Jablan Bara

Today was the 25km loop to the ice cave and around the valley that is shadowed by Bobotovs Peak, which we completed a couple of days ago. I once again woke up quite sore but was ready for the challenge. Once again, during our induction, Alex dropped some information that would have been nice to know sooner. Namely that the elevation gain during this hike is greater than that of Bobotovs Peak (1km vs 600m) because we actually leave from Zabljak rather than being ferried by bus. He assured us that it is much more gradual because the horizontal distance is significantly greater than that of the Peak. I had no choice but to believe him and ready to head off. This time, we had a crew of 11, 9 of which were Aussies. This was great. The last two hikes I did were either on my own or just with Zara. Having a big group meant that we could chat away to forget about the struggles ahead. We headed toward the start of the loop, and it didn't take long until we were taking in some deep breaths. Because we were a big group, though, we took regular breaks to ensure we didn't leave anyone behind. The first pit stop was the Sheppard's den. The journey here was quite difficult, but the next stage was going to be the most intense since Bobotovs Peak. We had a quick snack and began the steep uphill. The 6th photo shows a pretty good idea of the path we had to take. It was quite brutal for a good hour, but eventually did die off slightly but was still uphill pretty much all the way to the ice cave.

When we arrived, the ice cave itself was daunting, to say the least. You look down a very steep drop to the beginning of some ice that then continues until the bottom of the cave. You then use a rope to shimmy between the walls and the ice to get closer to the bottom where you can stand. You then run out of rope and have to try and crawl down to the bottom. This generally just turns into a slide. We were obviously quite hot from the many hours of walking, but the ice was freezing (obviously), and our hands were numb from the journey down. We chilled (literally) down here for a while, enjoying the strange environment that we were in. Getting out was the hardest as you had to crawl back up the ice to get back to the rope, but it was slippery, and we had no gear suitable for the task. With numb hands, you once again had to pull yourself between the ice and the walls to escape. It was a really interesting place and a good way to mark the halfway point of the trek. Although I say halfway, the second part (by distance) was mostly a steady downhill, and so it went much quicker and easier. We were incredibly thankful that there was no more uphill because after 3 days of that shit, I was done.

We eventually made it back to the Black Lake, where we could once again cool down. The water was lifesaving and such a nice way to end the journey. We could not justify putting our shoes and socks back on as they were obviously quite gross by this point. So in classic Aussie fashion, we all walked barefoot for the next 3km back to the hostel. As we were done with the walking for a while, we stopped off to grab some drinks and celebrate. That bring said, the hostel is not a party hostel and is normally quite keen for everyone to be asleep by 11 as many people still had hikes the next day and needed sleep. But it was still a nice night having a few drinks with everyone.Read more