We had psyched ourselves up for today’s hike as on paper it looked to be one of our toughest at 18kms with over 1000m elevation and 1200m decent. We were also carrying a little extra food as our next stop didn’t have a supermarket or a restaurant. Our host from last night had pretty much taken us through the route and what to expect (this was by no means asked for by us but I feel it was part of his welcoming routine so we didn’t steal his thunder). We did find out from him though that we had a very steep 100m decent to do which worried us a little bit as it was supposed to be worse than the one we did the day before but he assured us that it was doable.
The first challenge was a very steep uphill section which was probably our steepest of the hike so far. Unfortunately when we got to the top we didn’t even have a view to reward ourselves with. Dishearteningly we then quickly descended about half of what we came up through very tiny villages that almost seemed uninhabited but not deserted and dilapidated so I don’t know if they are holiday houses or just taken care of by someone.
We started to climb again through forest trails and by this stage both of us were a little tired and needed a food boost which meant a sit on the side of the trail looking out into the forest as we hadn’t come across a place with a decent view. Luckily we had our chairs!
Well fed and reenergised we headed off again and soon found ourselves walking along the contours of a cliff face which if you looked down it was a little scary. But the actual path itself was smooth and about 1 metre wide so there was never any danger. What we were struggling a little with though was the heat. There was zero breeze and when you were in the sun it was roasting. It didn’t help that the path was never flat and we were constantly either walking up or down. We came to our “steep” decent which was really not an issue at all and we couldn’t work out why our guide book and host from last night mentioned it, maybe if it was raining it would have been slippy? Either way we gave ourselves a pat on the back and continued.
After navigating the cliff face we descended down and followed the Baca river. We stopped for a rest at an idyllic spot to try and stop sweating and I suddenly thought why the hell are we not swimming. So we quickly stripped off to our undies and were soon very very refreshed in the freezing cold water. Best idea ever.
The last few kilometres we followed the river into Grahovo Ob Baci and by this stage we were both pretty exhausted. I must admit even though it was our toughest from an elevation perspective it didn’t feel anywhere near as challenging as the ones that are long in distance but on roads. Mostly as we didn’t really walk any roads and the path that was winding around the cliff face was really beautiful, interesting and varied in what we were looking at.
When we arrived at our guest house we were rueing the fact that there was not a bar/supermarket/restaurant where we could go and have a beer as we thought we deserved it (like we have every other afternoon we have finished 😂) but luckily when our host arrived and he checked us in he must have taken a liking to us as he asked if we would like a chat and a beer. It would have been rude to refuse him. S