11/07/2018 - 14/07/2018
Our time in the charming city of Novi Sad had come to a satisfying end and so it was time for us to move west to the bear county of Serbia, Tara National Park . The park was established in 1981 and encompasses the Tara mountain, standing at about 1600m above sea level. The park is also home to about 50 brown bears which I was secretly hoping we would be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of, but alas that wasn't to be.
From Belgrade we took the 13.15 bus and after a long and tedious 6 hour bus ride we finally reached the town of Bajina Basta situated on the outskirts of Tara National park, our first of many prolonged bus rides but at least it had air conditioning, some leg room and departed right on time.
The town of Bajina Basta is home to the surrealistic sight of a quaint little house on a rock protruding from the middle of the Drina river which lies between the border of Serbia and Bosnia. Legend has told that the national folk hero Marko Kraljevic wanted to cross to the other side of the river but he didn’t want his famous horse Sarac to wet its legs, so he threw a huge rock in the middle of the river from a nearby vista point and the horse jumped from one side of the river onto the Rock and then to another side of the river Drina. Nothing like a good folk story to get your childish imagination flowing!
The next morning after our tiresome bus ride, we took the 15 minute stroll out from the town of Bajina Basta to spend some time gazing across the river at this picturesque little beauty.
Another well known site that we were eager to visit in this region was the viewing point of Banjska Stena, situated about 6km from the town of Mitrovac. After our delightful time at the river bank we took the bus to Mitrovac, situated deep in the cusps of the national park. The usual route this bus takes was closed for road works so it took an extra 45 minutes to get there but at least it was an excuse for me to get my mid day nap in. The walk to the view point was fairly flat as the town itself is high above sea level, apart from the last few hundred meters where a steady but short incline ensues. Along the route there is ample opportunities to spot some gorgeously coloured butterflies and if like me, you might start thinking that every tree stump in the distance of the forest is a mother bear and her babies....I just really wanted to see a bear, ok!
Once we reached the top, we were greeted with some spectacular views out over the river Drina and even better, we had the place mostly to ourselves, even taking a few sneaky smoochy photos as we aren't usually ones for the personal displays of affection. See, that is the thing about these parts, tourists thankfully have not flocked here yet so there was a real sense that we were 'living among the locals' with the space and time to enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
But on that note, because mass tourism hasn't yet reached Serbia, the public transport in the national park really wasn't up to par. The only bus we could get back from Mitrovac was not until 9pm that night so, you guessed it, we hitchhiked. If all came to all there was an empty hut across the road that we said we could sleep in for the night if nobody was willing to pick us up. But luckily it didn't come to that. Two young lads, one a physiotherapist working in Belgrade and his friend, apparently the fastest 400m runner in Serbia, kindly gave us a lift back to the town of Bajina Basta. They even pulled over to let us see more of the views on the way down the mountain side and of course we couldn't leave them without taking a selfie as a memento to some of our hitchhiking adventures. Just as well those two lads pulled over for us as later that evening a fairly epic thunder storm ensued and we would still probably have been stranded up the mountain wondering would our 9pm bus show up at all.
The next day we decided to do less walking and so opted to do kayaking down the Drina river. Not much kayaking was done as the moving water rapids steadily brought us downstream so instead we lay back and dazzled at the nature around, from those of Bosnia on our left side and Serbia on our right eventually leading us directly to the lone house on the lone rock.
The next day we had planned to go back to Mitrovav to rent bikes and visit one of the lakes of Tara National Park but because the first bus was at 6 in the morning and the bike shop not being open until 9 and the next bus not until 13.00 we decided we would again try and hitchhike but unfortunately this time we weren't as lucky. It was a Saturday morning so the roads were quiet and nobody seemed to be going up at that time in the morning to the mountains. We eventually managed to get a lift to the next town over, Perucac, by a 30 something year old Finance guy and his elderly mother. Here we would spend the whole day swimming and bathing, in the shade of course, again surrounded by glorious mountainous views. The town of Perucac is also home to the year long year, getting its name from being 365 meters long and one of the shortest rivers in the world
That night, we spent the evening with our magnificent host family headed by a lovely lady called Dragana. We felt right at home straight away. Her husband would feed us his home grown deliciously juicy pears and get us drunk on some local Rakija while her son Vojislav, a PHD student studying in Russia would open our minds to a plethora of new ideas, fact and figures. He showed us his fascinating money collection he has obtained from different countries around the world and even gifted us a 5,000,000 Dinar note from when hyperinflation was rampant during the war in Yugoslavia. He has given me the idea to collect a money note from each country that we visit on our travels and hopefully display proudly on the wall when we get home. We were delighted to be able to add to his collection in the form of euro coins with the Irish harp emblem and he requested that we send him on some stamps displaying an Irish lighthouse - maybe Paul can get one of the Spire of Llyod in Kells.
The next morning with an ever so slightly sore head from the night before we said goodbye to our wonderful host family and time in Tara National Park to head back to Belgrade. On our last day in Belgrade we visited the Ada lake district, a great local city amenity where one can come and cycle the lake and chill by the waters edge. That night we took in one final sunset at the fortress in Kalemegdan park and retired to our beds for one more sleep before we left Serbia to head east to Romania.
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