Montenegro – Kotor Bay

Kotor Bay, Montenegro

Huge, huge, huge – shall I say it again – huge, steep sided mountains rolling down into Kotor Bay with small villages nestled at the water edge. Mountain tops reflecting in the mirror-like water of the bay, producing a double-sided picture of clouds and rocks. Rolling roads that skirt the water’s edge and then pass through idyllic towns. Views across to small islands housing chapels and saintly scenes. Even the remains of a Roman settlement nestled on the bay.  I was seriously impressed with beauty of the Kotor Bay area and so glad I had a car to drove round the whole bay to capture all the sights.

I visited here as part of my 3 week road trip I did to see  parts of Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina by hire car from Podgorica, Montenegro.

This was combined with crossing the border into Croatia and also Bosnia Herzegovina, eventually returning to where it all started.

See below for the other destinations on this trip. Travelling by car between these places was actually one of the best car trips I have done and so easy. Road conditions were good, traffic light but do remember to get the necessary car insurance upgrade from the hire company to take it across the borders.

Check beforehand if they permit it, tell them and get the stamps etc put on the documents as all border police in the Balkans do check these documents.

Montenegro – Balkans car trip info

Podgorica, Montenegro

Budva, Montenegro

Kotor city, Montenegro

Herceg Novi, Montenegro

Adriatic coastline, Croatia

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Trebinje, Bosnia Herzegovina

Bosnia/Montenegro mountain crossing and Niksic, Montenegro

Kotor Bay 

I was determined to see more of this beautiful butterfly shaped ria bay.

The Bay of Kotor was original a river valley and became this massive body of water when the sea levels rose and flooded the area. Today it is one of the most alluring and photographed bays in the world.

Ocean going liners can dock here (unfortunately) at Kotor as it is so deep and so many sea trips around the area invariable include a day in Kotor Bay. Fortunately I didn’t see any of them. Can’t say I like liners in estuaries as they spoil the view – stick to the seas I say!

Mists over the bay

I left Kotor in the morning in order to have a full day travelling the northern and eastern shoreline of Kotor Bay. I was bound for Herceg Novi in my rental car and I just wanted to stop off wherever I pleased, get some pics, grab a bite to eat and generally enjoy the views.

When I set off it was a very grey, misty and sometimes rainy morning. Heavy clouds made settlement at the halfway point of many of the mountains, so high were they. Every now and again mists rolled over a mountain and down its sides carried by the breeze till it stopped at a certain level and gradually disappeared.

However, the huge cone shaped mountains rolling down into the depths of the water was a sight alone to captivate me and made up for the dullish weather.

I had stratas of clouds forming weird lines all at the same height along the shoreline over my head.

They provided unique shots of cloud and mist formations that I was not used to in my UK urban environment. This was both uniquely enchanting for me but also annoying as I could often not see the mountain top for a great photo.

At times dark grey clouds rollied In quickly and shed its rain, blanketing the area in shade – not good for the pics I wanted !

As the day progressed and I got further into the bay, the mists and clouds lifted gradually from the slopes and higher peaks. It revealed the even higher summits that I imagined were there and looking back I so wish I could have got those summits in my photos,

Some of the photos you will see here are testament to this darkness.

Sunshine on Kotor Bay

Eventually the sun started to shine through, the clouds lifted and I had periods of bright blue sky, fluffy clouds and great views across the bay to the far mountain tops, Today I was just having to go with the flow of the weather and make the best of it.

The road was quite good. Nothing dangerous so far, except I wondered how many vehicles had gone over the edge and into the water due to the lack of any kind of decent safety barrier on the sides.

At various points there were pull ins where I could stop the car and get some wonderful shots (weather and light permitting) of the scenery. The traffic flow was also quite quiet with no big trucks and only what seemed local traffic…. bliss!

Gradually the mists lifted even more and the sun was now showing up the high summits. It was beginning to reflect off the previously dark green ominous looking water of the bay. The shimmers increased as I drove and every now and agian I was able to get some shots of what I thought was the true look of Kotor Bay.

Ljuta River crossing

The road was approaching an area where I could see a large flat are extending from the shoreline with a shallow, but fast flowing amount of bubbling white water.

Here was where the Ljuta River emptied into the Bay from the mountains. It had clearly brought stones and debris with it on its course downhill and this was being deposited as it slowed on its spilling out into the bay.

I could imagine this river gushing down with the Winter melting snows in Spring and what a sight that must be.

The bridge was reassuringly high over the river, hopefully enough to accommodate the force and flow of all that extra water. The noise of the water flow was already quite loud and this must have been a torrent of water and sounds only a few months ago.

Villages on the shoreline

Morinj, Ljuta, Perast, Risan, Bijela, Kamenari are just some of the villages I passed through or beside as I skirted the huge Bay of Kotor.

These were all picturesque beige, stone built buildings with terracotta tiled roofs doted along the shoreline.

Small hotels were everywhere but somehow they had kept most of them in an older, more traditional style. Yep, there were a few that were more concrete block styles that seemed to date for the old Yugoslav days of the 70’s. This style was no doubt influenced by the government of the day, who needed foreign currency and trade in the area.

They all terraced themselves down to the water’s edge and places like Perast stood out in particular as it had kept its older buildings intact and restricted newer building to maintain its ancient past and beauty.

I did stop off in Perast – it is one of the most famous villages here – but as it was early Sunday morning and off season all was closed up and quiet.

