Tenth Day

Today started earlier than we all expected, as we were awakened by Honzík, who suddenly began calling for help in his sleep. He must have had a dream about bears, who knows. Then we followed a longer journey through the interior of Montenegro to the town of Žabljak, from where we planned to set off on a hike in NP Durmitor.

Upon arriving in Žabljak, we quickly packed only the essentials and we were ready to go. It should be noted that because of the high temperatures during the day, we decided to set off in the late afternoon and planned to camp somewhere in the mountains, continuing towards the highest peak, Bobotov Kuk, the next day.

In the end, we only carried water, food, warm clothing for the night, and a sleeping bag. Some of us were even forced to swap flip-flops for sturdy shoes, comfort for discomfort, and last but not least, beer for water.

Unfortunately, we managed to set off almost an hour later than originally planned, so we had no choice but to really put our legs into it and start trekking to reach the designated sleeping spot before dark.

The first stage led around the lake and through the forest, where the first ascent began, but at that moment, we were more troubled by the abnormal amount of insects that stuck with us until we managed to climb above the tree line. Meanwhile, Bertold, a dog who became our guide, joined us and stayed with us throughout the ascent.

The second stage of the climb was already above the tree line among the rocks, where we were treated to breathtaking views every few moments. Since time was slipping away faster than we needed, we decided to skip two smaller peaks along the way and just go around them on the contour. When we finally scrambled onto the ridge at an altitude of about 2,000 m above sea level, where we were hit by a strong gust of wind, we had to clear our way through the bushes to get to the other side of the mountain massif.

The third stage was not about climbing up somewhere, but rather we had to start descending towards the valley, where at an altitude of 1,800 m above sea level, our overnight spot was supposed to be. As is often the case in the mountains, descending can often be more challenging and dangerous than climbing. Therefore, we chose an adequate pace and carefully descended step by step.

We reached the valley just as dusk was setting in. We were welcomed by a local shepherd with a flock of sheep, who offered us to spend the night in one of his shelters, allowing us to sleep peacefully knowing we had a roof over our heads.

Schnitzel