Nathan's Insights

Sunday 28 April 2024
Highlights: Sea kayaking in Kotor Bay, Hiking up Kotor Fortress Wall

Today was to be a strenuous day of activities, with an included sea kayaking in Kotor Bay and an optional hike up Kotor Fortress wall in the plan today.

I had a nice breakfast then went out for a little exploring to the food market outside the walled town. This wasn’t as impressive as I hoped but it did allow for me to examine the boats in the bay.

We meet our tour guide for the sea kayaking at 9.45 am, this was the same guide from yesterday’s walking tour. A short walk outside the wall town and then a taxi ride on a very narrow road and we were ready to depart.

The kayaks are two people and Darby got the front seat and I took the back. We placed shoes and other items we didn’t want wet in a secure mini container placed on our kayak. Once safely on the kayak we were off to explore the bay.

The first half of the kayaking took roughly an hour. It was cool to see the coastline from the water. Our guide explained some of the history as we went.

At the turn around point we went onto a ‘beach’ basically a small area with rocks and stones. It’s something to know that in Europe a lot of beaches are not sand but rocks and stones. This was a chance to relax and swim if you wanted but the cold water (on a hot day) only got two takers for swimming.

The kayaking back was move bumpy as they were more speed boats making waves. We also only stopped once so it was a bit harder going back with only one break. I did manage to get off the kayak somehow without falling in the water. Awesome included activity.

Back at the hotel Darby and me both concluded a lunch of ice cream, drinks and snacks was the best way to recover from almost 2 hours of paddling.

If the late afternoon, after a shower and change of clothes, headed to the hiking trail to Kotor Fortress in the mountains. This costs 15 Euros to do and has 1,350 steps to the top. Given how hot it was today, at 25 the hottest day of the tip so far, this wasn’t easy.

We thought we would go up to the church at the midway point as Nadya mentioned this was a great spot of views and she was right.

We did however push on further and probably got to about 75% of the way up stopping at a major viewing point. Here we rested and took in the views. Darby even got to pat a cat. At this point we returned. While going down is easier for cardio it is harder on the legs but we made it.

Before arriving at the hotel we spotted a restaurant for dinner which we returned to later. This was an exhausting but great day.