– Vusanje (Montenegro)
Stage 10 Vusanje (Montenegro) – Theth (Albania)
Appendix A Useful contacts
Appendix B Accommodation
Appendix C Further reading
Appendix D Language and glossary
Appendix E History timeline
On the saddle above Liqeni i Kuçishtës, Kosovo (Stage 7)
ROUTE SUMMARY TABLE
Maja e Boshit (Maja Bošit), a prominent 2416m peak southeast of the Valbona Pass (Stage 1)
INTRODUCTION
Descending to Vusanje and the Ropojana Valley (Stage 9)
The Peaks of the Balkans is a recently developed cross-border long-distance trail through the spectacularly wild and rugged borderlands of Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo. A circular route of around 192km in length, it takes in remote valleys, lakes and mountain passes, winding its way through some stupendous mountain scenery and passing through traditional mountain villages which often feel like somewhere time forgot. It’s a corner of Europe few people are familiar with, let alone visit. Food and accommodation are offered in traditional village home stays, so there’s no need to carry camping gear, with delicious regional cuisine and genuine hospitality that is frankly a million miles away from some of the more lacklustre tourist resorts on the coast. The route can be hiked in around 10 days or stretched out over a couple of weeks, with about a third of the whole trek lying in each country.
The bulk of the mountain scenery on the Peaks of the Balkans Trail is provided by the Prokletije mountains (Bjeshkët e Nemuna in Albanian), whose name translates rather charmingly as ‘the accursed mountains’ – created, according to local folklore, by the devil himself, unleashed from hell for a single day of mischief. The biodiversity of the region is extraordinary. The Montenegrin side of Prokletije was recently designated a national park – the newest and still the least visited of Montenegro’s five national parks, a great glacier-scoured area (the glaciers themselves are long gone) bristling with spiky mountain peaks boasting suitably evocative names like Očnjak (‘Fang’) and Koplje (‘Spear’). There are two more national parks on the Albanian side, and another in Kosovo.
The trail was developed by the German development corporation GIZ in conjunction with national and local tourism organisations and hiking clubs, in order to create a sustainable income for the local population in these mountainous areas of Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro, to encourage sustainable local tourism and to bring these parts of the region closer together across political borders. Despite increasing visitor numbers – largely due to the growing popularity of the Peaks of the Balkans trail – the area remains incredibly underdeveloped and unspoilt, much of it having been off limits to foreigners until comparatively recently. This is the first English-language guidebook to hiking the Peaks of the Balkans.
Since it’s a circular route, there are several points at which you can choose to start and finish hiking the Trail (the various merits of which are described in ‘Where to start/finish’) – and there are two points where the ‘circuit’ meets, like a figure of eight. Starting from the village of Theth in Albania, the route crosses a pass to reach the Valbona Valley, and climbs to the Montenegrin border below Maja Kolata, one of the highest peaks in the area, before descending to the tiny settlement of Çeremi. Later it passes through the remote summer settlement of Dobërdol before crossing the border into Kosovo, and descends to the Rugova Gorge. Crossing into Montenegro it passes through Babino polje then climbs to Lake Hrid, before descending to the town of Plav and, after crossing Vrh Bora, to the village of Vusanje, before following the Ropojana valley up into Albania again, crossing the Pëjë Pass and descending to Theth.
Katun Treskavička, on a hillside between Babino polje and Plav in Montenegro (Stage 8)
The trail is well marked for much of its length, a reasonably good map is available covering the whole route, and access is relatively straightforward – sometimes extremely straightforward – to several points along the way by local buses. Good, knowledgeable local guides are available to accompany groups or individuals along the route. Hiking is along existing paths and 4WD tracks and is not technically difficult – however the surrounding mountains are high and the weather can change suddenly and dramatically, and for the most part the route is very remote. Exit points, should you need to break your trek short in an emergency, may be several days apart, and may not be in the country you arrived in.
It’s possible to start and finish the Peaks of the Balkans in any of the three countries through which it passes, however whichever starting point you decide on, you’ll need to obtain a cross-border permit from the relevant authorities in Montenegro, Albania or Kosovo before setting off and actually walking the trail. Judging by the helpful and informative Peaks of the Balkans website (www.peaksofthebalkans.com), you would be forgiven for thinking this should be easy enough to do yourself, but in fact it’s not quite as straightforward as you might expect, and it is worth simply getting a local agency to sort out the permit. See ‘Cross-border permits’ below for further guidance.
I first visited the Prokletije mountains back in 2004, staying a few days in a mountain hut in the Grbaja Valley in Montenegro. One day I walked along the Ropojana Valley – a broad ribbon of green framed by limestone peaks, their tops festooned with clouds – towards a lonely lake on the border with Albania. The Peaks of the Balkans wasn’t yet born at that time, the Montenegrin part of Prokletije had not yet been declared a national park, and the only people we encountered on these well-marked trails through some of the most beautiful mountain scenery anywhere in Europe were a handful of Albanian children gathering wild strawberries. It all seemed fantastically, almost unbelievably remote and unspoilt. Returning to Prokletije in 2016 to research and write this guide, I was pleased to find that feeling of isolation little changed.
| Key facts and figures | |
| Montenegro | |
| Country name | Montenegro (Crna gora) |
| Capital | Podgorica |
| Language | Montenegrin (Serbian) |
| Currency | Euro |
| Population | 625,266 (2011 census) |
| Land surface area | 14,026km2 |
| Time zone | GMT +1 (CET) |
| International telephone code | +382 |
| Electricity | 220V/50Hz |
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