On our way north and back into the Schengen Zone, we decided to head back into Montenegro. This time, we weren’t heading towards the coast, but inland towards the mountains, specifically to go rafting on the Tara River (which we couldn’t do last time as Charlie had just cut his leg and couldn’t get his stitch wet}. When we last visited Montenegro, we weren’t overly impressed (see our previous blog here) and we found it quite touristy. We thought this may have been because we had just come from Bosnia (a country that we had completely fallen in love with), but it turns out, we just hadn’t seen the best parts of Montenegro!
We crossed the border from Kosovo and headed straight for the Durmitor National Park in the northwest of the country. Our first stop had to be somewhere where we could empty our grey and black waste, as places in Kosovo were extremely limited. We found a campsite just inside the National Park, called Eko Oaza - Tear of Europe, and we enjoyed a very warm welcome from the owners which included homemade brandy and juice. We didn’t do much that evening as we were still feeling a little fragile from partying in Kosovo for the previous two nights (see our Kosovo blog if you want to read about us dancing with a Granny!). The next morning, we were getting ready to leave when we spotted another English van (our 3rd one in as many days!). We chatted to the lovely couple, Becki and Lorna (@beckievans90), for most of the morning, sharing stories of van life and recommendations of where to go.
We eventually left the campsite and went off in search of somewhere to go rafting. We decided to head towards the Tara Canyon viewpoint, where it’s possible to zip line across the canyon or join a rafting tour which ends at the famous bridge. We spoke to a company here about a rafting tour, which would cost 50 euro for a 14km rafting experience. We’d read online about other tours, which cost the same, but also offered lunch. As this was already putting us way over our budget, we decided that we wanted something more for our money and so decided to go for the one we’d seen online.
We had a few days before our rafting was booked, so we made our way further into Durmitor National Park. The drive through the park was absolutely stunning. It reminded us of the Scottish Highlands, but on steroids. Much like the NC500 route the roads were single lane, but unlike in Scotland there were no safety barriers and very few passing places, but the journey through the mountains just got better and better. We decided that we wanted to climb one of the mountains whilst in the park so found ourselves a wild camping spot for the night hidden just off the road, and searched for a hiking route using the Komoot app. After checking out a few routes Charlie handed the phone to Roxy to make the final choice, which was to climb to the summit of Prutas.
We arrived at the start point of the hike and looked up at the summit. Komoot said that this was an ‘intermediate’ hike, but it looked very high! It turns out the route that Roxy had settled on included a 550m elevation in the first 1km of the route. Something Roxy very quickly came to regret. Whilst climbing the first 1km we were quite surprised to find that we were having to scramble up loose rocks (presumably from previous landslides), rock climb up rock faces with very steep drops on either side, and scramble around the side of the mountain along very narrow and quite scary 'paths'. We spent a lot of the way up trying to decide if we had, perhaps, overestimated our abilities, and thinking we should turn around.
Especially when the bad weather started to roll in and we could hear thunder. We decided that we didn’t fancy abseiling back down the rocks, and if we carried on, we had a much gentler descent ahead of us. After what felt like a lifetime, we did eventually make it to the top, which was a very big relief. This was the first time we’d ever genuinely felt scared for our lives on a hike. Maybe next time we will do a bit more research before simply setting off!
We got to the top, signed the little visitors book and soaked in the views for a few minutes (or what we could see of the view through the clouds). The walk back down was much more stress free, apart from the fact that the map we were following seemed to take us off a visible path and simply take us through the mountain fields down some steep, rocky, but still grassy, slopes. We did eventually make it back to William. All in all, it was a very nice hike, albeit with a few tense moments near the top, and taking nearly 5 hours when it should have only taken 3. The views from the top, when the clouds weren't in the way, were absolutely spectacular. After the hike we made our way back to our wild camping spot and chilled out for the rest of the evening.
The next day we had a slow morning, desperately hoping that our bodies would recover from the hike before we went rafting the next day. We were on the road again and going down a very steep and windy road when we noticed that our brakes seemed to be overheating (following the repairs done in Turkey). We stopped in the next village to try and find a garage. After speaking to a couple of locals, and reading some reviews of a tow truck company in the area, it turned out that the only option would be to either head into Bosnia (to Sarajevo) or back on ourselves, through Durmitor National Park towards a bigger town. As we didn't fancy going back on the steep windy roads, we decided that we would head through to Bosnia and get them looked at using our breakdown cover. So, we made our way to the Waterfall Rafting Centre. We got there and asked if it was okay to park overnight, they said it was free to park at the top of the small hill in the customer car park, or would cost 20 Euro to park by the bungalows down by the river, but we could use the showers either way. Obviously, we chose the free option!
The next morning, we made our way to the on-site restaurant for a brilliant buffet breakfast (included in the price of rafting!) and a briefing from our rafting guide, before jumping in one the 7 vehicles that were our transport to the start point of the rafting tour, 18km up the Tara River. On our way we had to pass through the Montenegrin border control post, so technically you could say we illegally left the country, however the road then follows the river, which is actually the border between the two countries.
On the way to the start point we overheard an English family discussing their daughter’s GCSE results and which college she wanted to go to. It turned out they were from a town nearby where Charlie grew up and talking about his old school! Once we arrived at the start point, we actually found out that we were in the same raft as the family, which we were very pleased about as they were a lot of fun.
The rafting tour was fantastic. It was reasonably calm in the river as the water is a lot lower in August. If you want to really experience rapids, you should apparently visit in May. However, there were some rapids where the guide was able to turn the boat as we went through so that we all got soaked. Halfway through the tour we stopped at a riverside bar (essentially some locals who have put some beers in a pool of river water and sell them to people on tours), where the guide explained that he was celebrating the birth of his first nephew. This meant that he was making the most of the schnapps and wine that his friends were offering out and was almost certainly over the drink-raft limit (if there is such a thing)! He did seem to handle his schnapps very well and managed to get us to the finish point - where the Tara River and the Piva River become the Drina. After getting back to the rafting centre, the tour then included a three-course meal. In our opinion, 50 euro each for 2 meals and a full day of rafting was certainly worth the money!
The original plan was to head straight into Bosnia after the rafting, but we were both fairly knackered, and by the time we finished speaking with the English family it was already 6pm. We therefore made our way away from the border to a wild camping spot overlooking the reservoir, just outside a town called Pluzine. The next day we made the journey across Bosnia and into Croatia. Those of you who were reading carefully may notice the change to our original plan; we were originally planning on calling our breakdown cover when we got to Sarajevo, but we realised we would have to buy a local sim card to make the call, and it all seemed like more hassle than it was worth!
This second trip into Montenegro was certainly very different from the first. We didn't spend time in villages, towns, and cities, but instead experienced the mountainous parts of Montenegro. This made a huge difference to how we now feel about Montenegro as a whole and would highly recommend anyone to see both sides of the country.
Comments