The Colonel's Heaven on Earth Monday, May 30, 2005
Kurac, Montenegro 
"Kurac is a sleepy lakeside community about 20 minutes by car from the
center of this semi-autonomous republic's capital city, Podgorica (where
the airport is located). An equal distance in the other direction is
--no joke--one of the most fabulous stretches of coastline that I
have ever seen in Europe."
Dear International Living Reader, "Just you wait," said my new friend the retired colonel, proud owner of a house on Lake Skadar in Kurac, Montenegro. "You are about to see heaven on earth." It is easy to use such words glibly, but here around the lake you really can imagine a kind of heavenly peace between the bustle of the city and the coast. The mountains here were thrown up by tectonic and karst impact, giving the area a Southeast Asian quality, with cone-shaped mountains and hills rising out of the waters of the lake. And this beauty is protected: Lake Skadar became a National Park in 1983 thanks to its unique populations of birds and fish--264 species of birds, including pelicans, and 39 different kinds of fish. The total size of the lake changes drastically from summer to winter, from 200 to 300 square miles. Two-thirds of the lake is in Montenegro and the other third is in Albania, along with about 50 islands, some with ruined fortalices and monasteries. Fishing villages such as Virpazar and Murici are also worth exploring, with their picturesque hotels and restaurants. The retired Colonel showed me round his house with great pride. Its position overlooking the lake was indeed beautiful; his carefully tended 10-acre smallholding was tranquil in the afternoon sun. The view from his terraces looks out over ranks of peaks disappearing into the distance. In the nearer distance is a fishing village on a rocky promontory, complete with an ancient fort, reputedly the winter residence of St. Petar Cetinje, a famous local churchman. My new friend has everything he needs here, he explained. He has over 850 feet of shoreline, and an orchard with apples, plums, kiwi, pear, and peach. A few rows of local Vranac vines. A smokehouse for prosciutto and lake fish, and a dairy for cheese and milk. A few goats in the forest behind. If he tires of his own cooking, it's only about 15 minutes by boat to the locally revered restaurant at Virpazar. Looking out over such abundance, I had to agree. Jocelyn Carnegie
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