Hello folks!
A moment has come to write another adventureous story. I became an addict when we talk about mountains. :) I have high hopes of reaching my favorite peaks, so I need to be persistent. More important thing is normal ego, cause there is no space for those with "you will not tell me how much I can", because you can't explain them that your first climb can't be "Himalayas" and you are not strong like a bullock. Otherwise I would send them back to the kindergarten and nursery governess with rod. :)
This mountainering lasted three days. I'm a lot bigger fan of smaller groups. This was just like that, it counted eight of us. It should be nine, but some guy gave up. As always we started from Belgrade at night, somwhere in June and our first stop, if we leave out pee pee time, was Cincar, beautiful mountain in Bosnia, but we were in Croatia too. Here is the map of the area that we climbed.
The other ones are Biokovo and Kamesnica, but first things first, Cincar. It's a mountain in the Dinaric Alps, located at 43°54′08″N 17°03′46″E between Livno, Kupres and Glamoč.
oh, I lied about first stop. Here it was..
The road from Livno up to the mountain home was, horrible. You could lose kidney there how bumpy it was. It was a macadam, and it would be better that we walked, but we would have lose precious time. So the van lost his wheel, not literally but it looked like that we played darts but with stones and there is no chance that you could missed. :)
Ok, after fast breakfast, we could go. 45minutes to one hour the view was open and wide...karst field named Glamočko field (Glamochko). In the distance you also can see Golija, also beautiful mountain, but at this time it's not possible to go up there beacuse is full of mines. After the war in the 90's, mountain was partly cleansed but it still isn't safe.
As you can see, the cloud was so down and soon we were in it.
And someone photographed me
At this point, we had maybe three to four hours to the top.
And here is maybe the best view on the field and subterranean river in it.
In the continuation of walking we enter the cloud that prevented us from looking at the surroundings, but we were persistent in the decision to reach the highest peak. Wind was 90km per hour. It did not work for us, but we stay persistent. They made jokes with me, cause every time when "I was gone with a wind", I needed to crouch, so they wanted to put a big stone in my backpack. xD That's why I don't have photos from this point up to the top.
At noon we were there, at the top. The higest peak is at 2006m. We took a gruop photo fast as we could and descended to the south side of the mountain. The path led us right to field Kruzi. And after we were again under 1600m we could see again beautiful scenes.
The remains of houses date back to the First World War and it was bilt by Austro-Hungary and they stil defy time.
more beautiful landscapes...
Then we started looking our driver, who told us that he would be somwhere here, but the search continued. I was convinced that he had gone as far as he could, trying to reach good road, without cargo, so nothing more could happen to his van. After stopping and having dinner in Livno we came to Kamešnica, where we were sleeping for two nights. The building was surrounded with mountains. And also we had view on the lake...you can use it as wallpaper :)
to the right
and to the left
I went to bed very early, maybe ate 9pm-10pm, actually we all did.
There are no earplugs that can save you from that snoring, so my dream was stopped at 4am, but it was ok cause we got up 5am. Few hours long drive was in front of us. Somebody was praying for rain on the mountain so we could go to the sea, cause this day we will spend in Makarska, Croatia. But the day was so beautiful and heavy for breathing. Biokovo looked so immense. Its highest peak is Sveti Jure (Saint George), at 1762m, but that doesn't mean is easy to climb.
Don't think that this is it, our final goal was so far away from this. Climbing was very difficult, rocky and you need to watch out every step.
You can't say it's not worth it waking up so early. :) We made bigger pause here after maybe two and half an hour of climbing.
In the distance you can see Hvar.
And that was just a beginning. When you think you are almost there, there is more and more. But every look behind was fascinating.
and up
The island on the right is Brač.
Breath taking views.....
and we made it, with no water left...such a heavy day...Usually I have water at the foot of the mountain, but this day suprised us all and 2l was nothing.
The search for water lasted, it was like we are looking for pure gold. We found some wells, but they were locked up. :( But soon we found some weekend cottage on our way down. Happiness overload. The owners were polite and they offered us with food and drink.
After short pause, we made it to some viewpoint. We went back another way. At that viewpoint we met another hikers. Our guides knew each other, such small world. We made group photo again and start going down together and after a while they decided to made a shorcut and we wanted to see more.
We decided to use the day to the end, and to visit lakes. The Red lake is 255,4m deep. There is no chance that I would put my little toe in there. :)
After these stops we went "home". Our wish was to take a shower in the Adriatic sea, but it was just a wish. Soon we were in Kamesnica, the part with shower became real. I slept like a baby until maybe 3am, when snoring was over the top. Let's say that tiredness was the main culprit.
Last day stared a little bit later for the others because our last target was the closest mountain. I counted sheeps until then.
Third mountain Kamesnica was 10 minutes driving from our host's building.
It was steep at the beginning. During the walking I slept and I don't even know how. Sombody was calling me, so I came to myself.
Soon we were at some cottage-monument, we rested there for a quick bite and then we speed up because there was a lot of to run over. I even didn't have time to take out my camera.
Panorama was made with phone, and I failed so hard. You can't even see the other lake at the left.
But somebody asked for pee pee time and I took a chance, but universe wasn't with me.
But on this pic I need to thank Monika.
That whiteness was cloud and soon we were in it. And the trauma from day one just repeated itself. But, luckilly the wind wasn't so strong. It took three hours to get to the top, named Konj (Horse), 1849m. We decided to start descending immediately after taking group photo and make a short break later.
During the break down the road, we had a proper bite and some time to lie down and enjoy the life. But ofc balance of the universe couldn't last so long. Going down through the forest was a bit slippery and I fell like I stepped on a banana skin. During my fall I tried not to touch the ground and then I felt the touch of a heaven. Well, more like a hell since I fell into the field of nettles.
Last stop was that cottage again....
As we touched the asphalt, legs were replaced by wheels. And we headed back to Belgrade.
I hope you enjoyed this hike as much as I did, and stay tuned for more adventures to come.