Mounting the saddle

We rode up to Sedlo (horse saddle) pass at 1907 m. The road winds it's way up the grassy alpine meadows south west of Žabljak and climbs towards the rock mountains. At the top of the pass, we got a beautiful view of the road we had climbed and of the valley on the other side.

"Come Papa, let's go up there", Kiran said pointing at a big rock cliff behind us. I had thought we could just sit and watch the evening roll in.

"Climb up there? Now? What for?"
"I want to go there and see how it is"
"Sounds like you're getting mountain fever too", I said.

We clambered up the steep slope until we were at the base of the rock on top.
"Shall we go touch it?", I offered.
When we were sitting up on the top, he asked, "Papa, what does it feel like, this mountain fever?"

We kept walking on the trail which led us round to the other side of the mountain, completely by ourselves. We spent some time rolling massive rocks down the cliffs
We watched for a whole minute as they tumbled and shattered down the vertiginous slope.

"Look, there are three Chamois!", I pointed. Our eyes wandered to reveal that it was a group of 60-70 chamois sauntering up the rock cliff. It was his first time, what luck!

On the way back, he felt very unwell. He got a sudden attack of stomach cramps that made him cry and roll around. I had to carry him a good way down. Back at the pass, we were helped by a lovely Czech family to deliver the ultimate pain medication: watching Hotel Transylvania 2 in the van with their kids. Somehow the pain went as suddenly as it came. We called off evacuating him and we slept in the tent on the pass. I hoped he didn't think this was mountain fever.Read more