My wife

I’ve traveled a lot.  Many years and over 80 countries but these last 11 months have been different. People have been more friendly and helpful and often invite us into their homes or give us gifts.  Maybe because the world has opened again?  I wasn’t sure until last night.  We are staying in a small village in Croatia with a few rooms.  The dining area only accepts one party for the evening and we were fortunate to have dinner there. Lisa takes great interest in knowing the history and culture as well as spending many hours to learn the language.  I’ve given up on communication as she is more efficient and welcoming.  Back to dinner - our host at the BnB also presented the meal and drinks.  Lisa immediately showed interest in their culture, language, and family.  Natasha was enamored by her interest and soon said her heart was full because of Lisa’s smile, interest, and the “sun that radiated” from her. I now understand why people are more friendly - my wife.

More Farewell Montenegro

 Before leaving, we spent our last afternoon in Montenegro picnicking with our hosts Ivana and Ivan on their boat. They took us to a boat drive-up restaurant for fresh mussels and oysters. You just motor up to the dock and your food is pulled from the sea and cooked while you wait. After we picked up our kilo and half of mussels and two oysters, we set out for a shady inlet, but there was no shade to be found. Instead, we stopped and just rolled with the waves while we enjoyed our picnic and each other's company.

boating up to the restaurant

A feast of mussels, Serbian cornbread, potato salad, and champagne

Richard and I each had to get a fresh oyster, too. Ivan and Ivana were excited for us to try them, though they themselves prefer their shellfish cooked. (The oysters were amazing, by the way!)

We will miss our little place here in on Kotor Bay. It's been home for almost seven weeks. We've made two wonderful friends and will stay in touch with them, and I hope see them again someday. 💕

And of course we'll miss our friendly little cat--she was such a sweetie:

Getting Ready to Say Farewell to Montenegro

 So it’s a lazy Saturday morning. It's already hot and our rather loud little portable air-conditioner is doing its best to keep up. I've been staring at my computer screen trying to figure out if I should click on Пријави ме to sign in to my Google account or Направп. Google likes to be precise with your location and is always making little adjustments for you, sometimes helpful, sometimes not. I could look up how to stop Google from adjusting my browser and changing languages on me. I'm sure it's a simple solution. Maybe later. It's a lazy day and I have more top ten stories I want to add to the blog. I took a gamble on Пријави ме and it seems to have worked. Hope I remember that for tomorrow.

Richard has been working on the itinerary for our upcoming trips to Jordan and Egypt. That will be in September. I’m looking forward to seeing Petra and Jerash and the castles in the desert, the museums (Valerie, there is a Royal Automobile Museum!) and the Dead Sea. Right now, though, it will be the beach, a swim, and later, a relaxing late afternoon sitting under the shade of our umbrella listening to an audiobook. In the evening I'll make us a cold platter of something that involves cold chicken, some sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, feta or farm cheese, and the delicious pureed roasted red pepper relish that is everywhere here.  And Wasa crackers, which I live on. My favorite hummus sold out last week. Actually all the hummus did and it hasn't reappeared. I have my jars of red pepper relish, though. In the early evening or later in the night, whenever they come by, we'll feed our local stray cats. I bought some more Whiskas at the store the other day and we always have some leftover rotisserie chicken, which has been our main protein source since we discovered it in the deli.

We head back to Croatia on Monday and gradually make our way back to Ronciglione in Italy where we'll have another relaxing month before heading off to the Middle East.

More Top Ten

Lisa's top ten:

I love everything Richard listed! Yes!! So I will add some of the small stories that have come to mean so much to me. At the time, not all of these made it into the blog, but that's just the way things go when traveling and living in the moment. Sometimes you don't even realize something's a story until it is. Later. All of these are stories I love because Richard was there with me, sharing the experiences, and now he's here sharing the laughs, sighs, and head shakes as we recount our adventures, talking and laughing late in the evening by the water over a drink and late-night snack. Our neighbors must really wonder about us.

1. Jock/Fitzpatrick's safari lodge in Kruger. We had such a good time with Richard's daughter, Alyssa, and her husband, Chris, and our dear friends Nic and Gil. And, I should add: the dormouse. 

I should set the scene at Fitzpatrick's: beautiful safari lodge, elegant mosquito-netted beds, armoires, armchairs next to the sliding doors to the private deck with its private plunge pool...ah, and a sweet little bowl of strawberries left for us on the table next to the Champagne. A lovely first day and then into bed and air-conditioned, duvet heaven. I then I woke up at 2am with the horrible feeling that something very large had just run up my leg and scurried over my arm. Dung beetle -- I was certain. Yuck! They're huge. I batted at the duvet, smacked whatever it was, and tried to go back to sleep. 15 minutes later: repeat. Yuck! Eww. And Richard is still sound asleep. By the third time, I'd had enough, so I grabbed my phone and put on the light so that I could peak down from the bed and see what I had just batted off me again. I shined the light on the floor and up stared a tiny little dormouse with huge eyes. Aww. Ok then. He was cute. I was good with a dormouse. Fast forward to early morning conversation:

Honey, guess what? There was a dormouse in bed with us last night.

Pause.

No, I'm not hallucinating... 

and so it went.

After our 5 a.m. safari and mid-morning breakfast, we napped.

