Near Žabljak, on the high plateau below Durmitor, a group of medieval tombstones lies in a meadow at Bare Žugića. These are stećci, massive carved stones that mark graves from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, found across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. Some are simple slabs, others shaped like houses or sarcophagi, decorated with carvings of spirals, crosses, vines, hunting scenes, dancers and figures with raised hands. Their makers belonged to various Christian communities of the medieval Balkans, and their meaning is still debated. In 2016 UNESCO listed a selection of the most important sites, including Bare Žugića, as the Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards. Seeing these stones in a high meadow, surrounded by mountains, is quietly moving.
Durmitor is the great mountain massif of northern Montenegro, a national park and UNESCO site of limestone peaks, glacial lakes and forests, with the highest summit, Bobotov Kuk, rising to over two and a half thousand metres. Žabljak, at around fourteen hundred metres, is one of the highest towns in the Balkans, a base for hiking in summer and skiing in winter. The Black Lake, a short walk from town, reflects the peaks in its dark water.
The Tara river canyon, to the north, is one of the deepest in Europe, cutting through the mountains for many kilometres. The Đurđevića Tara bridge, a concrete arch bridge built just before the Second World War, spans the canyon at a dizzying height, and you can ride across it and stop to look down at the river far below.
The riding is spectacular. The Durmitor ring road climbs from Žabljak over the high plateau and the Sedlo pass, nearly two thousand metres up, through a lunar landscape of limestone and grass, with views of jagged peaks, and then descends towards Plužine and the Piva lake. The road is narrow, often without guardrails, with sheep and cows on the road and a surface that varies from good to rough. It is usually closed by snow from late autumn to late spring. The Piva canyon road, to the west, goes through dozens of rough-hewn tunnels carved into the rock.
Žabljak has fuel, shops and restaurants. Try kačamak, a rich porridge of cornmeal, potatoes and cheese, and local lamb cooked under a metal lid buried in embers.