midday
And behind them when they turned they saw great mountains , sullenly magnificent , cleft into vast irregular masses , dense with woods below and grim and desolate above ... . These were unforgettable scenes , and so too was the wild lonely valley through which they rode to Ochrida amidst walnut and chestnut trees and scattered rocks , and the first vision of that place itself , with its fertile levels dotted with sheep and cattle , its castle and clustering mosques , its spacious blue lake and the great mountains rising up towards Olympus under the sun . And there was the first view of the blue Lake of Presba seen between silvery beech stems , and that too had Olympus in the far background , plain now and clear and unexpectedly snowy . And there were midday moments when they sat and ate under vines and heard voices singing very pleasantly , and there were forest glades and forest tracks in a great variety of beauty with mountains appearing through their parted branches , there were ilex woods , chestnut woods , beech woods , and there were strings of heavily-laden mules staggering up torrent-worn tracks , and strings of blue-swathed mysterious-eyed women with burthens on their heads passing silently , and white remote houses and ruins and deep gorges and precipices and ancient half-ruinous bridges over unruly streams . And if there was rain there was also the ending of rain , rainbows , and the piercing of clouds by the sun 's incandescence , and sunsets and the moon , first full , then new and then growing full again as the holiday wore on . They found tolerable accommodation at Cattaro and at Cettinje and at a place halfway between them . It was only when they had secured a guide and horses , and pushed on into the south-east of Montenegro that they began to realize the real difficulties of their journey .