A wonderful day walk to the summit of the second highest peak in Montenegro’s Lovcen National Park, home to an impressive mausoleum to a national hero.
I walked from my accommodation, the rather boutique Hotel Ivanov Konak. From here I could see the two highest peaks in the national park, the 1,749m high Štirovnik, marked with an installation, which I suspect is off limits, and the 1,657m Jezerski marked by the mausoleum.
The walk started by a natural spring, flash hotel, and a snake in the path!
It was a beautiful landscape, filled with rocks, greenery, and wild flowers, different to anywhere else I’ve hiked.
The track started to head uphill in the open.
Before heading through a section of woods, home to another natural spring.
Crossing the road the woods changed and eventually came out by the overflow car park.
From here there were steps leading to the Mausoleum of Petar II Petrovic-Njegos. He was a Montenegrin bishop-prince, renowned as a poet and philosopher. It says something about his importance to the country that he was buried on this peak. Originally a church was built on the summit, but this was damaged during WW2 and later replaced by the Yugoslavian government in 1971 with the mausoleum.
A step filled tunnel goes though the mountain.
I wasn’t expecting to see a scorpion on the wall!
Emerging out of the tunnel there were some pretty epic views.
At the summit of Jezerski lies the Soviet / Egyptian style mausoleum, inside which is a huge statue below a golden ceiling.
Beyond the mausoleum is the Guvno lookout, which had epic views, including of Cetinje, the former capital, below, and Štirovnik.
Any black spots on the photos are not dirt on the lens, but swarms of unexpected bugs which surrounded the summit.
I had lunch at the rather good Vidikovac restaurant, just below the main entrance to the mausoleum.
There were some great views from the restaurant.
I returned back down the hillside before turning right to complete the loop back to the hotel, though more scenic landscape, though it was getting uncomfortably hot in the afternoon sun.
