of around about 30 to 40 km an hour and we’re making some good progress. Yeah, it’s quite a bumpy road. Like the tarmac’s good and then it just goes a bit bumpy. But there because there’s obviously other cars on it, you’re having to be careful cuz every single corner you just don’t know what’s coming around it. But it’s really easy to forget that there’s other cars on it cuz you go like 5 km without seeing anyone and then all of a sudden there’s a German caravan in front of your face. And it’s so overgrown this road as well. It’s like you can’t get close to the sides. Wow. And it’s it’s got all these bushes that you can see, but when you look through the bushes, you can see these big rock rock formations. Yeah, there’s some thick undergrowth here covering some stuff. But there’s a village over there. Can’t even see it. Well, there must be about 15 houses just perched on the the hillside there. But I think we are coming closer to civilization now cuz I did see some smoke. There’s some locals there. Hello. Hello. Another couple of guys walking about. Just finished work for the day, I guess. Strolling home. They’re probably like, “What are those two doing here? Why have they come down this road?” A smile and a wave goes a long way, doesn’t it? No matter where you are. It’s universal language of I’m friendly. Some peaks just in the horizon there. Oh yeah, sheep. There we go. There’s the first sheep of Montenegro. Right. Well, when we look at the map, we are a stone throw from Albania, but we’re having to ride a little bit back and then we’ll back go back on ourselves again to cross over the border. But this is a remarkably beautiful part of the world. And also an incredible route that I had no idea about until we started researching it yesterday. Yeah, this is another memorable ride, isn’t it? The R16 through Montenegro. And I know you’re all asking and we’re currently at 916 m the top of the path and we’re about to drop down now. I think it should be another balcony road. Yeah. Oh yeah. I can see where the road’s going down there. So we might have a few hair pins to get us down. But yeah, that there is Albania and that’s where we’re heading. What a day it is. Yeah. And the funny thing is as soon as we cross into Albania there, although at the moment we’re feeling like we’re miles away from home, there’s actually a ferry from Duress to Barry in Italy and then you’re back in Italy and like in familiar territory again. This is true. I once took that ferry from Barry to Duress. Um and I I paid for a seat cuz you can pay extra. You get I think it was extra €10. you can have a seat inside, but I had my bike clothes on. I think I think uh the boat left at like 1:00 a.m. It was delayed. Oh. Uh but it was so hot inside the boat. Um it was ridiculous. So in the end, I ended up going up to the um the deck and there was like some benches there and I just slept outside. It was lovely. I woke up all refreshed. Oh, you slept outside? Yeah. It’s 6:15 and we are approaching the border crossing to Albania. I think it’s going to be a pretty straightforward entry into the country. Guessing they’ll just stamp the passports and wave us through. We’ve already seen a couple of Albania flags flying here. But I think we’ll turn the cameras off soon as we approach the border. Yeah, I think so. All right, welcome to Albania. That was uh quite an easy crossing in the end. We didn’t have to wait too long at all. Only about 5 minutes for the whole process. But uh yeah, we’re inside now. So, we’ve got another 17 km to get to the town where we’re staying. So, we should be there in no time. So, we are officially in country number 13, Albania. And we’ve only been in for a few minutes and we are already going to be heading to a hotel. We haven’t booked anything. Um but there’s one that we found this morning. Took a screenshot of that we’re going to go check out. See if it feels right, feels safe. Um if not, we’ll have another look and see what else we can find in the area. I think there’s three or four options, isn’t there, Sean? Yeah, exactly. It’s literally 2 km from the border, so it’s worth just going to check it out. Supposed to be by the river. Um, it did look nice. So, let’s see what it looks like. But, um, I think remember this road anyway. We must have crossed at that border in the past. But, uh, we’ve got a nice river running next to us. And I think there’s a castle coming up as well. But, yeah, it’s getting up to 10 to 7 now, so it’s getting late. It is time to call it a day and yeah, find somewhere to rest. Just on the way to the hotel now and we stopped off at the spa shop as we’re not sure if the hotel’s restaurant is open or if they’ve got anything in there that we want to eat. So M’s popped in there to get some food, few bits and bobs that will keep us going for tonight. H we do have breakfast included in the room. So we’ll be fine in the morning just in case we get to the hotel and we’ve got nothing to eat. So yeah, good that Em’s gone in there. It’s really busy in town today. I think there’s some sort of event going on, but uh I managed to find a little space for the bike. Um the Sund’s out. We’re only about 10 minutes away from the hotel. Here she comes now with the goods. Good for goods. We