I Saved a Turtle

August 22, 2019

It’s been a busy day already, and I am just getting started.    Yesterday I saved my legs from a long ride, in preparation for a long climb today.    Now I have been looking to climb this hill for a while, and every time I try it seems to beat the life out of me before I reach the top.   Today I decided I was going to the top.   Apparently I still didn’t make it, but I clearly made it through most of the top (it tops out around 1250m, I started heading down again at 1000m and so I turned, thinking it was the top.  Apparently it still goes further, oh well).

In any case, the climb was not so bad, but the last bit (past where I turned last time, thinking it was the top) is 1.6km at 11% average grade.   That hurt two hours into the ride.

So I started early, climbed in reasonable temperatures and took pictures of each of the turns (10-25) along with some other interesting sights.   Here is a tunnel after the first area of descent.  Very cool and you just hope that the rocks stay up when you’re going through.

Not all of the rocks do stay up.   When driving down the highway, did you ever think about the ‘Watch for Falling Rocks’ signs and what that means for the roadway?   A couple of significant cliffs have been in the headlines lately, but here is what it looks like on a small road, in a small country, where nobody really cares much!  Think about it this way, the road is about 12′ wide, and this boulder takes up about a foot of the roadway.    Don’t blink coming around that corner.

Speaking of hitting things coming around a corner, how about a cow or two?   Yep, a little closer to the bottom, two cows had decided to graze alongside the road.   Here’s one.

And finally, nearer the bottom still, I saw a bit of a traffic jam (and recognize I am descending at about 50kph), and so slammed on the brakes.   There was a medium sized turtle stuffed in his shell in the middle of the road.   I stopped and moved him to the side.  I am sure he will be soup soon, but I tried. [And here is the turtle!]

For those who only come for the photos, here are the fruits of all that hill climbing.

So today’s post comes in multiple parts . . . some of the early readers may miss some of the rambling, but that’s okay.   After some errands in the afternoon I decided to unhook from the dock and run the boat out into Kotor bay for a day or two.   One, to check on some information about the engine and engine room, and two, to find a place to look at the stars without all of the lights from town.

The engine works . . . and now I am anchored in flat water about 75′ deep.  I went for a nice swim to stretch my legs and work my arms a bit (cyclists frequently have weak arms and rolled shoulders and swimming is a good counter to that, I would swim more if I were smarter.)

Here is the view from two sides:

The downside of being in this bay is that the mountains are significant and rise sharply from the water, which will take up a large portion of the night sky, but the moon set in mid afternoon, so the sky should be relatively dark and there will be plenty to look at.

It’s a bit of a todo list when sitting at anchor to find a shooting star, a passing satellite and an airplane.   In a dark sky, all are very easy to find, but it is still a worthy pastime!

But first some dinner!

Oh and an update . . . it appears that Donald Trump is scheduled to be in Warsaw exactly the same time Jinhee and I are.   Aaaaargh.   Maybe we will try to find somewhere else to be so we don’t have to be even close to the same space as this bozo.

Now that I say that, I realize that when we get the boat serviced in Florida later this winter it will be in North Palm Beach, and I think that’s where the bozo spends most of his time when he’s not messing up the world.  Oh well.  No winning on that front I guess.