Day 6 6th April Dubrovnik to Duress (Albania) !!!??? After a pretty disturbed nights sleep we set off early for Albania (no point in prolonging the agony) the hour or so drive to the Montenegro border passed in an anxious silence. There was a change of shifts happening at the crossing point and there appeared to be dozens of officers hanging around the sentry boxes. It didnt start well. There were green arrows above two lanes going out of Croatia. One of them had barriers across the road. I was obviously nervous because I decided to drive around the barrier in order to make progress.(true) Mistake 4. There air was suddenly filled with guttural Slavic shouting and guards were running out of offices from all directions. I thought I heard the racking of Kalashnikovs. Apparently I was supposed to wait in line! If Id wanted to appear nonchalant Id clearly failed! What was worse was that other vehicles had by this time arrived and had filled the place Id vacated. I had to back up thereby attracting even more attention. The first officer (shaking his head) muttered anything to declare? Karen gulped and nervously whispered no. He then threw her a curve ball by asking whats behind? Obviously confused she said camper-van! Even I thought WHAT T F?. It was obviously too early in the morning for him to deal with such incoherence, because miraculously he just waved us through (still shaking his head). The next checkpoint (Montenegro!)was twenty yards further on. Surely wed be undone here. Maybe wed struck lucky by arriving at shift changeover time because the young woman in the booth seemed more interested in getting away home than checking our documents. So after a cursory check of our passports and no mention of vehicle documents, we were waved through. Wed done it wed got through! We drove on for a couple of miles in a euphoric state until in all fell apart. A hundred yards in front of us were another set of checkpoints. This WAS Montenegro. These guards were really serious dudes. Shaved heads were obviously compulsory. It would take a miracle to get through this one. The guard was unusually on my side of the vehicle. He checked the passports and then came the words that for 24 hrs Id dreaded hearing. Car papers! I passed all the documents feigning ignorance. He efficiently checked all the papers and then said, Green card I shook my head. He pointed down to a notice which was written in several language under his window. The second language down said that if we didnt have a green card we could buy one from the office. Sensing my discomfort the bull-necked guard said Registration document? I shook my head. He shook his head. He left his booth and fetched his supervisor, who spoke reasonable English. He asked where we were going and when we said Albania, he...shook his head! He then politely explained that although he would have been happy to allow us into Montenegro without the V5, they certainly wouldnt let us into Albania. Whether it was true or not didnt matter this was the end of this particular road. We were allowed to drive round the barriers and back towards Croatia as the two burly guards (rather sweetly) mouthed...SORRY!. Wed already discussed our options. There was only one. Wed established that there was a ferry from sailing Brindisi in the south of Italy to Igoumenitsa in Northern on Wednesday the 9th of April. In order to catch our ferry out of Athens on the 11th of April, wed have to cover the 1270 road miles in three days in the uncertain hope that there were some spare tickets and... theyd let us onto the ferry AND into Greece, without...a V5. Some plan B!
Posted on: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 12:09:02 +0000
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