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Mokro, on the approach to Kučka krajina from Veruša (Route 12)

Montenegro’s rocky Adriatic coastline runs northwest-southeast between Croatia and Albania, broken towards its northwestern end by Boka Kotorska (the Bay of Kotor), a deeply indented, fjord-like inlet surrounded by steep, bare mountains. The coast is divided from the interior by a steep, outer rampart of mountains, including Orjen (Routes 1–2), on the border with Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia; Lovćen (Routes 3–4), above Boka Kotorska, and crowned by the mausoleum of Montenegro’s celebrated ruler-poet, Petar II Petrović Njegoš; and Rumija (Route 5), between Lake Skadar and Stari Bar. These mountains are relatively modest in elevation, with peaks averaging 1600–1700m; the highest point is Zubački kabao (1894m), on Orjen. Karst features are especially prominent on Orjen, which has relatively little vegetation; forest cover is somewhat more extensive on Lovćen. In both cases, surface water is minimal.

Behind these mountains a broad plateau runs inland for some distance – an area described by J.A Cuddon in The Companion Guide to Jugoslavia as a succession of ‘troughs and crests of turmoiled rock’. There is a saying among Montenegrins, that when God was in the act of distributing stones over the earth, the bag that held them burst, and they all fell on Montenegro. It seems particularly appropriate for this area. Within the southeast part of this plateau lies the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica (meaning literally ‘beneath the mountain’). To the southeast of this is the basin of Skadarsko jezero (Route 5; Lake Shkodër in Albanian), which, which an average area of 475km2, is the largest lake in the Balkans. Beyond this area and further inland lie the country’s most elevated mountain areas.