The Paddler ezine WW kayak collection 2013 | Page 132

Fun fact:
Despite it’s small size there are seven countries in Europe tha
smaller (Kosovo, Luxembourg,Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Ma
Vatican City) and it is the least densely populated country in s
(672,000 residents, or 48 people per square kilometre).

ThePaddler 132

Come the day, and we were met by balmy
sunshine on the runway. Good start… not so in
the car hire (see notes) but we did eventually get
away with a solid vehicle, three burns on the roof
and depleted wallets. The Croatian main road
into Montenegro was one long dirt track, and we
thought customs would prove a problem with
Croatian car and British shifty looking
occupants. No problem though, banter with the
English speaking and pretty Montenegrin Border
guard did the trick!
Next morning saw us in Podgorica crossing the
Moraca River and soon heading up its
spectacular canyon. The guide warned of some
grade 5 and a ‘no-go’. The road here is high above
the river in a limestone box canyon, with
thunderous lorries squeezing under a succession
of tunnels and overhangs. We stopped in the
occasional lay-bys to check out the river and only
succeeded in frightening ourselves… one
particular tunnel with an angular concrete

drop. It didn’t look good, and the road was at
least 200 metres above us, and though we were
all climbers, it looked hard…Lateral thinking
was the answer, our brains had focused on the
obvious chute with the stopper, but below was a
steep twisting drop with no stopper. We needed a
log, but there was none… but there was Karl! A
description shouted across the roar of the water,
and he was down in one piece! Minutes later and
we were all together massively relieved and the
rest of the river seemed a blast of play waves and
chutes. I hitched back to the top with a madcap
Serbian driver intent on Kamikaze, overtaking
lorries on blind bends. Reunited, we were well
chuffed with our first Montenegrin river and had
sausage and chips in a rainy Kolasin to celebrate.
Next morning and it was obvious that it had
rained all night; Kolasin is the ski capital of MN
and it was so cold it was dumping snow about
300 metres above the town. Perhaps skiing was
the better option but we decided to check out the

Paddlers: Louise Beetlestone and Karl Midlane sorted most of the trip. Written by: Andy Hall (www.Ou
and see www.chriseastabrookcoaching.com for a possible guided trip in the future. Photographs: Karl Mid
entrance and solar panels had a view below it of
a very big stopper and tight manoeuvring. We
settled on our get out point below a scree and
boulder slope to avoid the invisible ‘no-go’, and
headed up river to find our access point just
across the river from the Moraca Monastery…
one of the country’s premier tourist attractions.
Of course, by the time we had got on the river the
sun had gone and the water was cold and grey,
narrow but powerful… and many kilometres
downstream in an unclimbable canyon was a
huge and growing stopper! Good psychology for
our first river!
Further down though, we were feeling more
confident… tributaries had joined, we’d survived
some minor epics, and the river had turned
bright turquoise in the sun, with some stunning
springs cascading out of the now sheer sided
walls. But there was still that stopper… a little
beach gave some time to plan a way above the
nastiness and we saw ourselves through initial
rapids, but then the river sight line disappeared
over a jumble of huge rocks. These rocks were the
life line we needed and Louise and I scrambled
precariously onto one of them above the biggest

river Lim, a watershed away over a backcountry
switchback. Access and egress were more obvious
in this wide pastoral valley (though we couldn’t
see much of it through the swirling cloud and
rain) and we got on in Plavsko Lake. Just as we
left the lake, dodging the usual array of plastic
bottles and other rubbish, an otter poked his
head above the water to check out these strange
visitors. We had seen no sign of rafts or kayaks
since we had entered MN. The Lim was another
grey cold river, big and powerful, reminding us of
the Inn above Landeck, with the occasional
uprooted tree jammed into the bank or floating
menacingly downstream. And we were pleased to
find that we had avoided a few gnarly pourovers
as we floated past, more by luck than good
judgement. Sounds fairly grim, and it was, but
we enjoyed it for its power and speed.
A fair drive down the Tara valley ensued,
gradually steepening from the town of Mojkovac
to form the Devil’s Canyon. As part of the
UNESCO biosphere agreement this part of the
Tara is banned to paddlers and patrolled by
rangers… but it does look good! Some 40 kms
down this canyon is ‘the Great Bridge’ rebuilt