J40 – 1/26/2006

After Herceg Nove, Perast, Kotor (listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979), Budva, Cetinje and Podgorica (the administrative capital of Montenegro), here we are on the threshold of Albania.

Serge is making very good progress, perhaps a bit too quickly as a matter of fact because we planned a rotation of followers in Tirani on January 30. We would like to tell him to slow down but then what happen to his daily average?  The team will just have to adapt.

As a reminder, Serge ran 614 km in Croatia and 14 km in Bosnia-Herzegovine.  The 3000 km mark is fast approaching and will probably be celebrated in Albania.

We were not particularly taken with the city of Podgorica in spite of the beautiful snow-covered mountains which formed a back drop (there are 6 peaks of more than 2000 meters in Montenegro).  The traffic is heavy and constant.  Leaving the city in the direction of Tuzi, grape vines added a sunny note.  Each village has it’s minaret in spite of the fact that the orthodox religion is the most prevalent in the country.  In some places the sign posting is in Cyrillic.  This evening, the cold wave persists and it froze again, in spite of an average annual temperature of 17°C.  

Good news, since this afternoon, the pain in his right leg is beginning to subside Serge is disappointed that he will have to stop at the border.  He would have gone a bit further.

The only information we get is what we receive in our  Internet mail box, which is fuller and fuller every day.  Thanks to you all for keeping us updated on the news and for your message of support and encouragement: a real motor for Serge and his team.