We had a tea/coffee on the patio of Rad’s house (the owner of the campground) in the morning and noticed his flag collection on the ceiling. Garth had mentioned that he had asked the night before whether we had a Canadian one and indeed I did have a little one so we left that with his wife. As we got on the road, we ran into Rad and his daughter as they were herding some cows to some good eating grounds. He thanked us for the flag as we began our drive north along the beautiful Tara canyon. We stopped for a walk across an impressive bridge spanning the rift which also sported the 7th highest bungee jump in the world (although there was no activity at the time).
Betty by the cabins:
Rad's house:
The bridge over Tara canyon:
Closer to the bridge:
The view down from the bridge:
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Arriving in Zabljak, we stopped in a tourist info booth to find out our hiking options. We had the options of hiking to the highest peak, to an ice cave or checking out the deepest point of the canyon. It had been raining outside with some lightning and the first two options were too long to start at this time of the day so we chose to drive to the canyon where there was a couple kilometer hike. We stopped briefly at a lookout and then began a slightly harrowing drive along a narrow dirt road on the side of the mountain. It was a steep descent and I wondered how Betty would fair climbing back up. Consulting our map from the tourist center, Garth thankfully realized that we had gone too far so we turned around and Betty climbed back up to the lookout. This was where the short hike was.
Part of the town of Zabljak:
Trying a new beer ("Nik") at lunch:
Only 900 meters in, we had a superb view of the wide canyon below us although it was a slightly hazy day with thundershowers still making their presence known off in the distance. We took a different path to return to the vehicle and through one section we kept stopping to try and capture butterflies resting on flowers with our cameras (yes, a bit airy fairy). It was also a bee heaven up there with all the colourful wild flowers. The day before and today we saw many small sticks planted in the ground with a small rectangular piece of wood painted white nailed in the top. What are they for? Originally I thought they pointed out viewpoints. Garth then had a hypothesis that they were property markers but they seemed too frequent and randomly placed. His next theory was that they were for geographical mapping using airplanes. We must find out the answer...
Betty and I precariously by edge of the canyon:
The main canyon:
The butterfly effect:
After the hike we set out to a campsite. There were two close together that were recommended by the cute young woman at the tourist info center. They were both quite busy with similar minded hikers but we found a spot in the second one and set up for the night. Earlier in the day I had remarked that it was surprising how long that my butane tank had lasted (for cooking and running the fridge when I’m parked). Well of course, that evening, it ran out. We drove back into town to see if we could find another tank but there were none of the same size and type. It looked like to was going to be a cold dinner but we could make a bean salad and had some lovely pate from Louise which we could have on bread. Sadly all the freshly baked bread in the stores was gone so it was going to be pate on hamburger buns...yum. As we arrived back in the campsite, Garth asked the old lady running the place if she knew where we could get gas (which wasn’t easy since she didn’t speak English) and she kindly gave us a camping stove to make dinner so instead of pate on hamburger buns, we had chicken tikka masala! After dinner Garth annihilated me in Yahtzee and then it was off to bed. We hadn’t noticed the bright floodlights near our site and poor Garth and Holly’s white tent was actually brighter inside than out! I think we’ll find a different location tomorrow.
Betty camping in Zabljak:
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