Doviđenja, Crna Goro!
Doviđenja, Crna Goro!
I had a vacation!
The last time I visited another country as a tourist was... oof, right before the COVID hit the world. 2019 was actually pretty busy, since that year we went to Japan (first time!) and Germany (not first time). And then the whole world changed forever. A few times.
So it's pretty special that after almost 6 years of being stuck in the same place, more or less, we managed to organize a new trip. Me and the wife love to travel to mountainous regions with lakes. Hiking and trekking is a great change of pace from city life, and vistas are spectacular without a fail. Fortunately, we kind of live in a pretty mountainous region! So we packed our rucksacks and hopped onto a bus to Montenegro.
This was also a great opportunity to brush off my photography skills, which is why this post is really just an excuse to post a bunch of pretty pictures!
# Road there
The bus took us from the newly constructed Belgrade Bus Terminal (BAS) to the town of Žabljak in the northern parts of Montenegro. That's 9 hours on a bus one way, with border crossing! A whole bunch of new experiences, all in one, very long day. I was prepared to watch a bunch of videos for the majority of the journey, but it was actually pretty interesting to just stare through the window at the multitude of landscapes in Serbia.
Fields, hills, dams, reservoirs, canyons. Tunnels and nature resorts. We didn't get a chance to explore Serbia much before, so learning about its natural variety certainly inspired some thought of future visits!
With a few stops along the way, to stretch our legs and to have a meal, we reached the border at Jabuka (SRB) and Ranče (MNE) in about 6 hours. While the countries are culturally really close, the border setup really highlights the modern political stance of either government. That is to say that the post at Montenegro side is significantly larger, and prominently features a plaque that its reconstruction has been sponsored by the EU. Serbian border station isn't so privileged.
The whole process is pretty streamlined, even though it's a vacation season and the queue for personal vehicles is pretty long. Checks don't take that long and most people just go through in a couple of minutes tops. Serbians can even visit Montenegro with their national ID in hand, accepted by both sides. Which simplifies the travel for them even further. As we were on a tourist bus, a coach, we had our own lane, though whether that's of any help I cannot say.
Serbian authorities just collect all IDs together, without you having to leave the bus, and then return them in bulk, having some of the passengers pass the heap around with everyone collecting theirs. On the Montenegro side you have to actually disembark the bus and go to the guardsman's booth on foot, and then board the bus back when everyone has done so. In both directions we had no issues with any of the procedures, so that was nice. Note that Montenegro officials don't always stamp your passport.
Anyway, a couple more hours after the border, and we're here!
# Žabljak
Žabljak is a tiny town with pretty much one street, but it's a busy and popular place. In fact, it's clear that the place is rapidly developing with some investments and incentives probably being offered. There are a lot of new buildings being erected, alongside other recent improvements, such as road realignment, parking control, electronic road signs, and a new playground.
The reason for this is obvious the moment you get off the bus:
The city is located near a large mountain ridge with a bunch of lakes and valleys in between. This offers a lot of opportunities for trekking, hiking, climbing, rafting, off-roading, paragliding, and whatever else have you. In fact, if you're really into extreme emotions, on the way to Žabljak there is the great Tara bridge, and you can do all sorts of rope-based activities next to it and over the valley it crosses.
# Crno Jezero
But we're here for chills, not thrills. So we went straight to the Crno Jezero (Black lake), and the trail around it. It's not a big lake, but like all good mountain lakes it comes with a view of a menacing rock sitting next to it. You can swim in it, but at your own caution. We never took that opportunity, alas, but met quite a few people who had. There are even places where you can dive from higher rocks into the cold water.
The trail itself is busy with trekkers of all sorts and ages. The lake has a hourglass-like shape, and at this time of the year the two parts are completely split with safe crossing in the middle. The larger half, the one you naturally visit first, offers a pretty calm forest path around the water, while a significant part of the second, smaller half is marked as "dangerous" and features some perilous stages. It generally goes higher above the ground level, and in some parts even requires to climb stone steps with a handy rope mounted for assistance.
You can also walk along the shoreline for the most part, although it also gets rocky in places. Still, entire families could be found at every point of the path around the lake. Various kids definitely enjoyed a lot of light rock climbing, I'd say. If you needed to take a break, multiple rest stops with simple benches and sometimes tables were available along the way. And you could also always just sit on some nice rocks.
# Durmitor
At several points the path around the lake would branch out into the woods, with trail information suggesting longer hikes. Indeed, this entire area was a part of the Durmitor national park, and the lake was not the sole attraction. But for most visitors it is the main attraction, which is why at main paths into the park there are ticket booths where you're asked to pay 5 euros for one day of visit. There are also year-long passes, and you can buy all of that online. They accept bank cards at the booths, by the way.
Tickets are mostly a suggestion, though. Nobody is going to check if you have them, and there are multiple forest tracks around the area which lead in and out of the park without anybody watching over them. Like, you can genuinely randomly walk from an external area to the lake, following a clearly marked trail and be none the wiser that somewhere else you'd have to pay. There are no fences around the park. Still, it's not a steep price, so if we crossed the gates, we did pay.
The park and the lake are about 40 minutes walk away from the town, and the path around the lake with all the stops to rest and take selfies is going to take you perhaps a couple of hours. There is a restaurant by the lake, if you're suddenly hungry, and a lot of information to plan your trip for the next day.
# Zminje Jezero and going higher
One of the trails from the lake leads you along some forest trail and a pretty dried up creek which used to be used for clay mining. The path information promises a dozen or so remains of old wooden structures related to this purpose, but you'd be hard pressed to spot any. Even some of the signs signaling a point of interest appear to be weathered and consumed by the forest. Imagine then the state of some rotten and dilapidated huts from another century. But the trail itself was really cool!
Eventually it leads to a well-maintained gravel road that connects to some roads outside of the park for cars to travel this deep. And at the end of this road there is a new lake to explore. It's a tiny Zminje lake, where you can chill with some ducks (and dogs?!). For more adventurous tourists than us this is also a starting point for a proper mountain climb, and maybe even a path to Bobotov kuk. We weren't as ambitious but did try to reach the next lake in the line, Jablan Jezero.
There are numerous ways to get there, depending on your skills and remaining strength. We took a more scenic route, through the forest's wilder trail, and then into mountain hills with grass fields by a village. That was a beautiful mistake! Views were stunning, and fresh, and awesome. But the longer trail exhausted us greatly, so we had to turn back after reaching some height around 1700m.
On the way back we followed a trial track for mountain bikers. It wasn't properly set up at the time, but it was clearly built for the purpose, and later on I managed to find some videos of people racing down the same path.
# Rudinovača
There isn't a lot to do about Durmitor except for walking or riding its beautiful paths. But at that sole activity it really excels with variety. We were pretty tired by our last full day there, so instead of going for another forest trail or mountainous path we decided to walk the vast fields nearby, to the south-east of Žabljak. It's a relatively flat, but still hilly area that opens up for a few kilometers and offers a calm walk with a great backdrop of the mountain ridge.
That was the day we took the most beautiful pictures of the journey! As uneventful as the path itself was (like, we barely met a soul that day!), the panoramas compensated for it tenfold. We aimed for Rudinovača, which is a name of a tiny village and a hill next to it a few kilometers down the road. Besides annoying flies and a curious local dog, we were completely alone and enjoyed both silence and occasional chorus of crickets.
Most days there were sunny but chill, which was perfect for trekking. But that was one day where it would rain from time to time. We managed to find a few hours for our walk, where it was still fresh and also comfortably dry and clear. And that was the ideal way to say our farewells! For now, at least.
# Doviđenja
And that's our vacation!
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