Window on Niksic

With the information gleaned from the previous hike we drove as far as we could get along the macadam/dirt road, and set about looking for an animal track described in the guide book. Failing to find such a thing, we picked a possible route and scrambled up as far as we could safely get. There was some sort of sheep trail, but it was rather dangerous for humans and my companion did not wish to go back the same way. So we climbed down a rockfall which was very movable and eventually got back down to the road. Subsequent examination of satellite photograph has not definitively shown us where the route suggested by the guide might be, but if we ever try it again, we have some ideas. The simplest way would be to drive to the other side of the mountain to the village of Lipovac, where there is a signposted trail, but that wouldn't have been so fun. This face of the mountain is one of the most inhospitable areas of the country I have tried to hike in, but is an interesting s...

After climbing several of the peaks of the Moraca Mountains, our attention was turned towards Sinjajevina and particularly Babin zub a.k.a. Torna, on the opposite side of the Savnik-Kolasin road. This was to be our first exploratory hike in the area, and we parked along the main road and walked up along a macadam road which the guide book had talked about. This happened to be the hottest day of the year (or at least it seemed) and after 3 hours, we stopped for lunch, exhausted and running out of water, but without definitively finding a path up the mountain, but with ideas of where to look next time. The mountain is almost bare karst, like Maganik: completely different feel to the other Moraca Mountains which we could constantly see when we turned our backs on Babin zub.

I was a bit doubtful when I was asked to lead this group as whether they would all make it, as most of the participants had never been on a mountain before and were wearing All Stars. However, the majority soldiered on and made me proud. And despite one person twisting their ankle right at the top and having to be led down very slowly, we made it back to the start just before sundown. Every time I go to the ice cave, I remind myself that it looks prettiest in the spring when the ice sculptures are untouched and unmelted.

Unfortunately sometimes you arrange to be free on a particular day and the weather turns against you. Retracing our steps from our snowy and windy hike earlier in the year, we made it to the top without too much difficulty, but the very top of the peak was in cloud, so there were none of the great views of Medjed and Bobtov kuk. And then it started to rain as we made our way down to the car. Nonetheless, it was a good workout and our signatures were put in the summit book