Shortly: Honey, look who's napping with us!

Our cute little dormouse was under the duvet next to my leg. I caught him. (See! I told you. Some form of a sigh followed.) And then, perhaps unwisely, I put him in a cup and evicted him (the dormouse, not Richard). In retrospect I feel terrible that I put the little guy outside. He didn't want to go. He kept scurrying back into the cup, which he initially didn't want to be in at all. Snakes, birds... Poor thing. I finally dumped him out under the stairs leading down to the riverbed. We thought later, he had it pretty good in our room. Nice bed, duvet, warm human. And Richard asked me why I ate all the strawberries without sharing them. I didn't, I said.  

I will post my nine remaining stories over the coming days.

Epilogue: I couldn't and wouldn't want to do any of this without you R. 💕

Top 10

 It’s been just over 10 months since we’ve started this journey and thought a top ten list would be appropriate.  Lisa will have her own list. In no particular ranking:

1.  Kalahari - Dangerous, exciting, challenging, dead quiet apart from the lion huffing and hyena howls. The silence is perfect which makes leaving so difficult.  No room for modesty here.

2.  Ronciglione - a quaint city in Italy with a historical slant but mostly devoid of tourists.  After a day you know the names of the butcher, the person at the fruit stall, the doctor and more.  Subsequent days you are met like a long lost cousin.  Lisa has introduced us to her friends here and we’ve been met with open arms.  It’s genuine.

3.  The thorn tree - while in Kruger we were on the road to the next camp where we encountered a tree felled by elephants and blocking the road.  Confidently, after removing a tree in the Kalahari, I attached a tow strap and pulled it to the side of the road.  My mate, Nic, decided it needed to be further removed and we should pull the strap.  With one mighty pull the tree rolled and entrapped Nic.  Now, this is no friendly tree as the thorns are two sided with one being razor sharp and the other side being barbed in one direction.  Bloody and entangled in the tree with lions and other predators on the prowl we tried to remove as many thorns possible before being lunch.  The girls were not amused.

4.  Franschhoek - The home of our great friends Nic and Gill.  They’ve made our stays in Africa special every time.  I cry when I leave.

5.  Kruger - we spent over two months in Kruger with great experiences.  It’s difficult to explain but it is really a special place especially when an elephant charges Lisa.

6.  Jock Lodge/Fitzpatrick’s- An amazing stay there and joined by my daughter and her husband along with Nic and Gill.  Jani our guide was spectacular and we had great fun.

7.  Travels with Ron and Valerie - although it was a brief time in Portugal it was fun.  Ron is always entertaining in some sort of traumatic way.  Why doesn’t he ever get hurt on the golf course?

8.  Marakele NP - A complete surprise as all the sites said Marakele had minimal wildlife.  We saw young lions stalking a rhino calf, lions mating every ten minutes for 2-3 hours.  Felt a little inadequate until I thought the 12 second encounter could be bested.

9.  Driving - 30,000kms over southern Africa is a challenge but there’s so much out there.  Hours without another car, deep sand that could leave you stuck for days, setting up camp and having a home.  

10.  Getting married - Of course I needed to include this for no other purpose than personal benefits to come. :-). We had a spectacular wedding hosted by our new friends Jan and Reena and co-ordinated with Gill.  A beautiful wedding followed by golf through the orchards and finished with a braii and good wine.

Epilogue - None of this wouldn’t have been possible without my supportive partner and wife. It’s been difficult, items have been tossed about and words exchanged, almost always 95% by me.  We carried on, survived, enjoyed, and planned the next adventure.  It’s been a great adventure and, hopefully, more in the future.

Hanging out in Montenegro

 We are still enjoying our little place on Kotor Bay in Prčanj while we wait for our new passports. We made a trip to the US Embassy in Podgorica a couple of weeks ago to get them renewed. 

Ours is the little house in front with the umbrellas

A few days ago our host took us on a speedboat tour of Kotor Bay and then out for a swim off the little island of Otočić Gospa and onward to the Blue Cave. The water was wonderful! Crystal clear and cool, with black sea urchins everywhere in the shallows. And it was so salty! A refreshing swim on a hot day. 

Inside the Blue Cave.
Unfortunately the cave is a big tourist destination, so it's usually filled with speedboats packed with people. Luckily, it was much less crowded when we were there in the late afternoon.

The water in the cave is an iridescent blue 

As we headed back to Prčanj, we made a few more stops. First, a visit to one of the old WWII submarine tunnels camouflaged in the hillside. There was only a disused boat inside, but otherwise we had the tunnel to ourselves. It was a bit eerie. 

Heading into the tunnel

Perast is an idyllic looking village not far from us. On our way back we boated by slowly to get a look. I didn't feel up to walking around town in my swimsuit, and we were tired, so the scenic boat view worked much better than a visit ashore. It also gave us time to stop at the tiny church islet of Our Lady of the Rocks, just a few hundred meters off the coast. 

Perast

St. George Monastery

Our Lady of the Rocks

A quick stop to walk around 

All the little towns are along the bay, nothing in the hills. And there is one road, and only one road, that wraps around the water's edge. It is a narrow road that miraculously, and frighteningly, accommodates two-way traffic, including buses and large trucks. I have been stuck several times trying to get out the front door.