Back to Serbia

After our brief trip into Bulgaria we headed back out of the Schengen zone and back into Serbia. We crossed over into the South Eastern corner of the country but we actually wanted to spend the remainder of our time in Serbia in the South Western corner. So we drove across to the tip of Kosovo and a mountain area called Kapaonik National Park.

As the heat wave in the Balkans was still raging with temperatures hitting the high 30’s and low 40’s at sea level, we were really pleased to see the mercury dropping as we drove up the access road to Kapaonik. We finally settled down on a ridge at 1700m with a great view looking back down onto the plains below.  The temperatures over night were down low enough for us to actually use our duvet and it was great.

We spent four nights in total at Kapaonik, enjoying the cool temperatures and visiting the modern ski resort.

We did descend the mountain for a day of exploring, which included a visit to Maglic castle, which was built in 13^th century and conquered by the Turks in 1438. The castle is perched on a crag overlooking the Ibar river. There isn’t much left of it now, other than its walls and the remains of the keep.

There is no access road to the castle and the old bridge has collapsed, so to get here you have to take a hand-pulled ferry across the river and then hike up the steep path.

At the base of the crag upon which the castle sits, is a tributary river with a small waterfall and a perfect pool for swimming. Just what I needed to cool off. However, on returning to the ferry the wind had risen and the temperature was plummeting. In the space of about 20 minutes the temperature fell almost 15c and once safely back in the camper the heavens opened.

We moved on to our next destination, the Studenica Monastery, which is considered one of Serbia’s most sacred sites. It was established in 1196 and within its white marble walls there are two  churches with acclaimed frescoes. 

We had planned to spend the night at the Monastery but as the thunderstorm passed and the clouds dispersed the temperature headed back into the 30c despite it being early evening, so we decided to make a dash back up to Kapaonik for a cool night.

We finally prised ourselves free from Kapoanik National Park and drove to the town of Novi Pazar which is at the foot of Kapoanik. It is a typical border town being close to both the Kosovo and Montenegro borders and we did not linger long.

We had come to this area because we wanted to visit two more monasteries. The First is a very popular destination and easy to reach from Novi Pazar.

This is the Sopocani Monastery, which was built in 1265 but was subsequently destroyed by the Turks in 1689. The frescoes contained within are superb examples of medieval art and the site is Unesco listed having been fully restored in 1929.

The next monastery on our tour was Crna Reka, which was a little more tricky to get to. To get here we had to cross a narrow bridge over a lake and, unsure of what we would find at the top of the steep narrow drive up the mountain, we parked up and decided to cycle.

It was an exhausting cycle up (for those of us without an e-bike) and upon reaching the top we discovered there was just enough space to park. It was early evening when we visited though and we were the only visitors at that time, had there been any other visitors we would have struggled, so we were right to be cautious. On our way in, a priest intercepted us to say that I couldn’t enter the monastery in my shorts. Fortunately, he gave me a pair of tracksuit bottoms to cover my legs and spared me having to cycle down and then drive back up as there was no way I was cycling it again!

The 13^th century Crna Reka monastery is built into the cliff side and many of the rooms are built into caves. The monastery is spread over four levels and each section is linked by staircases built along the cliff.

Being all alone visiting this monastery made a nice change and we really enjoyed poking our heads into all the nooks and crannies in the cliff side which had been made into little chapels.

For the night we drove up to another ski resort and found a huge deserted car park at the top of the mountain. The car park had been built a few years ago for a new ski resort but no further development has taken place so it’s just a big car park surrounded by trees.

The next morning we kept driving along the same road when the tarmac gave out and we had to continue down a reasonably rough gravel road. Then, just as abruptly, after about 5km of gravel the tarmac started again and we carried on back to the main road on a lovely smooth new tarmac road.

We arrived at our next destination which had a tarmacked road so new it’s not yet on google maps and we set out on a short hike to a viewpoint overlooking the amazing Uvac canyon. The river here is incredibly meandering and makes for an amazing view. There are also lots of vultures inhabiting the area so you can take turns looking at the river canyon or admiring the swooping vultures. If this was somewhere more accessible it would probably be very famous !

