Day 5 – Sunday, August 10, 2025

The author of the book about this national park had done such a good job advertising the area that I did something I rarely do – I decided to stay in the park for a day and do the so-called Durmitorski Prsten, or the Durmitor Ring, a paved, 75-kilometer scenic drive that loops through the park and offers breathtaking mountain views, traditional villages, and dramatic vistas of the River Tara Canyon.

The campground had a laundry service (a bargain at €5), so I left all my washable stuff at the reception, keeping the rest of the gear in my tent and taking only a few necessary rags, should I feel cold (spoiler alert: I would not). I started riding pretty early, around 6:30 in the morning. It was a wonderful, sunny day. I had to smile at the dogs at the campground, how they were enjoying the rays of the rising sun.

No sunscreen

Welcome to Arizona!

First, I rode through quite barren highlands, but then an ascent started. It wasn’t too bad or long, only about 13 kilometers, with practically no traffic at that time of day. Soon, just after 8:15, I reached the highest point, Sedlo Peak, at 1,907 meters of elevation. Here, an entrance ticket was to be paid, cositng just €5. I thought that was easy – mistakenly. Granted, that was indeed the highest point and there was a nice descent, but what awaited me was a real roller-coaster ride, with many more climbs – that morning ascent was definitely not the worst one.

Up

Upper

Uppest

At one point after the peak, I stopped for breakfast, surrounded by amazing scenery. A local car driver also stopped and shouted if I needed water – yes, that was very welcome. I received an entire large bottle, thanks!

View from my breakfast "table" - I just sat down on a large rock

The views were truly breathtaking — endless layers of mountains, their rocky slopes shaped and contorted by tectonic forces over millions of years. In the villages, cheese was being sold; I bought some, probably the most expensive food item in the entire Balkans, paying €10 for a small piece. Whatever, it was to support the national park.

What forces of Mother Nature caused this rockface to be curved and bent...

I met some other bikers: two from Sweden (tourists), three from Russia (living in Montenegro for three years to avoid being drafted into the army of Putin attacking Ukraine); some others would not stop to say hello. After some time, I got out of the mountains and the scenery became less interesting.

Nice, but not too interesting

This did not last long. I reached a restaurant but did not stop (having had a large breakfast earlier). Now, some pretty hard climbs awaited me – and many of them. I felt that the second part of the loop was just uphill – probably not true, but that’s how it felt for sure.

There was a junction in the road towards a place called Stećci, which is another UNESCO site, with medieval monolithic tombstones. It would have meant 10 kilometers of detour there and 10 km back, an hour spent there – alas, while I pondered going (even thought of hiding my bike and hitch-hiking), I skipped this. A reason to return.

At one point, on an otherwise deserted road, I saw a large number of cars parked on the side. When I got there, I understood the reason – this was a spot to view the canyon of River Tara. No, not the bridge, that was miles away. The view from here was also spectacular, even though the river was hidden from view by vegetation. I met a family from Israel, then a Czech family – yes, quite some international tourists here. And regarding that Czech family, I would meet them again on this trip.

River Tara Canyon - the river itself not visible

More canyon

Finally, there was a drop in the road and I enjoyed cruising downhill. The "punishment" came soon afterwards. There was a massive climb waiting for me. I stopped to gather strength – and was amazed at a female rider who practically flew uphill, smiling at me.

I thought to myself that this ascent would not get any easier even if I stayed for a week, so I started riding uphill, without a lot of motivation. Lots of narrow switchbacks, and the road was cluttered with stones from earlier landslides. I prayed the mountain would not give way to more rockfalls – it would not have been a pretty sight being hit by them. With the worst part over, it was still uphill, but I could at least cover more distance.

It felt as if the ascent would never end

Finally, around 5 pm, I reached the highest point on that side. I asked AI what the elevation was – to my amazement, it was 1,999 meters, higher than the pass I had made that morning. All clear now!

Near the peak

Now it was just a long descent back to Žabljak. I rode under rather antique-looking chairlifts of the ski slope and got back to town.

Rather outdated chairlift

I wanted to reward myself for the successful ride. I asked around for a good restaurant and was sent probably to the fanciest one, called Or’o. It had a nice garden, friendly service, and the food was quite good, but not the “hit” I had expected. I paid €42, tip included – quite a high price for Montenegro (well, if a Fanta cost €5 at a village festival, we could argue it was a great bargain!). Interestingly, it was crowded; there was a long queue of diners who had reservations, waiting for their table to free up; even I was politely asked to leave, as my table was reserved for the night.

Once again, in darkness, I took the forest path towards the campground. Without luggage, it was easier than the night before. I was glad to be back at the site, chatting again for a while with Elisa and Riccardo, who were no longer my neighbors. Something weird had happened – my tent had been moved to another area to give space to a camper car. This, at least to me, is a no-go; one should not touch my stuff without permission. Worse, the undercover of my tent came off – if you move my stuff (which you should not in the first place), do it in a way so that nothing changes. Oh well.

First five days

Let us see how the first five days went. After the initial bus ride, I rode next to border rivers Sava and Drina, swam in a salt lake by Tuzla, visited Srebrenica, crossed some Bosnian and Serbian mountains, saw gorgeous gorges of the Lim and Tara rivers, found great spots for wild camping, and explored the Durmitor National Park. Not bad! Quite a good beginning – let us see what the remaining 25 days or so had in store for me – lots of goodies, I can already tell you that!

From a distance point of view, it was just 70 kilometers and roughly 1,870 meters of elevation (I shut my watch shut off at the restaurant).