“Spring Awakening in Western Serbia”.

On the second day, a dynamic and varied, relatively long route through the rest of the Valjevo Mountains awaits us, ending with our arrival in Kaluđerske bare, a resort town that is the gateway to the spectacular Tara National Park. This route often mixes muddy forest passages with gravel and shorter sections on asphalt roads.

The Tara Mountains are mostly covered by pine forests, with peaks that are 1500-1700 meters high. It is surrounded by the breathtaking canyon of the Drina River, which we can see from two spectacular viewpoints. In the middle of the Tara, at an altitude of about 1000 m, lies Lake Zaovine, which is also a beautiful sight with its five parts reaching deep into the surrounding valleys covered with dense forest. In the south, the Tara Mountains are connected with Zlatibor (another large and very diverse highland) via the Šargan Pass.

Both Tara and Zlatibor have an extensive network of good quality gravel roads, but once you move away from the main roads, you can easily find some more challenging forest trails. Early April is the time between winter and spring at these altitudes (usually above 1000 m), so our tour will also be an exploration with alternating fresh green and snowy passages. Constant light changes ensure that it never gets boring, and the beautiful views will tempt us to spontaneous photo stops.

As we drive over the highlands of Zlatibor, our average altitude slowly rises, but we also enter an area where the mountains are quite densely populated and people live in harmony with nature. Thus, we will pass many small mountain villages with the traditional architecture of wooden houses, for which Western Serbia is particularly famous, making the tour a strong cultural experience.

Finally, the tour reaches the area of Uvac lakes and Pešter highlands, surrounded by several of the highest mountain ridges in the region – Zlatar, Jadovnik and Golija. While the attractive peaks of these mountains are inaccessible until mid-May due to huge snow drifts, we will make some very interesting routes through the lower slopes of these mountains, where spring awakens already in early April and offers us nice opportunities to enjoy the lake scenery with some really spectacular viewpoints and maybe even meet the griffon vultures up close (the Uvac Reserve hosts one of the largest colonies of griffon vultures in Europe).

The last day of the tour traditionally offers a shorter and easier route, leaving enough time to return home in the early afternoon or directly from our last hotel in the early morning if you wish.

Accommodation

Since practically every mountain in Western Serbia is a popular vacation spot, it is easy to find good hotels and make a smart choice for your maximum satisfaction. The six hotels featured on this tour are a combination of luxurious, large 4-star hotels that offer everything you would expect from such a place (including wellness and spa facilities), and some small, atmospheric hotels built in the traditional local style, which means no compromise on the quality of services and content. We pay special attention to the selection of hotels located deep in nature, away from major cities, to ensure you contact with unspoiled nature 24 hours a day.

On all days we will have half board (included in the tour price), which means that breakfast and dinner will be taken in the hotels, while on the road we will have to feed ourselves with the food we brought from our mobile coolers (or stop at restaurants in the countryside on the days we pass them). All hotels have ample parking and offer free wifi access.

We recommend that you do the shopping for lunch before our meeting on the first day or when you arrive in Divčibare at the end of the hike planned for that day, as there are several food markets nearby. During the tour, there are opportunities to replenish food supplies near most of the hotels where we stay. Therefore, a compressor refrigerator is not crucial for satisfaction on the tour, as it is possible to buy the food you need for lunch the next day almost every day. In the email that we send out one month before the start of the trip, we will inform you about this issue in more detail.

Daily lunch breaks take place between 12:30 and 14:00 and last approximately 30 to 40 minutes. Since traditional meals in Serbia are quite sumptuous and there is a decent breakfast and dinner every day, we don’t think you will feel like having a hearty lunch.

What else should you know about the tour?

For this tour, the meeting point is at a large gas station about 100 km southwest of Belgrade, near the A2 highway (you will receive detailed directions, coordinates and GPX/KML tracks to reach the meeting point). Final details will be emailed to you about a month before the tour begins. Please make sure you have travel insurance before starting the tour. We expect you to arrive with a vehicle in good technical condition that can withstand a week of off-roading in the moderately muddy conditions of early spring. This tour requires average off-road experience and skills. During the tour there is a possibility to refuel (gasoline, diesel, LPG) near most of the hotels, so you don’t need to take extra gas cans. All major credit cards (Visa, Master, Maestro, etc.) work in Serbia (both at ATMs and when paying for goods), but it is advisable to carry a small amount of cash for minor expenses.

Weniger lesen...