Hiking in the Balkans

by Alan Cole · Wednesday, September 25th, 2024

Our trip to Canada to visit Morgan was cancelled due to the fact that Morgan decided to come home much earlier than anticipated. Part of the trip was going to include a trek for Morgan and I along the Juan de Fuca Trail on Vancouver Island. This too was cancelled. So, with annual leave already booked and equipment already bought for such a trek we therefore decided that somewhere else a little closer to home should be sought for a similar hike.

The idea was to find a relatively short hike with good options for wild camping so that it would be more of a camping trip than a hiking trip. The Peaks of the Balkans hike looked to be perfect due to the scenery it took us through and the fact that it visited 3 different countries so would add three pins to our map. The entire trek was a little too long at around 120 miles but as the plan was to do it on our own and wild camp along the way we had plenty of flexibility. So, I started to devise a route loosely based on parts of the trail that would still take us to all three countries but would be much shorter and would offer a good variety of landscapes.

With a plan in place and luggage packed we were on our way.

En route to the Balkan Mountains

A car trip, 3 train rides, a flight to Montenegro and a taxi ride later and we arrived at Hotel Terminus in Podgorica. Other than a 2.5 hour delay on the flight it has been plain sailing (although a boat was about the only form of transport we hadn’t used!). We’d packed most of our stuff into a larger suitcase that went in the hold. This was due to the fact that we wanted to take hiking poles that weren’t allowed in the cabin, and the fact that our rucksacks would be a little too large for the cabin when fully loaded with tents, camping kit, clothes and 5 days worth of food.

So, once at the hotel we had to repack everything into our rucksacks ready for a bus early the next day. We also discovered that our European adaptor plug didn’t work so we couldn’t charge our devices. Fortunately, after a few language barrier issues I managed to convince the hotel reception to let me borrow a USB plug overnight. Problem solved for now and we’d try to buy one tomorrow.

The only room we’d been able to book in the hotel was a double room so Morgan and I settled down for a quick sleep in a double bed together before continuing our travels the following morning. We were up bright and early, had a good breakfast at the hotel, returned the USB plug and checked out. I’d booked this hotel as it was right next to the bus station. It was fairly basic but had all that we wanted and the staff were very helpful. There was even a door out of the hotel straight into the bus station so it couldn’t have been better located.

The final part of our travelling was a 3-hour bus ride through the Montenegrin mountains to the town of Plav. Plav is located at the foot of the Accursed Mountains and sits alongside the largest glacial lake in Montenegro – Lake Plav. When we arrived, the sun was shining, the lake was calm and it looked like a glorious day. We jumped off the bus and headed to the Bear Hug Hostel where I had arranged to leave our suitcase whilst we were out in the mountains and to buy a gas cylinder for our stove. (Gas cylinders obviously aren’t allowed on the plane).

Into the Accursed Mountains

With most of the logisitcs all falling into place we hefted our heavy backpacks onto our shoulders and started walking through Plav towards the start of our hike. One thing we wanted to buy whilst here was a fridge magnet as a little souvenir. The fist thing we saw was a board of fridge magnets, but as we’d be staying in Plav on our last night we stored this info away and would return to buy one then – there was no point carrying extra weight with us now, not even the few grams of a fridge magnet. We had after all carefully crafted our packing list to be a light as possile. Our Base weights were around 8kg but with food and water we were today carrying about 14kg each.

We also popped into a mobile shop to buy a USB plug and decided that a decent lunch was in order so had a doner kebab each before heading off to the trail proper. It could end up being our last decent hot meal for a while!

Day 1 Hike

As we knew we’d only have the afternoon available to walk on Day 1, it would be all uphill into the mountains all the way, and our packs would be at their heaviest I had planned a short 7-mile hike to a meadow just below the 2,000 m mark. It was hot and sweaty at first as we made our way uphill and onto the trail where we saw our first Peaks of The Balkans markers. We were on our way properly at last.

Peaks of the Balkans Trail Sign - The first of many — Peaks of the Balkans Trail Sign – The first of many

The views of Plav Lake were spectacular under the afternoon sun and we stopped now and then to take it all in, readjust packs and take some photos. We came across a house being built that had some amazing panoramic windows on one side – so we ventured across the scaffolding planks to have a nose and take a photo. It’ll be a pretty spectacular lounge once the house is finished. Just look at the view.

We weren’t in a hurry so I made sure to take it easy. We soon entered the pine forests and climbed steadily along forest roads. The trees obscured the views but provided some much appreciated shade. It was a bit of a slog along the track and many people do get a jeep along here but we plodded on and saw no one. We did see lots of strange contraptions that look as though they are designed to measure or record something, but we couldn’t work out what they were for. I’ve just looked it up using a reverse image search on Google and it looks as though they are traps for the Bark Beetle which attacks spruce trees. Something learnt!

Eventually, the track turned into a narrow twisty, slightly muddy footpath and the gradient increased. We overtook a couple who looked to have much larger packs than us and were moving much more slowly. We left them behind and continued on our way, eventually emerging out at a viewpoint on the edge of a perfect grassy meadow with a spring at the top and expansive views of the mountains to the NE.

Behind us were steep cliffs and a ridgeline that we would follow next. We had plenty of time to continue further if we wanted but this looked like the perfect camp site and the idea was for this to be a camping trip. So, rather than continue on we set up camp early and enjoyed the views.

We’d walked just over 7 miles. All of it uphill!

The people we’d overtaken earlier passed us and continued on their way. Most people doing the Peaks of the Balkans trail tend to go from Guesthouse to Guesthouse so go from village to village and have a set distance to do each day. As we were wild-camping most of the way we could stop wherever took our fancy – although, being me, I had planned out various potential sites beforehand. This had been the first and so far it was looking good.

Night 1 at Camp

With the tents up, water collected from the spring and filtered, feet washed (also in the stream) the surroundings explored and a satellite location checkiin sent to Anna from my Garmin InReach Mini2, it was soon time for dinner. To minimise weight we were carrying dehydrated meals and tonight’s was delicious. You can’t beat some good food at camp after a decent hike. As the sun dipped behind the cliffs the temperatures plummeted so we were soon inside the tent wrapped up warm drinking hot chocolates with marshmallows and playing cards.

We settled in earlier for what turned out to be a very cold and quite wet night. Our tents and various layers of jackets and sleeping bags kept the worst of it as bay though and we survived the night. There was no wind and the light rain was actually a very soothing sound so I think we both got some sleep. There are bears in these parts but they are quite timid and tend to keep away from humans so no bear precautions were taken.

Day one was done and dusted, the trail had been good and we were exactly where we had planned to be.