After a relaxing night with soothing background river-sounds, we get breakfast at 7:30 and take off shortly after 8. The breakfast is impressive and this place’s service keeps being amazing. We get 3 baked eggs each, two baked peppers, plum Marmelade, cheese and meat. For the lunch packs there is salami, apples, bananas, cucumbers, tomatoes and more eggs.
We are skipping the piece of the trail that would have been next and a bit of the next one so the guesthouse owner drives us in a 4×4 minibus towards Plav and further up into the mountains. Plav is a real village and we are overwhelmed by so much civilization, but thankfully we just drive through it and go back into the wilderness. The difference between Montenegro and the other countries is also very visible. There is clearly more money here than in Albania. And we pay with Euros again.
Today’s trail is from Plav to Vusanje but as the full trail would be too hard, we are taken some 8km and 600m into the trail and left where the trail leaves the dirt road. From here on we start climbing through the forest towards the pass. The first part is easy and steady up hill in the still quite cold shades of the trees and reminds me a little of the black forest. We find raspberries again and move in a good speed. At about 1700 m the forest breaks open and suddenly the landscape with its small pine trees is almost Mediterranean again. We are also back in blueberry land. It is impossible to go on in a normal speed because we cannot stop eating. The berries are delicious and a great companion as we climb higher and higher towards the pass.
The last bit before reaching the top at 2100 m is extremely steep with probably 100% (45°) elevation. It feels like walking up a wall and once on the top we need a small break with some energy bars and banana.
After this point we follow an easy and beautiful path along the wide and grassy pass with the most incredible views over the mountains of Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro in the background and fields of pink flowers in the foreground. I feel very sorry for my mum because in the last three days everything seems to be more and more beautiful. She’ll have to come back some time.
After the pass, we start the descent towards Vusanje valley. It is easy and beautiful and even though I’m still getting new blisters on this 7th day and the old ones and not healed yet, it’s very enjoyable.
We stop for lunch half way down and shortly after setting off again encounter a bar. It’s a shepherd’s hut with a lovely terrace and some home made food and drinks. There is a German family eating bread with cheese who is traveling freely with tents and lots of gear and tell us about their adventures. Every time this happens, I notice how ready I am for the next step. I want to get into real thru-hiking with tents and complete independence and I think this year I am really going to start preparing for that and do a long thru-hike next summer.
From here it’s merely 6 km to go and we reach the village of Vusanje around 4:30. It gets warmer and warmer as we decent into the valley and we feel like we’re back in summer and also back in civilization. This night we have a very luxurious place with a new bathroom and a big garden and even Wifi so I can finally upload my blog posts of the last 6 days and receive and give some signals to the outside world.
After the shower I get a roommate because of a mistake the hostel made with the reservations. So I’m not on my own tonight, which is fine. She’s from South Africa and seems very nice and interesting. It’s her first day on the trail so I also have a lot of tips and tricks for her.
We have dinner together and it’s fine. I even get a fish. Although we are not that high anymore it still gets cold early and after the Rhakia doesn’t help anymore we move it to the hut for some more talking.
