3,3 – Our ‘Lovely’ Zlatibor Weekend

We like to walk. We do it around Belgrade a lot, either around Kosutnjak – near where we live – or around Ada. Recently we have spent many a Saturday walking from home to and around the new bridge. This last has become somewhat a ritual for us over the past year and a half as the bridge has taken shape. It is not far from us – we walk down to the hippodrome and then walk around under the bridge getting a construction perspective of things or go up on top to see how close the finishing works are. Today we just kind of walked and walked out into the middle of the construction – this is Serbia, so no one stopped us. It is very close to being finished. Will we be driving on it in 2011? I have my doubts, but if not, it will not be long into 2012, that is for sure.

New Bridge At Ada, On The Sava River, Belgrade, Serbia - August 2011

This walking habit of ours translates into bushwalking (hiking) weekends from time to time. I described one some time ago in my post on Durmitor, Montenegro (http://jimnewkirk53.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/durmitor-montenegro/). That weekend we had as our fearless leader Mika Marković. Last weekend we walked with Mika again, this time to Zlatibor (http://www.zlatibor.org/english/English-Zlatibor.htm). The idea was two days of walking, and we drove from Belgrade to Zlatibor on Friday after work in order to get an early start on Saturday. Irena and I brought the cat, which was a clear indicator that we would not be walking Sunday, due to check-out times, which turned out to be a wise decision made early.

Mika had his GPS, as usual – he is a regular, serious bushwalker and uses the GPS regularly, although my earlier experiences with him were with maps. As he does, Mika downloaded a track for our walk. This too, as many will know, is normal practice. Someone in Belgrade had walked on Zlatibor, with their GPS, and upon finishing their walk they posted the ‘track’ online. Mika had downloaded the track, and the plan was to simply follow it. Yes, we made the incorrect assumption that Mika had already walked the track. The plan was for a 16 kilometre walk – almost exactly 10 miles – and for the other 5 of us, this was just about perfect on a brisk, November mountain morning.

The first 8 plus kilometres were also exactly what we expected, but at that point things went wrong.

A Cold, Foggy November Morning In Zlatibor

Wrong, I suppose, depending on perspective.

At some point we realised we had missed a turn, and then Mika’s track, which we understood continued to follow small roads, led us into the forest. The forest diversion had no road, no path and no clear direction for us. It was however, a track on a GPS, so we followed it to the best of our ability.

Zlatibor Forest

We followed it down, and down and down. Loose rocks covered by wet, icy grass and loose, wet leaves. Two kilometres we climbed down, killing our legs, slipping regularly and, at times, in dangerous places.

Slipping Through The Forest

Just so difficult to relax, struggling all the time with footing on this seemingly endless downward trek.

We did get down, where we found a logging road that was likely the route we were supposed to have used, but who could be sure? It was nothing special, but would have been a real improvement on the cross-forest route we took. Unfortunately, upon completion of the down section we knew we were under some time pressures as dark falls quickly and early in Zlatibor in November. The plan for the day was to visit five waterfalls on our loop walk, and to then return, meeting our outward leg with some 5-6 kilometres left in the walk. So, with no rest stop, we headed up the creek in search of the waterfalls, as well as our way home.

The Route of the Return Trip - Up A Creek

And I thought the downward leg was hard! The rocks were wet and slippery, and most of them moved when stepped on. We tried moving along the side of the creek, but in most places it was impassable due to heavy undergrowth, fallen logs or purely because it was too steep, and we were inexorably drawn back onto the rocks and, from time to time, into the water.

We found one of the five waterfalls.

Zlatibor Waterfall

We slowly worked our way up, while anxiety levels began to develop as the brightness of the day began to wane in the deep gorge. We found a climbable slope and an apparent ridge above, and began an arduous climb out, again drawing on very limited reserves of energy in our legs.

Pain and the Upside

We found the ridge, and about a half an hour later houses. It was still light, and much brighter on the ridge, but the houses although empty gave us a Plan B if we struggled to make it back to the cars.

Mountain Dwelling On Zlatibor Mountain

We followed a long, steep slope down to the road, and discovered we had to go up the road, which meant we should not have gone down at all, rather directly across. But we were on a road, and heading back. Someone asked Mika how far it was to the cars and he said 3,3 kilometres ‘as the crow flies.’ We walked as quickly as possible as the sun went down and dusk claimed us. About 90 minutes later Mika told us we had missed a turn and would have to go back. It was by now completely dark, although only about 5pm. We had been walking since 9 in the morning. We had gone some 45 minutes past our turn. Mika proposed a short-cut along a ridge, which we followed until the track petered out into forest and we returned to the road and retraced our steps, finding our correct turn with no problems, except the return was up a particularly steep track which sorely tested our now very tired legs.

We asked Mika how far to the cars, and he checked the GPS and said 3,3 kilometres.

Top Of The Hill

At the top of the hill, half an hour later, deep in dark and with the battery torches lighting our way, the GPS battery failed. The reserve also had little charge, so we walked along the road for sometime with no details of direction, somewhat comforted by the fact we were near civilisation – we could see lights and hear dogs. There was much discussion about the fact we were on the same road we had travelled on in the morning, and I had no intention of saying to anyone that I did not recognise one tiny bit of it, particularly the wooden fences running along the road. We moved forward, and Mika turned on the GPS to check where we were. The obvious question brought the same, non-joking, response. 3,3 kilometres to the cars – as the crow flies. My toes hurt, my thighs were dead, there was a steady drizzle now that was making us all wet and drawing our warmth and strength.

We moved forward, clearly not on the same path but clearly drawing closer and closer to some sort of village. At this point the batteries in the torch also failed, but I was no longer worried – just dead on my feet. We found a bitumen road and stopped at the first house where we learned we were less than a kilometre from the cars, which we arrived at to our great relief.

You know it is cold when Mika wears a hat!

Our Fearless Leader Mika and I

Almost 24kms.

9 hours, the last 2 in the dark.

Fabulous place, Zlatibor, fabulous. And a lovely weekend.

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Tags: Balkans, Bushwalking, Europe, Hiking, Serbia, Short breaks, Travel, Zlatibor