Friendship crowned on the Tara

Milos Maksimovic, born in Negotin (Serbia) went to Tara from Dublin, Ireland. His friends gave him a task to find the most interesting tourist destination where they can spend their holidays and enjoy the outdoors. He decided to bring them here!

- This morning I sent pictures from the Tara rafting to my Mum and she replied enthusiastically: "Son, I knew you'd bring your friends there; it's where God created the most beautiful features on earth." That is how a 27-year-old programmer Milos Maksimovic, starts his story.

Milos brought five of his friends and business colleagues to our Rafting Center Drina-Tara: Philip Tran and Jonathan Rej from England, Merc Matthias from Germany, Lilian Liu Ju Jung, born in Thailand, living in New Zelend, and Mireya Rodriguez from Malaga, Spain.

Immediately upon arrival into our camp they expresssed a wish to raft through the entire Tara canyon, the second deepest canyon in the world. Travelling from our camp across Durmitor mountain in the "Toyota cruiser" was both charming and exciting. After several hours, they arrived at Đurđevića Tara, where the boat journey of almost 100km started. The day was sunny, about fifteen degrees, but the water temperature was not higher than 5C. After retraining and putting neoprene suits, helmets and safety vests on, a short briefing and introduction to the most basic rules for the passengers was held by a skipper and guide Danilo Vojvodić, who called for caution, but also invited everybody to enjoy the landscape. Passangers also participated in lowering the boat to the bottom of the Tara canyon.

At the beginning, under the warm sunlight of the April days, the boat slid like a nutshell down the green-eyed Tara to the over 150m high Đurđevića bridge, where the crystal clear river took on a turquoise blue. They passed the monastery of St. Archangel Michael from the 15th century, on the right rocky coast of the Tara canyon, available only from the boat. They continued descending through waterfalls and cascades between the stone ridge of the canyon and came to the mouth of the river Ljutice, the shortest river in the world, which flows into the Tara after only 300m. This adrenalin trip was interrupted for a moment at Bajlovica siga, where there is a fantastic cave. It is impossible to resist and not visit this fantastic morphological river phenomenon, breathtaking for the observers. On the way to Tepci, in one part, the canyon is over 1300 meters deep. This is the second deepest canyon in the world, just after the Colorado canyon! Here, from the boat, high up, you see only a little tiny piece of sky and the golden eagles circling and stalking a trout or a rabbit on a rocky river bank.

- Here we saw a herd of wild goats in search of food, unusually close to the coast. This is indeed an unforgettable sight! - Says Liu Lilian /25/, who was, in her own words, fascinated by the pure nature and the Tara river, which for her was a revelation. The girl from Taiwan wondered how it is possible that water from the Tara is perfectly clean and safe to drink out of the boat. She promised to come to our Rafting Center Drina-Tara again with more friends until the end of August. This was confirmed by the rest of the team, reminding us that the number of participants will be ten times higher than this time.

On this rafting tour, the longest one, from the top of the canyon, it is usual that after 35km our guests spend the night in the canyon, in a place called Radovan Luka.This time it was not possible, because the motel, owned by the National Park Durmitor, was closed. Therefore, the six-member team, led by skipper Danilo continued to row harder to Brstanovica where they were, at dusk, wet ,cold and happy, met by our jeep transport to the camp and an unforgettable evening. The next day they went rafting again but this time, the shorter route, from Brstanovica.

"What we experienced on Tara is nicer than we could have imagined in the most daring fantasies."

"Everything is on the highest level, simply put -excellent. Accommodation, food, friendly hosts. All of you from Rafting Center Drina-Tara now have fans for a lifetime!"

These are only some of the impressions in the visitors' book that the team from Ireland, Malaga, New Zealand and Germany wrote down. These wonderful people were the first guests on the longest rafting tour from the top of Tara this year. Finally, they wrote:

"Book us again for next May. We have crowned our friendship here, next yerar we are coming to seal it!. Cheers!"