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I feel uncontrollably attracted to this rocky terrain. Maybe it’s an ancestral connection, but I really think there is nothing like the nature in Montenegro. The mountains are mighty and unbelievably beautiful.
For reasons beyond my control, my vacation lasted longer than planned (not that I’m complaining) so on Thursday morning we left Boka Kotorska. Once again we chose a less conventional route and started to ascend up the winding road leading to the cloud covered mountain tops. We passed this same road at dusk on our way to the sea, but now in daylight it’s even more impressive. The air was fresh from the rain which fell during the night.
Instead of turning west into Bosnia, we headed east to Niksic. The plan was to go through Zabljak and the world heritage Durmitor national park. Curiously, in all these years it is another place that I’ve never visited. And soon I realized how much I’ve missed.

Just before Niksic we passed wonderful lakes with lots of tiny islands. The city itself, as most cities in inland Montenegro is ugly and, to me at least, looks unlivable. But the nature is unreal, and the closer we got to Zabljak, the more my jaw dropped at the Windows desktop theme surroundings

The open spaces, the mountains and the huge sky reminded me of Brokeback Mountain. My suggestion to listen to the soundtrack was dismissed, unfortunately.

We had a picnic on the shore of the Black Lake. You have to pay to enter the national park. I’m not really sure if that is common practice, but it’s absolutely worth it.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. We passed the border into Serbia without even being looked at. We struggled our way through intensive construction work on Zlatibor and soon got into traffic jams stretching to Belgrade.

I’ve had a wonderful vacation and I feel energized and relaxed. Let’s see how long it lasts.