holidays 2012 - day 11: in the montenegrin mountains

being as exhausted as we are from our tara canyon adventure, we sleep well and are ready to tackle at least some of the montenegrin mountains. several hiking trails start practically on our doorstep, and we decide to walk towards crepulj poljana. the landscape here is actually not all that different from back home. for the first one and a half hours it's barely more than a walk through the woods. we meet only a couple of locals and their cattle dragging timber to the forest road.

men & cattle at work


then it's uphill for half an hour or so, and another 10 minutes until the forest gives way to alpine meadows featuring a few small barns, at the foot of some very rocky mountains: crepulj poljana (1648 m above sea level). we find a nice picnic spot under the blue sky and enjoy the stillness and scenery. it feels so good to be outdoors! it's a tad windy, but apart from that pretty perfect.

crepulj poljana, mountains & sky


we contemplate going further, but it would be another 2 hours to the nearest peak, and so we turn around and take the turnoff to zminje jezero (snake lake). lovely little lake with cooling water for my feet!

heinrich & michi testing the waters at snake lake


from there we follow mlinski potok (mill creek) to crno jezero, which we already saw on the evening of our arrival. the lake is picture book blue this time, completely different from that evening, and the grass around it is almost unreal, a kind of bright, slightly yellowish green. we sit and enjoy the sunshine, test the waters, watch the ripples on the lake, and have some more delicious montenegrin pastry.

jewel of durmitor: the black lake in blue


we arrive back at our guest house well after 3 in the afternoon and sit outside chatting with 16 year old novica, whose english is really good, and whose passive german skills aren't so bad either. he's such a funny guy. his mom jelena serves us pasta - just for us to "try". three portions later we're actually quite full ...

post-pasta picture


after a very welcome shower, we have a quiet evening - many of the people we met on arrival are now gone. it's our last night in montenegro, too.

photos of day 11