good to go. Is it all right in there? Yeah, it’s it’s all right. Yeah, it’s a lot. There’s like I feel like we’ve just been dropped in somewhere again. Like a completely new there’s a new currency. It’s a new language. So I haven’t practiced how to say like thank you yet. I feel like I’m right. Thank you very much. Let’s go find a Are you good? Um, yeah, I’m good. Let’s go. The wind is really picking up at the moment. That Albania wind, I’m telling you, it got us last time. Go. Sat now to pick up. Does it know where we’re going? Oh, yeah. Right round. We’re going all the way around. But the police in that car. Don’t crash into that car. It looks nice over here. What’ you say? There was police in that car, was it? Yeah, the car behind us, I think, right now. The sun is low tonight. Activate the peak. Yeah, dip the peak. How long have we got to the hotel? Yeah, I’m looking forward to that. We didn’t Do we really have lunch today? What did we have? We just had the breakfast this morning again. How long till the hotel? Um, we have 8 minutes to get to the hotel. Okay. Wow. Well, there’s a statue and a half, isn’t it? That looks awesome. What do you think that’s depicting? They’re all very handsome. It looks like a looks like a war memorial, I think. But I did notice some of those um they’re like pill boxes. They’re like a unique style as well to Albania. They’ll be dotted around the the whole country. We have to keep an eye out for them. They look cool. cuz we 4 minutes away. 4.9 km. It’s just on this road, the hotel. It’s nice to be staying a little bit outside of the city. Yeah. First hotel we went to check out vetoed very quickly. Yeah. It wasn’t quite in a good position, was it? That one? No. Let this guy go past. I’m trying to keep to the speed limit because I know we’ve already noticed three policemen in unmarked cars. Yeah. Well, I think keeping to the speed limit is annoying the locals. I’ll just ride to the edge. Quite impressed with the connected ride. Um we use it just to find our last destination when we’re, you know, when we’re close. I put the last two hotel names in just into the search and it found both of them which is pretty impressive being that it’s searching pretty much everything that it has. Yeah. And that’s in offline mode. Yeah, exactly. From the downloaded maps that it has. I think I can see the hotel in the distance. I can see a neon light. The only thing I could ask if there’s parking at the back. Sorry. I could ask if there’s parking at the back. Yeah. Yeah, why not? I’ll just get the bag straight off and Yeah, you can see where the best place to park is. Okay. Thanks, E. Well done. Storm is safely parked up and chained to a lampost. Although, we’ve actually snuck in behind a bus as well. So, he’s pretty well covered cuz I think the Albanian girls football team is staying here tonight. Well, this is our room. It’s quite spacious to say the least. Yeah, because because the Albanian football team, women’s football team are staying, there is like no rooms in the hotel. So, we booked a double room, but he was like, “I have no rooms left other than a triple. Can you push the beds together?” And I was like, “Dude, as long as it’s clean and it’s got a bathroom, I really don’t care.” So, we’ve got a triple room view out to the river in the distance. It’s actually really beautiful like mountain outline and the the sun is currently going down. So, the plan now is there is a restaurant downstairs, so I think we should go and check it out. Um, and then showers and sleep early night. The place does have really good Wi-Fi. Apparently, he told me specifically the guy on the reception was like, “We have very good Wi-Fi here.” But he also is a motorcyclist himself. So, we’re going to go and chat with him, the guy at the reception for a little while about our route through Albania, which roads are the good ones to take and which roads aren’t, because he said they’ve had a lot of rain actually over the past few days, which has made some landslides or possible roads impassible. So, it’s actually a really great resource that we can go down, speak with him, see what he says about the route, and then make a plan for tomorrow. So, we just got back from the restaurant. We only went down to have a look at the menu, but it turns out the menu was really good, actually, and we ordered some dinner for tonight. We did learn pretty quickly though, that here in Albania, food portions are gigantic. So, we actually ended up leaving a little bit of dinner, but I did my bestest to finish off what was on the plate. But yeah, we know for next time to uh one portion is enough in Albania because they serve a pretty generous portion here. But tomorrow we’re going to plan our route in the morning. We’re not 100% sure where we’re going to go. We’ve got a couple of options for Albania. We can either head to some of their twisty passes, but I think we might have to come back down again to do a little bit further south of Albania or we just head south straight away. But we’re going to make our mind up tomorrow because pretty tired at the moment. We’ve had an awesome day riding today, but we’re pretty tired. So, yeah, we’ll catch you in the next episode as we explore some more of Albania. Good night.