Bosnia and Herzegovina / Serbia / Montenegro: From Karakaj over Višegrad to Durmitor
For our first longer 2022 vacation, Nada, Bronco and me decided to have a road trip to the Balkans with our target countries being Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
On our third day we drove to Višegrad, where we explored the old city centre called Andrićgrad (Andrić Town), dedicated to novelist and Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961 for his novel The Bridge on the Drina. Soon we had a short unintentional detour over Serbia and after a while we admired the Tara River Canyon, the largest and deepest canyon in Europe. Our plan continued to our final destination, Durmitor National Park, where we settled in a village called Virak.
In Andrićgrad we visited monuments dedicated to Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system and Petar II Petrović-Njegoš (1813-1851), a Prince-Bishop (vladika) of Montenegro, poet and philosopher.
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| Bronco and Tuši and the famous Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge behind us. |
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| The Drina originates from the confluence of the rivers Tara and Piva, in the glen between the slopes of the Maglić, Hum and Pivska Planina mountains, in the area of Šćepan Polje (in Montenegro) and Hum (Bosnia and Herzegovina) villages. |
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| The bridge was completed in 1577 by the Ottoman court architect Mimar Sinan on the order of the Grand Vizier Mehmed Paša Sokolović. UNESCO included the bridge in its 2007 World Heritage List. |
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| Total length of the bridge is 179.5 meters with 11 masonry arches, with spans of 11 to 15 meters, and an access ramp at right angles. Bronco loved it. |
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| Our next stop was Đurđevića Tara Bridge over the Tara River. |
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| The Đurđevića Tara Bridge, which was designed by engineer Mijat Trojanović, was built between 1937 and 1940 in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The 365-metre-long bridge has five arches, with the largest span being 116 metres. The roadway stands 172 metres above the Tara River. At the time of its completion, it was the biggest vehicular concrete arch bridge in Europe. |
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| The Tara canyon is up to 1,300 meters deep. |
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| Don't look down Bronco. |
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| Nada, Tuši and Bronco on the Đurđevića Tara Bridge. |
Our final destination was a village called Virak, where we rented a house. Bronco loved the environment of the Durmitor National Park.
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| Panorama from our lodge. |
Nice and cosy place.
Geocaches found (all received a visit by trackable items "Chakkuri's Community Volunteer Travel Tag", TB676DY, "Get a photo of a tree", TB8JV00 and "Magic: The Gathering, Rivals of Ixalan Trackable: Vampire Die Bonbon Dose", TB8Q8AY):
- Andricgrad, GC60MP2
- The Tara River Canyon, EarthCache, GC1CZFN
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