Last Moments in Montenegro...

Despite these smiles, we were all sad when our time in Budva came to an end. We had a great time enjoying the beautiful scenery, fantastic weather and the delicious food.

Our journey back to the airport was another wild ride. Our route took us above Budva, where we saw this great view. The road was clearly newly paved with lots of construction trucks scattered about. Imagine our surprise when we got to the top and found a man standing with a string across the road. He was directing traffic onto a dirt path barely as wide as our car. Luckily Jimmy had downloaded maps onto his phone, so Ashlynn was able to navigate us successfully to the airport. 

Along the way we saw this small church and cemetery...

...and lots of hills. Luckily we left Budva early enough that even with a slow slog over the mountains, we weren’t late for our flight. And we had no surprise layovers in Belgrade either.

More Diving....

Since the dive boat was at a shallower dive site, Viktor took Jimmy and Ashlynn out on the Zodiac to get to a deeper site.

Ashlynn was thrilled that Viktor let her drive part of the time.

They did two dives with the deepest to 85 feet (26 meters). They went through a shaft and saw an underground boulder shaped like a pyramid.

They saw another nudibranch and some fireworms. While they were diving, I enjoyed talking to a guy who was doing an intensive divemaster course as extra training for his regular job in the Montenegrin police special forces.

Another Day, Another Boat Ride...

As much as Ashlynn felt guilty for not studying the entire day, it was too hard to pass up the opportunity to go diving again.

It was another beautiful day for a boat ride.

This time we went past St. Nikola Island.

There was a Russian couple on board that the captain took down for an introductory dive.

Sunset in Budva...

I never grew tired of the scenery in Budva.

I was happy that Ashlynn didn’t object to being photographed, because there were lots of great spots for photos.

More Kotor...

As always, I took lots of photos.

Located on the Bay of Kotor, some have called it the southern-most fjord in Europe, but it’s actually a ria, a submerged river canyon.

There was an accident clogging up the road back to Budva, so Jimmy decided to take the back roads instead. Honestly, I was shocked that our rental car made it up the crazy steep hills. Ashlynn enjoyed playing navigator while I spent much of the journey with my eyes closed so I wouldn’t have to see the scary road ahead.

Kotor...

We only made one road trip during our five days in Budva to visit the fortified city of Kotor, an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A popular destination for cruise ships, the small city was fairly crowded with tourists, although you can’t tell that from my photos.

We dragged Ashlynn to a few churches, but didn’t make the climb up to the fort above the walled city.

2nd Dive...

Whereas we started the day around the backside of Old Town, the second dive was at the St. Nikola Island, which is frequently seen in my photos from the beach at Budva.

They went into two short tunnels. This one shown was horizontal. 

The other was vertical and they had to use their hands to climb up; they were still underwater when they came out of the other end. Sounded scary to me, but they loved it.

I enjoyed having a nice chat with the captain, who was born in Hungary but spent much of his life in Serbia. In addition to working for the dive company, he works in underwater construction.

On this dive to 38 feet (11.5 meters) they saw two eels and two nudibranchs, which Ashlynn learned about last summer in Tanzania.

First Dive...

The scenery surrounding the first dive location just past Mogren Beach was stunning. They went into the cavern in the center of the photo.

They saw a small lobster, fish and fireworms, which Ashlynn said were especially cool as you can see from this photo they took.

Temps were a bit chilly at 61°F (16°C) at a depth of 63 feet (19 meters)....

....but Ashlynn didn’t mind as she was just happy to be diving again.

Let’s Jump...

Ashlynn couldn’t resist jumping off the top of the dive boat.

Jimmy was more graceful as he dove into the water.

After diving, Ashlynn returned to her usual table to get to work. We were impressed by her dedication to studying. We learned in mid-August that all her hard work paid off as she got straight A’s!