Montenegro is our next destination in the former Yugoslavia. Some call Montenegro the most beautiful country in Europe and it is indeed a wonderful travel destination. At the beginning of the year, we already visited Kotor Bay on the coast and the Lovcen National Park. Now, we explore Durmitor National Park, where we train our muscles during beautiful hikes. For the ones who like driving more than walking, this park is also very suitable. One of our favorite paved car routes in Europe, goes through this park. Every view is different and along large parts of the route there is no development. Truly a route engineered to be beautiful. It is the route from the Bosnian border at Granicni Prijelaz Scepan Polje, along the river Liva and the Pivsko Jezero Lake. Halfway the lake is a small winding road to the Durmitor National Park. In one word: awesome! (See the photo impression of Durmitor NP)

From Durmitor National Park we drive through Biogradska Gora National Park to the town of Plav, which is located on a nice lake. The number of tourists is still low and people are friendly. From other 4x4 drivers we had heard that the nearby border crossing with Albania is open, so you can drive the spectacular road from Vermosh to Shkodra. Our travel book and several maps don't mention this border crossing, but by now we can tell you from our own experience that it is indeed open and that the route to Shkodra is undeniably spectacular. Even better news is that today only 30 kilometers are unpaved. (The piece just after the Montenegrin border) So a large part of this route is now reachable by normal car from Shkodra. The Albanians are still busy with construction projects, so probably the whole route to Plav will be accessible for motorcyclists and cars within a few years.

In Shkodra we stay at a super luxury camping, in Albanian terms at least. A great place to work on the website and to plan our trip to Tehthi. Tehthi is a small village in the Albanian Alps. A notorious road of about 60 kilometers goes to this village, though the road has become much less notorious since it is largely paved. Only the last 15 kilometers is unpaved, although the largest rocks are removed to enable regular passenger cars to go to the village. On these 15 kilometers you descent on a narrow dirt road from 1500 meters to 740 meters. This is the part of the road which makes travel books tell you it is better not to drive yourself. We didn't find it a dangerous road, although you need to be comfortable in driving backwards on narrow, steep roads without crash barriers in case you encounter an oncoming vehicle. Again, the road will probably be paved completely within a few years making Tehthi more accessible to everyone. It is a nice area and Tehthi is a good base for hikes. There are plenty of accommodation options in the form of small boarding houses where you can stay on a full board basis. This is the place to fill your belly with organic vegetables and home-reared pigs transformed in juicy chops. For us, however, the highlight of Tehthi comes a few days later, when we drive back to Shkodra. We follow the long 4x4 route (81 kilometers of which 51 unpaved) and this is the real habitat of out Toyota. Seriously steep trails with lots of loose rocks where our speed is often not higher than 7 kilometers per hour. All these bumps are rewarded with lovely views; definitely worth the effort. See here the photo impression.

The coming weeks, we still remain in lovely Albania, after which we will take the ferry crossing to Italy. Sicily has long been on our wish list, so we are very curious about what lies ahead.