One of the most popular places in Durmitor National Park, Black Lake (Crno Jezero) is a rather lovely glacial lake, 1,416m above sea level. It is actually two lakes, imaginatively called Big Lake (Veliko Jezero) and Little Lake (Malo Jezero), though as Little Lake is deeper, it holds more water. In summer they are separated by a narrow strait, though not when I visited in mid June 2023 when days of rain had joined them up. For ~70 days of the year, over winter, they are frozen, which would be quite a sight.

I visited on an overcast but mostly still day, providing good reflections, and making for an atmospheric visit.

The lake is surrounded by rather spooky black pines, which are on average 400 years old, with some 50m high.

A 3.5km trail circles the lake, easy in most places, a bit trickier, particularly in the wet, in others.

It’s an enjoyable walk, with ever changing views.

The increase in rain, and direction of the light, made a difference to the lake reflections from the start of the walk.

The following day it was still raining but I returned to the Black Lake for oddly clearer views, despite it raining more heavily.

The rain put others off so the lake was much quieter than yesterday, until it cleared up after lunch and the hordes returned…

There are eighteen lakes in Durmitor National Park so I thought I’d check out a couple more. Barno Lake is the closest to Black Lake, but it is surrounded by bog, which was made wetter by all the rain, so I couldn’t approach much closer than this without getting very wet feet.

The path to Snake Lake (Zminje Jezero) was drier, if less interesting, as a gravel road, though I did come across this striking war memorial.

The lake was pretty cool though, offering more perfect reflections.

Though it was a little tricky to follow the path around the lake as much of it had been reclaimed by the flooded lake.

I returned to Black Lake to possibly the best views in my time there.

Zabljak is the main town next to Durmitor National Park. It is very popular in winter as Montenegro’s original skiing destination (though Kolasin now has ski fields). The town is booming, judging by the number of new and partially built buildings.

I love visiting cemeteries, they offer a distinctive view of different cultures in how the dead are memorialised. Groblje Žabljak Cemetery was in a spectacular setting, with the mountains of Durmitor National Park finally clearly visible.

The tombstones and flowers were different to any other cemetery I’ve been to.

On the hillside by the cemetery was a WW2 war memorial, surrounded by busts of people who died in the conflict.

To finish with Crkva Preobraženja Gospodnjeg Church, a quite exquisite Orthodox Church by the cemetery.

Orthodox churches have the most beautiful interiors.