Uvac Canyon – One of Serbia’s Seven Natural Wonders

The eastern plains of Serbia give way to the Tara mountains in the West.  It was the logical path to head for my next leg of my former Yugoslavia road trip.  I met another backpacker at the Belgrade bus terminal who was heading in the same direction so we decided to join forces.  Since I had no guidebook, I went along with her suggestion of visiting a place known as Uvac.  With the frequency of how Europe’s iconic places are, I was surprised I never heard of this place.  Uvac Canyon is home to a serpent like river winding through the Ninaja and Pometenik mountains with ample places to hike. 

on the bus to Uvac

We decided to get off the bus in the town of Nova Varos on the eastern edge Dinaric Mountains on the outskirts of Tara National Park in the Drina River Valley.  It’s a sleepy town of about sixteen thousand people.  What makes this town unique is that it has a Muslim population of about 10%, which is shocking considering the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s forced most Muslim populations within Serbia to leave into bordering Bosnia.  In comparison, similar towns in this region, like Bajiha Basta, which had a similar demographic before the war, now only has nine Muslims out of a population of twenty-five thousand. 

Tara Mountains

We met a couple of French guys who were also backpacking the area at a café and decided to make plans to visit Uvac together for the morning.  It was still light and we decided a swim and sunset would be a nice way to conclude a long day traveling by bus.  We shared a taxi to a reservoir on the outskirts of the town.  Young Serbians were enjoying the summer swimming and drinking at the beer garden nearby.  After sunset, we returned to the town and found a café and traded travel stories over delicious Serbian beverages late into the cool summer night.

they thought I was Native American when I said I was from the USA

the reservoir 

Boating Down the Lim River

The next day, our guesthouse owner arranged for a driver to take us to the lake where boats depart to take tourists along the Lim River meandering through Uvac Canyon.  It was a beautifully clear and brisk day despite being mid-summer.  To my surprise, there were only a handful of tourists in sight.  The four of us got into a small motor boat and we were off.  We spent about two hours on the boat gazing up at the enormity of verdant cliffs surrounding us.  The occasional vulture soaring above looking for its next meal.  The only sound was the motor from the boat. 

Ice Cave

the mouth of Ice Cave

Eventually, landed the boat and hiked up the side of the canyon a short distance to the mouth of Resava cave. Known in English as the Ice Cave, and for good reason. Even before we entered, the temperature dropped considerably.  Our skipper handed us over to local guide who gave us torches and we entered the darkness of the abyss.  The cave maintains a temperature of seven Celsius throughout the year.  The length of the cave is nearly five kilometers long, but only about 800 meters is explorable for tourists.  The first several hundred meters of the cave is enormous.  Think of an airplane hangar.  It gradually gets smaller the further you go.  The cave is considered the oldest cave in Europe, which was formed forty-five million years ago from a series of subterranean rivers.  We kept close as we only had two torches between the group.  Huge stalactites and stalagmites give the cave an almost gothic appearance. Ten meter long stalactites hang from the ceiling of a cave while stalagmites grow from the cave floor. Stalactites and stalagmites are produced by precipitation of minerals from water dripping through the cave ceiling.  After about forty-five minutes we returned to our boat to continue our day tour of Uvac Canyon. 

Hiking Uvac Canyon

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We continued on by boat to a low ridge about twenty minutes down river from the cave and began our hour ascent to the top.  As we ascended the view became more spectacular.  From the top, hundreds of meters up, you get a panoramic view of the of the whole river basin.  An incredible natural wonder to witness.  No wonder, Serbia’s department of tourism has proclaimed Uvac one of its Seven Natural Wonders. 

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