New Year, new road.

Not a complete new road but a long section leading from the chapel here in Montenegro up a long slope in the direction of Yégen.  Maybe about 500 metres in total,  the road gets very slippery when wet in the winter months and very very dusty in the summer.  I'm talking dust up to your ankles almost,  and although it's not a very busy road,  you can see that vehicles have a problem getting traction. 

Just before Christmas the first of many trucks laden with gravel started coming up,  plus a mini digger,  a water bowser to spray the gravel,  and a roller to pack it flat.  Sheets of reinforcing steel were at the Yátor end of the road waiting to be brought up too.  Obviously they had to start at the top and work their way down,  so they parked the equipment on a flat terrace and reversed up and up to the top.

The start of the gravel base.

The first of 29 mixers.....

A few days later there's concrete.

They started laying concrete on Monday 16th,  10 mixers went up that day.  About half an hour after one went down empty,  we'd hear the next one coming up,  except they got it wrong once.....

José was coming down empty and John managed to flag him down and tell him another full load was coming up.  José pulled off onto our neighbours land and although the chutes of their lorries got tangled somewhat,  the other lorry squeezed past.  That driver then helped José reverse back out from a tight spot.  What isn't clear on the last photo is that the rear wheels of José's lorry are not on the road anymore but hanging over the edge! 

Tuesday 17th - another 8 mixers,  and Wednesday morning another 6.  But by lunchtime it was cold,  windy and trying to snow so they stopped work.  The road was closed....

road closed sign at Yegen

and blocked in Montenegro.  Plus a dusting of snow!

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It was opened over the weekend for the fiesta of  San Sebastian in Yátor  and then this Monday morning came  the final 5 mix loads to finish the road. 

Rumour has it that the next project is from the chapel down past our house to the existing concrete road that goes to Yator.  Time will tell.  We only heard about this project when Fernando told us - and he knew because his brother is José the driver of one of the mixers.