🗁Added 83 photos to album Montenegro, May/June 2019.
I'd read no end about the amazing hiking on the Lustica Peninsula, the bit of land that sticks out and around in front of Herceg Novi. I also found some blog posts from the end of last year, official announcements about the improved hiking trails there; apparently now well-marked and accessible for hikers and cyclists. Well, they may have been premature because some of the trails were definitely not well marked or maintained, and some undergrowth scrabbling was required. They were mostly marked with red dots though. I wanted to finish the hike in time to take the water taxi back from Rose at the tip, to Herceg Novi. Taking a charter boat would have been €20 or more, but the water taxi is €3; only it ran at limited times, and the last one was (as far as I knew when I started out) at 1900 (actually turned out to be 1830). I budgeted 9 hours for the hike including distractions, plus some time in Rose at the end. There's a bus from Tivat to Krasic, a good place to start hiking from, at 0730 but buses from Lepetane to Tivat don't start until about 0830, but I managed to flag down a long distance coach to Tivat in Biejla at about 6am and it all worked out. Starting early was a good idea anyway, and I was lucky with overcast weather for most of the day; it would have been far too hot otherwise, there's very little shade on Lustica.
The beginning of the trail from Krasic is at the start of the village. The bus wizzed right past and I happened to see the map on the wall I recognised from my extensive googling, and when I eventually got the bus to stop we had to walk all the way back. Once the trail departs from the road, it becomes obvious but rugged, which is perfect. Better and better views as one ascends the mountainside. Then an encounter with a giant piece of machinery widening the trail; it later became apparent that this was for one of the houses being built in another village, probably, rather than anything to do with the hiking trails.
We detoured from Gosic through Radovic and down to Plaza Horizonti, a large beach that there is actually a direct bus to from Tivat as well. It was early but already filling up with people. Following a small trail around the bay a bit leads to some rocks without people on, which are good to climb down and swim from. So we did.
Back up to Radovici then picked up the trail again to head in the general direction of Rose. A lot of the 'trail' turns out to be on the road actually. One of the off-road detours was completely overgrown and quite difficult to pass.
Considered a few detours to beaches on the seaward side of the peninusula, or climbing up to the main ridge, but mostly ran out of steam. We did look at one of the forts on the way to Rose (there are a few) and it was mostly underground and overgrown. But from there we could climb down to the torpedo tunnels and walk along inside it, around the back, and out the other side. That was pretty cool. We tried to follow the coast all the way around to Rose from here rather than climbing back up to the road. Eventually the rock faces got a bit sheer for my tiny legs, but rather than give up I swam the rest of the way to Rose. While I was in the sea a massive rainstorm rolled right in. I could see it coming at me. Herceg Novi disappeared entirely and the sea was churning as I emerged from port in Rose. I walked through town in the pouring rain in my bikini because what else was there to do? A man beckoned us inside from not-yet-open restaurant; his name is Yusuf and his Turkish restaurant is opening in July. He was just getting everything ready. He gave me a towel, and turkish coffee. The rain stopped, and we wandered around Rose, but there's not much to see. The water taxi schedule was by the jetty, and the last departure was 30 minutes earlier than I thought. Good job we hadn't taken any of those detours.
