Only two days left of the trek - I told you that it will go by fast. In this entry I am going to do things a little differently and not talk about the route we took, but the route that you should take instead. In all honesty this day was a bit of a nightmare for us and ended with us going down a dangerous 30° descent along barely marked trail from 1,800 metres to 1,140 metres that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
You will start your day walking through and out of Plav for a few kilometers before meeting a park ranger at the start of the trail. There is a small fee to pay the man for entering this part of the trail (at the time we went it was three euros per person) and you can then begin your ascent to the top. Its well covered and not that steep for the first part of the trail.
After following the trail zig zag up for a bit, you will eventually turn off onto a smaller path heading towards the summit. This is where it gets progressively steeper until you reach an open meadow marking the beginning of the summit.
The summit is arguably the steepest ascent of the Peaks of the Balkans and after a breathless thirty minutes you will reach the top. Take a well-earned break, have some lunch, and enjoy the view down to Plav and the lake.
From here there is a bit more ascent as you walk along the ridgeline, but nothing nearly as steep as you have done, so just take it slow and enjoy the views. Eventually you will come back opposite the Quafa Prosllopit that you walked past on day two and the start of the descent. This marks the beginning of the part of the trail that we wish we had done. We recommend carrying on down to Fus Sirma instead of doubling back to Plana. Once you get down to Fus Sirma, you will find a path down through the valley and down to Vusanje. There are even a few “cafes” that you can stop at for a refreshing drink. Its about a seven kilometer walk down through the valley and eventually you will reach a tar seal road that will take you the rest of the way into Vusanje.
We stayed at Guest House Guri in Vusanje which is a smaller guest house only able to accommodate a couple of groups. The hosts were lovely and cooked us an amazing dinner and even cooked us some chicken, our first meat since Valbone. We met a lovely couple who had just finished their first day of the trek, so we shared some stories and advice before heading off to bed.