The walk up the hill from Virpazar runs past the entrance to Fort Besac, built originally by the Ottomans in the late 15th Century and on up to to crest of the hill before the winding descent to the village of Godinje. I have walked this route to the top of the hill every so…
Tag: Plants
Luštica Peninsula – Maquis
The Luštica Peninsula forms one of the two outer arms that protect the Bay of Kotor (Boka Kotorska); it has a narrow neck where it joins the mainland with a large, pendulous tear-drop head. There is only one circular, single track road so it is quiet and isolated such that tourist developments are only just beginning to make their…
Lake Šasko’s Snakes
The earliest records of the old city of Šas, known much earlier as Svač, go back to the 6th century and it was famed for having a church for every day of the year. The city was ransacked in the 13th Century by the Mongols and then again by the Ottomans in the 16th century; it was not really…
Velika Plaza and Ada Bojana
At the south-eastern corner of Montenegro, the boundary with Albania is the river Bojana. The river delta is at the eastern end of the 13km long Velika Plaza (Great Beach) that runs all the way from the old town of Ulcinj. The large river splits neatly in two a few kilometres from the sea and the…
Buljarica Spring
A week later and the weather is balmy; cool first thing in the sharp breeze but soon warming into a cloudless and hot day. The back road that skirts the eastern end of the reed bed passes through small pastures and fallow fields divided by thorn shelter belts, untended olive groves and finally a few houses…
A Murder in Reculver
Yesterday, I drove the A2 east under clear skies to the hamlet of Reculver, located on the flat coast not far from Margate and parked next to the pub beneath the remnant twin towers of the 12th century church. Admiring its fearful symmetry and outstanding location, I reckoned this would never get planning permission today. The stark, stone…
Butcher’s Broom and Privet
Walking up the narrow lanes from Horton Kirby takes me past dark ivy-clad hedgerows topped by trails of clematis. These hedges house ancient woodland species such as holly, privet and spindle together with a spiky, evergreen shrub which once seen is not readily forgot – Butcher’s Broom. It was, apparently, used to sweep the blood and guts off butchers’ floors. …