A lovely walk today, much of it on walker's footpaths (rather than farm or forest tracks) and an intriguing ruined fortress.
It was sad leaving Sokobanja. I enjoyed the food last night at the Cafe Amam, the grilled chicken had some kind of pepper seasoning and the baklava dessert had a lemon offsetting the sweetness. Paul Hollywood was baking on one of the cafe's TV screens. I was just discovering which cafés sold slices of cake. As I collected some lunch before breakfast from a pekara (bakery) people were busy cleaning the streets of rubbish, few places in Serbia are as clean and tidy as Sokobanja!
The rain stopped soon after I started my day's walk, fortunate as I was soon overheating in my rain jacket as I climbed the winding road out of town towards the ruins of the medieval fortress of Sokograd. Leaving town the road entered trees with a little church on the right and a few views back. After the tarmac ended at a car park & picnic site I continued along a riverside path before climbing to the ruins. These were partly hidden by trees, giving the place an undiscovered feel, somewhere Indiana Jones might visit (although the lilac bushes with their purple flowers did not quite fit that image). The towers and remaining walls were on the side of a limestone gorge and it looked more a place to hide from the enemy rather than defend your kingdom.
A good path contoured the steep sided valley and then made a strenuous climb uphill, eventually turning back on itself to reach a vantage point with an excellent view down onto the castle. I followed the red and white trail markings on this route, continuing to follow them up to the summit of Ostra Cuka and on along the Devica range to Čaplijnac, its highest point.
Up until Ostra Cuka most of the trail was through forest but the summit was a rocky outcrop without trees, just rock, grass and thorny bushes, plus a shiny metal cross. The views would have been great but clouds got in the way. To reach Čaplijnac the route skipped between tracks and open ground, where you picked your way through rocks and bushes trying to spot the next red and white waymark. The summit of Čaplijnac was a disappointment, too hedged in by trees, with chunks of rock that tried to trip you up.
The waymarks sadly ended here and I made my way downhill to a faint vehicle track I had seen on Google Earth. Not simple, in addition to dense trees, branches, rocks and undergrowth around the summit there was a large circular depression, a thick layer of branches possibly hid a sinkhole leading to underground caves... By retracing some of my steps and then heading across rocky grassland and scrub I found the vehicle track I looking for. I followed it, occasionally switching to intersecting tracks, almost all the way to my final summit of Caske. In many places the tracks were blue with flowers like miniature hyacinths, flowers I had first seen on Rtanj. Yellow cowslips preferred locations each side of the track. There was just one struggle through bushes shortly before I reached my final summit.
Caske was I felt the best of the three summits I visited today in terms of the panorama you could see. I also liked its remoteness, far from any habitation, a peace that comes of being surrounded by empty open space. I left on a route from Wikiloc.com, following faint vehicle tracks and before too long set up camp in a flat, grassy and pleasant spot on the ridge at around 1000 metres. One of my better campsites.
23.6 kilometres walked today, but an ascent of 1570 metres. A gpx file of the trail can be downloaded from wikiloc.com, or the route can be found on ViewRanger as johnpon0031.
It was sad leaving Sokobanja. I enjoyed the food last night at the Cafe Amam, the grilled chicken had some kind of pepper seasoning and the baklava dessert had a lemon offsetting the sweetness. Paul Hollywood was baking on one of the cafe's TV screens. I was just discovering which cafés sold slices of cake. As I collected some lunch before breakfast from a pekara (bakery) people were busy cleaning the streets of rubbish, few places in Serbia are as clean and tidy as Sokobanja!
The rain stopped soon after I started my day's walk, fortunate as I was soon overheating in my rain jacket as I climbed the winding road out of town towards the ruins of the medieval fortress of Sokograd. Leaving town the road entered trees with a little church on the right and a few views back. After the tarmac ended at a car park & picnic site I continued along a riverside path before climbing to the ruins. These were partly hidden by trees, giving the place an undiscovered feel, somewhere Indiana Jones might visit (although the lilac bushes with their purple flowers did not quite fit that image). The towers and remaining walls were on the side of a limestone gorge and it looked more a place to hide from the enemy rather than defend your kingdom.
A good path contoured the steep sided valley and then made a strenuous climb uphill, eventually turning back on itself to reach a vantage point with an excellent view down onto the castle. I followed the red and white trail markings on this route, continuing to follow them up to the summit of Ostra Cuka and on along the Devica range to Čaplijnac, its highest point.
Up until Ostra Cuka most of the trail was through forest but the summit was a rocky outcrop without trees, just rock, grass and thorny bushes, plus a shiny metal cross. The views would have been great but clouds got in the way. To reach Čaplijnac the route skipped between tracks and open ground, where you picked your way through rocks and bushes trying to spot the next red and white waymark. The summit of Čaplijnac was a disappointment, too hedged in by trees, with chunks of rock that tried to trip you up.
The waymarks sadly ended here and I made my way downhill to a faint vehicle track I had seen on Google Earth. Not simple, in addition to dense trees, branches, rocks and undergrowth around the summit there was a large circular depression, a thick layer of branches possibly hid a sinkhole leading to underground caves... By retracing some of my steps and then heading across rocky grassland and scrub I found the vehicle track I looking for. I followed it, occasionally switching to intersecting tracks, almost all the way to my final summit of Caske. In many places the tracks were blue with flowers like miniature hyacinths, flowers I had first seen on Rtanj. Yellow cowslips preferred locations each side of the track. There was just one struggle through bushes shortly before I reached my final summit.
Caske was I felt the best of the three summits I visited today in terms of the panorama you could see. I also liked its remoteness, far from any habitation, a peace that comes of being surrounded by empty open space. I left on a route from Wikiloc.com, following faint vehicle tracks and before too long set up camp in a flat, grassy and pleasant spot on the ridge at around 1000 metres. One of my better campsites.
23.6 kilometres walked today, but an ascent of 1570 metres. A gpx file of the trail can be downloaded from wikiloc.com, or the route can be found on ViewRanger as johnpon0031.
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| Fortress of Sokograd |
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| My route picked out by blue flowers |
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