The day began clearing customs and immigration at the port in Split, and we began our journey through Eastern Europe in the rain.  It turns out my boots are perhaps not totally waterproof :(.  The rain and fog eased after about 30 km and most of  the next hour or two was in overcast conditions.  Not the best conditions to see the famous Croatian coast.  by lunchtime we had reached Dubrovnik, and the sun had burnt through the fog and cloud leaving us with lovely warm sunny conditions.

After a pizza for lunch by the walls of old Dubrovnik, we got back on our way south, heading for country number 13, Bosnia.  Bosnia has a tiny 10km off coastline, splitting the Croatian coast into 2 bits.  The border was uneventful and we were just waved through.  This was good as by now we were overheating any time we stopped.  Tomorrow we would have to start dressing much lighter.  The border with Montenegro was our first administrative hassle of the trip.  We had to stop for 10 – 15 min’s to pay insurance fee at the border due to  not having a “green card” insurance policy.  This will probably be repeated several times in the next week or so.

Once into Montenegro, the picture changed dramatically.  Croatia still felt very westernised, but immediately upon entering Montenegro we felt a wilder, more primitive feel.   We headed for the world famous Bay of Kotor, the most southerly fjord in Europe, surrounded by dramatic rocky mountains.  This area has seen intense property development in recent years with new apartment prices for regular garden variety apartments reaching 5000 Eur per sq metre.  That’s London prices in one of the poorest countries in Europe!  Not surprisingly, we discovered prices had fallen at least 60% in the last year or so as the buyers suddenly dried up.

Finally we pushed onto the beach resort town of Budva, which was dead this time of year, and an hour or so after arriving, we heard the unique exhaust sound of a MotoSyberia KTM outside the hotel.  It was Marcin Safranow, who had ridden 1800km in 2 days to meet up with us!  Hardcore!!

Now we are 3.