Kayaking down the Uvac Canyon
„YOUR STORY“ by G. J.
Travelling is one of my favourite hobbies. When I was younger, I used to travel mostly abroad on party tours and blockbuster locations. But when I passed 30, I have started to appreciate some other values and realized how Serbia beautiful is and how much it has to offer. My newly discovered passion for camping helped me better understand nature, relax, and to find inner peace.
This time, as a destination of the trip, was chosen Uvac Canyon – the beautiful meanders of the river Uvac and the flora and fauna in it. When I go camping with my friends, we have a few routines:
- Google the name of sight we are visiting + word camp
- We make strong agreement to start our trip right after work (to better use time) and that nobody will be late
- Somebody will be late, and we will arrive at our destination far after midnight and set tents tired in dark.
To begin, after we gathered, we entered GDP coordinates and our trip started. After pleasant travel, darkness fell, and we almost arrived at the destination GPS pointed. The only problem was the GPS spot was a few hundred meters from this point, but there was no road to it! Rural places in Serbia do not have frequent traffic, especially after midnight. After some time, a car passed and the driver explained to us that we have to go back a few kilometres and go on a dusty, unmarked road, parallel with the current one. OK, everything is fine, we arrived at the camping space, set a tent, and went to sleep.
The next day was relaxing; firstly, we lit a barbecue. I enjoy the process of roasting meat (contrary to most of my friends), maybe even more than eating it. The procedure is simple, I hold the gripper in one hand, balance with the drink in the second hand. The fire should not be strong, and the grille should be in the highest place on the barbecue. Firstly, we roast meat with a higher percentage of fat, than other meat and in the end, we put the potato in wooden coal as a desert. Yum yum. Before the barbecue was finished, our camping neighbours from Netherland offered us some snacks and after that, we invited them to taste the Serbian barbecue. After the meal, we went swimming in a lake and eventually prepared another barbecue for dinner. Life is good.
The next day we went to the place where our kayaking will start (which was further than we expected). We realized that our skipper is such a nice/cool guy, the pure adventurer. In the beginning, we started to race (4 double person boats), but after we become a little tired and away ahead of our group, we started to admire beautiful nature. No doubt, the most fascinating of all were the griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus), magnificent birds, endangered species that found its home in Uvac Canyon.
After many paddles, we started to consider passing meanders on foot, with a kayak on our back, and save a few hundred meters. Of course, we gave up on this idea. Eventually, we landed on shore and started to climb on the most famous of many lookouts with an interesting name – Molitva (Prayer). Here skipper asked who would like to hike on a long way and refill water on a spring. Of course, I applied. We refilled water and stop in one rural household to buy a famous cheese from Sjenica. After that, we met our group on the lookout, took many pictures, and returned to boats.
In the end, we entered a cave with our kayaks. The skipper was leading with light from the mobile phone. We pushed him further and further, rowed between stalactites. The cave was refreshing, much colder than outside. Skipper said he has never gone so deep in the cave; was it true? I do not know.
Our exciting trip to Uvac canyon ended, every muscle hurt me tomorrow of rowing. Was it worth it? Definitely. I would gladly repeat this adventure someday and of course, I would do it again with the same vehicle.
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