We decided to try to find a boat tour through the canyon which involved driving down a very steep, deeply rutted and crumbling dirt road to river level. As we were descending the road got worse and worse and we started to get pretty concerned about making it back up, but we were on a single track with no way of turning around so we were committed now. On arriving at the bottom, the area where boat tours were meant to leave from was littered with old beat up caravans that looked like they had been there for many years and a couple of closed-up buildings that likely used to be restaurants. The place had an eerie feel to it and it was clear any boat tour business that once existed here was no more. With nothing left to do, we girded our loins to drive straight back up the road – traction control and hill ascent on, we powered up the hill wheel spinning as we went. That was certainly as gnarly a road as we would want to do in our 2 wheel drive motorhome.

On reaching the top with our hearts racing, we stopped at a nearby restaurant, asked if we could stay the night and then promptly ordered some drinks to settle our very frazzled nerves.

Next stop in Serbia was the modern ski town of Zlatibor. Zlatibor has the feel of a modern American ski town with a Balkan flavour. The slopes are actually a bit out of town but connected by a new cable car.

We stayed the night in a rare Serbian campsite but had a terrible nights sleep as somewhere nearby they were blasting dance music until 3 in the morning. The bass was so loud you could feel the vibrations through the camper. This isn’t unusual for a weekend but was unexpected on a Wednesday night !

Near to Zlatibor is the Sirogojno Open Air Museum. This is a collection of traditional buildings which have been moved to this site to demonstrate how people in this mountain region of Serbia used to live.

Close to Sirogojno is a park which is home to a series of waterfalls called Gostilje. This is a lovely 1km walk down along side a river which passes over a number of cascades before reaching a larger river at the bottom of the valley.

Sometimes you just get things wrong when you are researching and finding things to do and see in the areas which you visit. Everything we were reading online and in our guide book was that the Mokra Gora Sargan Eight railway was a fantastic trip that shouldn’t be missed.

With this in mind we set out early to secure a spot in the car park for the starting station and bought some tickets for the first journey of the day. This is an out and back train journey which takes an hour and a half each way. There are also a number of stops along the way to admire the views and stretch your legs.

We have done a few rail trips while travelling and usually you can expect some amazing views (the Mont Blanc Tramway immediately springs to mind), but unfortunately the Mokra Gora railway just did not deliver, as 90% of the journey is through forest that blocks any views at all. The stations that you stop at are ok and did have some interesting old trains to look at but nothing that was worth spending 3 hours on this ride.

We made the best of it but just felt that it was something that could easily be skipped without missing anything special. The train line is called the Sargan Eight as it winds its way in a figure of eight as it climbs over 300m from start to finish through 22 tunnels in 15.5km. It is something of an engineering marvel, but you just can’t see that from the train itself and I suspect you’d need a birds-eye view to really appreciate it.

Near to Mokra Gora is the village of Drevengrad which on the face of it looks like a traditional Serbian village but was in fact only created in the 2000’s as a movie set for the film – “life is a miracle”.  It made a diverting stop over for 20 minutes but no more.

We were getting close to the end of our time in Serbia but before leaving we wanted to visit Tara National Park. This park consists of two different areas: the Tara river canyon and then a highland mountainous area overlooking the canyon.

We stopped off at the river canyon and were interested to see the number of houseboats tethered along the canyon, being used as holiday lets.

We then drove up into the highlands area and visited Zaovine lake – a large reservoir in the middle of the park. Nothing really piqued our interest though so after a day in Tara we headed to a campsite in the hills above the town of Uzice.

This was a great campsite, particularly because there aren’t very many in Serbia. It was a working small holding with donkeys and peacocks and we were welcomed by the elderly father with whom we sat and enjoyed several generous measures of his home-made Rakija. We also had a fantastic meal while we were here. There was so much food that we took a doggy bag away with us and had enough food for another two meals back in the camper.

After a relaxing day here we then headed south towards the Montenegro border and our next country.