This is it, day five, hump day. After this, all you need to do is walk back. This day can be tough on the knees though, with a sharp 1200 metre descent. We were glad to have company on this walk to keep morale up and keep us going.
The path at the beginning is also poorly marked so make sure you have you GPS handy. It starts with a relatively steep 450 metre ascent to the top. We actually really enjoyed this part, and you will be able to admire the beautiful Kosovo countryside as you climb up and walk along the top.
This is short lived though and as you hit the five-kilometer mark you will begin the steep 1,200 metre descent down the side of the mountain. Be careful the start as this can also be quite slippery walking down the steep rocks if they are wet. We took this extra slow just to be safe and also save the knees.
Eventually you will get to a gravel road. This is also quite steep but at least you can walk it a bit faster. After walking along the road for a bit our map told us to go off any follow a “path” along the ridge. To be honest our advice is to just keep following the road. It’s the same distance and elevation, whilst the “path” we took involved a lot of bush bashing. I even fell into a nettle bush making the rest of the walk less enjoyable. Either way, you will eventually get back on a more established road that will mark the end of the steep part of the walking. For now.
You can then follow this road down for about 3 kilometers. Its not the most exciting walking but offered cover from the heat and a milder gradient which our knees thanked us for. Eventually you will need to part ways with the road for the last kilometer of descent, which is an incredibly sharp 34° gradient down. Alternatively, you can keep following the road, but it adds a bit on, and you will miss an amazing rest stop at the bottom.
Once you hit the bottom there is a weird and wonderful café that serves beers, hot food and anything else you could want at this point of the walk. At this point for a few Euros, you can also take an option for a transport up the last bit of the journey. We recommend this as the last part of the day is just 5 kilometers of tar seal road going up another 350 metres in elevation. We didn’t take it and immediately regretted it as we were sweating bullets going up this road and saw our fellow companions drive past us one by one. Either way, eventually you will get to the top and that marks the end of the way and the halfway point of the journey.
We stayed at Ariu Guesthouse which also seemed to be popular with other travelers as we eventually saw all the other people, we met on the trail turn up. They served an amazing dinner, and the rooms were some of the cosiest we had. Which was perfect as we had an early night and listened as some thunderstorms rolled in.