Stari Bar old town sits proudly on a hill top, about 3km inland from the coast and the upstart seaside resort of Bar. No doubt a tourist hot-spot during the season, it was pretty quiet in November. Gazing up from the coast road, you can just about make out the fortified town walls, but as a climber your eyes are drawn beyond these to the splash of orange rock above town – surely that must be a crag…

Zigzag up the road above the old town, and sure enough it is. Roadside climbing indeed. The impressive orange rock that drew the eye is sectors Concrete and Highway, even more impressive up close, but with an entry grade of 7b (and mostly 7c and up) they were of little interest to us.

We set off instead to explore Menke, on the opposite side of the valley. You continue along the road a short distance, over a bridge and then steeply up an unlikely looking zigzag, parking on a verge next to a cemetery.

You then walk up another zigzag (dirt track though it’s in the process of being concreted) through an improvised gate into a meadow, out the other side, and then along the lowest terrace around to the foot of the crag.

Only about ten routes, with the left three given the uninspiring “no name” appelation, we decided to warm up on “route 3” and found it pretty feisty for the alleged 4+ (more like 5+). Happily, Helen reported the other two (4+ and 4) to be much more reasonable – they do steepen up after a slabby start!

The crag didn’t seem much-travelled, so we were startled when another pair of climbers arrived. A mother and son team, out for a brief visit to Montenegro to celebrate Mum’s birthday. We were even more surprised to find that “Mum”, aka Gaby, was 80, and truly inspired when she calmly led one of the routes. That’s a pretty good benchmark (she has ambitions to still be leading on her centenary!)

Heavy rain the previous day had left quite a bit of wetness across the tufa-streaked righthand wall, with routes from 6a to 6c+ (or 7a+ depending on what info you are using). After a generally sandbag experience of local grading, I set off up Urke, 6a, with a bit of trepidation, dodging the damp patches, but it turned out to be pretty amenable and quite fun.

Emboldened, I did Remorker, 6b (or 6c) and Boj na Kosovu, 6b+/c (or 7a+) – took a couple of efforts for the very thin crux. Whilst a bit bushy on appearance, it’s actually quite a decent crag (especially if dry) and there’s probably another kilometre stretching across the hillside, so plenty of room for more development.

Great vista over to the sea…

… and across to the Highway sector…

That was our venue the following day.

It’s an impressive world of orange steepness, and we’d timed our arrival at the hottest part of the day. Roll in some dripping tufa and there was no way I was getting off the ground on anything. Kudos to Herbie, Gaby’s son, who’d managed to get a rope up one of the 7c+s.

We scuttled further leftwards to yet another grey wall, imaginatively named “Gray Wall” which was a tad less impressive. Five routes in the 6a/b range, with the base hidden in bushes. They’ve all got Bar-themed names. Barbara was the pick of the bunch, with Barolo also worthwhile and Bar Baresco absolutely nails!

You can make out the fortifications of Stari Bar in the shot below.

The coastline is surprisingly developed (certainly when compared with neighbouring Croatia)…

… but we found the charming beach-front Camping Oliva a few km down the coast to be an oasis of tranquility.

At this time of year, all but a few of the pitches are given over to nets to catch the harvest from some amazingly gnarly old trees.

… Just quite how gnarly was documented by a certificate in reception – 598 years!

You have to wander a few hundred metres around the headland for a spot to watch the sunset.