If you are here at a busier time then Perast should be explored. It is mainly pedestrianised and full of older buildings and churches in a quaint mini-harbour setting

Our Lady Of The Rocks Island

Opposite Perast is the famous island with the church of Our Lady of the Rocks. There is actually a lesser well known Mosque on the island too. Considering the island is only about 200 metres by 50 metres in size and man-made it is perfectly feasible to visit both, including the small museum and gift shop here.

Boats ply the water to the island but being off season they only left every few hours and I didn’t have the time to wait that long.

The even smaller natural island next door is private so cannot be visited but the boat trip affords a view of the semi-fortified walls of the Monastery there.

From viewpoints around this area you can get some marvellous shots of the narrow opening between the two bays that make up the general area.

The mountains part with two vast sloping sides of rock with a view through the submerged valley. The sight of the mountains on the far shore of the next bay, peeking through, is spectacular.

It was at this point in my journey hat the sky really began to open up and let the sun shine through. Blue sky abounded!

From viewpoints around this area you can get some marvellous shots of the narrow opening between the two bays that make up the general area.

The mountains part with two vast sloping sides of rock with a view through the submerged valley. The sight of the mountains on the far shore of the next bay, peeking through, is spectacular.

It was at this point in my journey hat the sky really began to open up and let the sun shine through. Blue sky abounded!

Risan Roman Mosaics on Kotor Bay

This was one of the few things to visit on the bay, apart from the quaint villages with their churches and bay views of the water and mountains.

In my previous post on Kotor city itself I mentioned that the Romans colonised the city and helped it proper. Well, here, about 17 km from Kotor are the remains of a Roman Villa. Click here for its website 

In fact, Risan is the oldest settlement in the Bay of Kotor and was once the seat of Illyrian Queen Teuta. The Romans conquered the area and renamed the town Rhizinium. It prospered from the 1st to the 4th Century under them and was the most important settlement in the whole Kotor Bay area – bigger than Kotor city even.

The Roman mosaics represent remnants of the Roman Villa Urbana from the end of the 2nd century AD.

Although they were known about, they were not fully excavated until 1930. The seven roomed villa with its three mosaics were displayed in their glory from 1957. In 2004 two more mosaics were found nearby and thus its fame was born.

The mosaics are made of pebbles, of three types – white (local),  and grey-blu, and black, (both imported), in several symmetrical shapes. Currently, out of the seven rooms of the villa, the mosaics have only survived in five of them

In one of the mosaic patterns, the Greek winged God of Dreams – Hypnos – is depicted in a half-lying position on pillows, with crossed legs. It’s the only one in the villa that uses more than three colours. Uniquely this is also the only mosaic in the world depicting this Greek god.

The mosaics are protected under open air canopies with small walkways between them. As you walk around the walkways, you’ll see the restored mosaics and remnants of the walls between the rooms. The route still follows the original floorplan of the villa.

The Villa had an open-air atrium in the middle and the rooms of the house were spread around this atrium. In the atrium there was an impluvium, a pool that collected the rain that could be used in the house.

At the entrance is a large room/laboratory where they are still performing conservation works for here and a few other nearby sites. Interestingly, you can watch from the viewing windows as the archaeologists go about their work.

There is a small entrance fee and booklet as you enter and with the site being very small you would probably only spend 20 mins here.

They are not on the scale or importance of mosaics in major venues around the world but are relevant to the area – actually where else could you see the God Hypnos anyway!

Opposite is a pretty shady park square where you could rest for a drink, overlooked by a picturesque church.

Mountain waterfalls galore

Clearly water is a prominent feature of this area – it is a vast natural bay area after all. At intervals on my route, mountain streams free-fell down the slopes. Each  was facilitated by a series of canals, bridges, sluice gates or falls, to allow the water to free flow into the bay without flooding the surrounding areas.

Just randomly, this big waterfall appeared as I drove over a bridge on the shoreline. I just had to stop to get a pic of this one as it was one of the most peowerful and fast flowing that I had seen so far.

Despite the water gushing by and in huge amounts it barely made a ripple of the vastness of the bay water. When it hit the bay water it simply seemed to dissipate and leave the bay water surface virtually untouched.

Mirror like reflections

I now had the sun shining so well that they really picked up the reflections in the bay water.

The water was so calm and the skies now so clear that mirror-like reflections were forming in the water. I could almost turn the scene upside down and the reflection would look like the top scene, such was the almost perfect mirror image.

Final bay views before arrival

Once I had turned through the mountain gap I knew I was on my home stretch to arrive at my next stopover – Herceg Novi.

Here is s small vehicle and passenger ferry that plies between the two headlands. It provides a short cut across the bay to those who don’t need to do the scenic route each time and want to quickly get to Kotor.

Yet more towns were on the way and by now I had become rather accustomed to the layouts of these villages by the shoreline.

The trip “round the bay” had been stunning. I was not used to gigantic rocky mountains rolling down into a huge bay of water. My urban lifestyle got a jolt from these sights but boy was I glad I decided to take this route.

The bay is certainly one of the most astounding sights, and the mountains, shoreline villages and huge body of water left a lasting impression on me. I definitely had no regrets about hiring a car to go travelling – why had I even thought that I should do this route by bus?

I would never have seen these sights so fully and be able so stop off on the way to see Roman ruins and tremendous waterfalls otherwise. I was now enjoying the driving and looking forward to my next stopover and the drive from there to Dubrovnik !

I’ll leave you with what I feel is one pic that sums up this area – a panoramic shot of the mountains, water and sky – amazing place!

Feb 2018