Detour #327: Traversing the Tara Canyon, Bosnia and Herzegovina-Montenegro

Photo Will Gray

It’s hard to believe that the Tara Canyon’s wild landscape of deep gorges, glacial lakes and a Mordor-like moorland is even in europe.

This easy-going one-day drive delivers a huge diversity along its route, exploring the world’s second biggest canyon, passing a stunning turquoise lake and traversing a bleak and unique mountain moorland. This is a journey into nature on an epic scale. 

We begin in Foča – a pretty town in the hills of the Drina River valley, famed as the gateway to some of the region’s top white-water rafting and kayaking experiences. Heading briefly south west on the M20, we travel alongside the river before joining the M18 for a short 9km detour to the nearby Sand Pyramids. This unique mini desert-like landscape would feel more at home in Arizona than in this remote part of Europe, with towering rocky pinnacles and gentle trails that can be explored in just 20 minutes.

Rapidly retracing our tracks, we return to the M18 junction to cross the river to Brod, quickly passing its ugly industrial chimneys before heading deep into our first canyon alongside the River Drina. Passing numerous rafting camps, we catch occasional glimpses through the trees of river rafters floating towards their next set of rapids before reaching the small rustic border crossing of Granični prijelaz Hum, near Scepan Polje, where we cross a rickety wooden bridge to enter Montenegro.

The journey continues south, picking up the Piva River, where the scenery tightens again to create a deep river valley with steep forested slopes. The road rises and falls as it travels picking up occasional high viewpoints where we can look deep down near vertical slopes into the river corridor below. The road hugs the mountainside tightly, passing through several hand-carved rock tunnels and steering breathtakingly close to some extremely steep drop-offs, while above us exposed limestone cliffs break through the trees.

After crossing the Piva River, the road breaks away from the steep canyon side and descends to the Mratinje Dam, where we are greeted with an expansive view of the bright blue Piva Lake – not dissimilar to the famed milky waters of Canada’s Lake Louise. The road skirts the lake’s eastern shore for around 10km, passing through the Sun Eye rock bridge before cutting off onto the P14, where a series of hairpin bends climbs up to a spectacular viewpoint. After a brief stop, we continue up and onto a plateau, where the mountainous scenery takes a dramatic turn and opens out wide into agricultural farmland, where roadside stalls sell local produce including honey and cheese.

The scenery switches again as we head towards the Sedlo mountain pass in Durmitor National Park, where some of the highest elevations in Montenegro offer up dramatic grey rock peaks and stunning 360-degree vistas of alpine pastures, jagged mountains and deep cloud-filled valleys. The meandering roads deliver ever-changing panoramas with every twist and turn, and the feeling of exposed remoteness is only enhanced by a building storm that provides a complete contrast to the dramatic but constricted canyon views now long gone in the rear-view mirror.

The Valovito Lake viewpoint, which offers close-up views of the angled lines on the face of Bobotov Kuk mountain, give us a dramatic end to this scenic section and then drop us quickly down into more expansive farmland. A short detour provides a chance to capture reflections of the Dormitor range in the glassy waters of Lake Jezero before heading into the end point of Zabljak, a bustling ski town with a range of restaurants where two short excursions take us to the picturesque Black Lake and the Tara Canyon Viewpoint, where the mighty canyon views provide a perfect conclusion to an epic drive.

Words & Photography Will Gray

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ROADBOOK

CLASS: canyon carving

NAME: tara canyon

ROUTE: Foča to Crno Jezero

COUNTRY: Bosnia and Herzegovina-Montenegro

Distance: 60 Miles

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