Chapter 10 · The Journal
Old-growth silence under a three-hundred-year-old beech canopy, summit air at 2,386 metres. Reserve five nights at Sutjeska — a grandparents' farmhouse at the edge of one of Europe's last primeval forests, where the crossing comes to rest.
Gentiana lutea · Juniperus
The forest edge
An ethno farmhouse beside the national park and the Perućica primeval forest.
Into the old growth
Beneath the ancient beeches to the Skakavac falls; gentian and juniper on the higher ground.
The summit
Maglić, the country's highest peak, closes the season — or hand back to the salt gate at Dubrovnik.
A parting gift
You leave with gentian or juniper rakija, bitter-rooted, from the old-growth mountains, chosen for you by your hosts.