Zabljak - Shaffners remember what HURTS means
Trip Start
Nov 21, 2007
1
131
158
Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Zabljak,
Montenegro
Friday, August 22, 2008
We were geared up for a day of hiking...with no map, 1.5 liters of water, lunches and a great attitude. We walked down the paved road to the Durmitor NP sign, turned right like we were told to, and walked to the ski resort. When we got there there were no signs or markers, so we asked around to find the "well-marked" trail to Black Lake
this is what Montenegro calls WELL MARKED?
. Again, this did not seem as "easy" as the information girl led us to believe. We walked for another 45 mins or so...and finally came to some markings (red dots with white centers). We found an actual trail after a good 1.5 hours of walking. When we finally found the Crno jezero (Black lake), we were a little disappointed because we had found about 30 other tourists around the lake. From OUR hike to get there, we thought we might have been the only ones there! RIGHT!? We saw baby strollers, women who would not be able to hike for 1.5 hours even on flat ground and romantic couples....HOW DID THEY GET THERE!? Come to find out we had gone the LOOOOONG way to the lake. Oops!
Of course, in our McShaffner way, we were NOT going to give up just because of a bit of a wrong turn! We found a map and kept going. We were going to make it to Ledena Pecina (Ice Cave) one way or the other! It was supposed to be a 3 hour hike to the cave...and that it was. Man, we were both getting a little cocky because we had done some hikes where our time to complete was MUCH shorter than the "suggested times." We also had completed some pretty steep stair climbing to fortresses in the past few days. So, we were thinking MAYBE it would take us 1.5 hours or tops 2 hours to climb there...after we climbed for 2.5 hours, we decided to have lunch because we were loosing steam FAST! Jana, in her oh-so-politically-correct-and-I-am-beat-down language, asked a guy (one of the 4 or 5 we had passed) "Do you speak English?" pause, pause "How long is it the Ice Cave?" The guy said only about 30 minutes...so we were off
Black Lake was cool, once we found it!
. At about minute 23, we passed a couple who said we still had 30 more minutes to go...yet again, we were MAJORLY beat down....we don't talk, we just keep climbing.
Yes, we did make it to the Ice Cave. Yes, it was worth it as there were actually ice stalactites on the floor of the cave. We gave each other a high-five! We did it! Man, what a great feeling.
Going down is always easier but we were TIRED...tired enough that we ate the left over tuna sandwich for dinner and did not even leave our guest house the entire night! (yes, we did take the shorter route back to town on our way home!)
RANDOM
We met a couple at the pizzeria (one of the MAAAYBEEE 5 restaurants in town) who were born in Serbia and moved to Canada when they were little (like the wife said she was 4 when she left.) They were so cute...they were about to celebrate their 50th anniversary sometime this year. We chatted about marriage and they were a very good example of why you stick it out! You could tell the husband adored his wife. They spoke their "own" language which was a mix of English and Serbian, pretty neat.
Being in the mountains rocks! We had nice big comforters for our bed and really needed them. What a change some elevation can make. We were glad to have the cooler weather for a bit which was soooo nice!!
Guess what... we got to the Niksic bus station, and the US was playing Hungary in Water Polo for the gold medal! Again people were really into it, but unfortunately the US couldn't pull it out an lost to Hungary.
