Aug 15 - Take a slow day in Kotor, to make sure Odette no longer has a fever. She has had several episodes of low fever on the trip so far, never accompanied by any other symptoms, and only slowing her down a bit. A few of those times we tested her for Covid, always with negative results.
Meanwhile, in Western Europe, Great Britain had their strongest recorded heatwaves in history this summer, one in July and another in August. The highest temperature measured was 40.3⁰ C in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, on July 19. France and Spain have also endured prolonged heat and numerous fires. In planning this trip, I looked to the heat waves last summer, especially in Greece (where there were fires) and Eastern Europe, as a guide to what we might encounter. So far, while we encountered temperatures similar to the 40.3⁰ C I noted for Great Britain, it was in Mostar, where I fully expected high temperatures anyway.
The few locals I have talked about temperature with all say that it has been hotter than usual. But we’ve yet to encounter any strong side effects of that heat, such as loss of electricity or wildfires that block transport routes. As August wears on, it remains to be seen what is left of summer heat in the region, but thus far I was prepared for worse.
Likewise, I was always concerned with the number of tourists we would encounter from mid-June to end of August. Already in the early part of 2022 there were predictions that (a) a surge in tourism would occur in the northern hemisphere summer due to relaxing of Covid restrictions, and (b) the airlines would have trouble keeping up with the demand for flights. One of the factors that went into our departure date from Long Beach (April 3) was to get the transatlantic flights and a good amount of northern European travel in before things got complicated. In retrospect this was a good idea, with the additional bonus of not being the southern UK during the heatwave.
Take a long walk along the Bay of Kotor, to the east end of town.
Visit the Aquarium Boka, ‘Boka’ being another name for the Bay of Kotor. It is very small but professionally laid out. Odette is of course elated to look at some sea creatures.
Today we officially started school again. Now, as with April-June, there will be daily exercises. It will be a challenge, as the pace of the trip has not slowed.
Montenegro