Like everything else, social media has its pros and cons. One of the best things about FB for me is that I can follow my fellow hikers. Every weekend I look at phenomenal photos from various destinations. Until recently, the photos were dominated by scenes from Montenegro, but Albania is expanding quite a bit, and now we are going further - towards the Croatian and the peaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Thanks to those photos, Sanja and I are making our joint list that never shrinks. Somewhere, carried away by inspirational posts, we leave quickly, and some tours wait for their moment for a long time. I heard about Ružica in the middle of the year before last. I was first attracted by the name of the peak, and then by the view from it. Information about it was scanty: the top of Piva mountain. A month later, as ordered, a text appeared on the Peaks of Montenegro page. It immediately caught my eye: NOT MARKED.
Still, I read it. It seemed simple to me. "Well, we'll manage. It can go on the list." Her moment had been waiting for almost a year and a half. Ružica was chosen for the last tour north of Podgorica during the previous year, on the last Saturday of October. From Podgorica we headed towards Žabljak, and then we turned towards Virk and continued towards Sedlo pass. We stopped just to take a look at Ranisava and Volovito jezero.
Following the instructions from the already mentioned text from the Peaks of Montenegro, we also passed Dobri Do and found a macadam road that branches off to the left. According to Popović, it is 6,8 km from the saddle to the start of the trail. I didn't check, I take his word for it. We parked shortly after the turn. We only continued on the road for a short time, and then we started to climb. There were no markings, but we found the beaten path and were satisfied with ourselves. "This will be a piece of cake". The macadam road continues towards Katun Boban. In the distance we also saw a puddle called Jezerce.
We walked along the gravel path that went along the slope of Šupljika. White Kom rose in front of us. In the valley below these two peaks, we barely noticed the remains of the former Zagulj katun. We would have overlooked it if we hadn't read that it existed.
We reached a small hill above Zagulje, between Supljika and Bijeli Kom. Everything was going well. We noticed a well-trodden path and continued our journey following it. The terrain was slowly getting rougher. I wasn't expecting such a stone environment. Well, her name doesn't give it away! I expected that Ruzica, however, must be tamer. We followed the path until we got out of the cut, but then we lost it and continued "freestyle": Sanja and I on one path, Duško on the other. We reached the finish line almost at the same time with quite a bit of walking on the stone-grass terrain, almost the worst combination.
I have to admit that the ascent was not easy for me despite the insignificant height difference of only 318 meters. Every climb without markings is a lottery. I was most jealous of whoever gave the peak such a tame name in such a "wild" environment.
The negative mood started to go in the opposite direction as soon as we gained altitude, and when we reached the top, there was elation. All the pain during the ascent is forgotten in the blink of an eye. The only thing that bothered us at the top was the cold (as far as I remember it was 4 degrees above zero) and the fact that the highest peaks of Durmitor were covered by a persistent cloud. We waited for him to go away until our hands were stiff from the winter because, of course, I didn't remember gloves. He didn't move. He won the battle. Other views were phenomenal: Prutaš, Ljubisnja, Lojanik, Sedlena Greda. That was the first line of mountains. Sinjajevina, Moračke planine, Maglić, Bioč, Volujak and Vojnik were also seen. The sky was clear and the air clear. Ružica is still a real rose from the top if you don't sprain your leg climbing up to it.
We descended by following the beaten path, but it was still not easy. During the summer, when the grass is stronger and bigger, it is certainly more difficult. The rocky terrain was never a problem for me, but a challenge. It is the combination of stone and grass that poses a danger for those who do not have experience in this type of terrain and good deep goyzerica. And with those two, caution is not out of the question. When we noticed that the cloud had finally moved away from Bobot's Kuk, we were sorry that we didn't endure the cold a little longer.
Although the day was shortened, the tour was not long, so we had time for something else. We decided to go back via Pišč and try to finally find the stećaks that are there. In an earlier search, we found only a few near the village cemetery. This time, Sanja equipped herself with a map, so there was no possibility of missing out. Stećci are located on a small hill above the road, but they are not visible from it. Since there was no sign until then, we couldn't even find them earlier. We parked and started walking along the meadow. Finally, the famous stećci from Pišč! There are several of them and they are not just plain stone but decorated. As much as we were delighted by the stećci, we were also surprised by the existence of the building and the construction works around it in the immediate vicinity of the stećci. We left this place with mixed feelings. We wanted so much to see these stećaks, and we left them with bitterness and disappointment.
From the first meeting with him, Pisce is one of the most beautiful parts of our country, in a very strong competition. I saw it in various editions. Never near November. It was sunny, and the famous BMW trio (Bioč, Maglić, Volujak), unfortunately for us, was in the shade. Not everything can be ideal.
When we were already in Pišč, we also stopped by the cemetery. Otherwise, wherever we go, if we come across a cemetery, we stop. In the absence of people, even the cemetery can "talk". One learns a lot about past times, the surnames of that region. There are many interesting old monuments in this cemetery. We took pains to interpret certain texts on them. There is also the Chapel of the Jojić family, a rare case of a family tomb of this type. All in all, a very interesting village cemetery. We were only disappointed that the part where the stećci are located was not mowed. There are a lot of them and they are scattered around the cemetery. Most of them are barely visible, and even the largest one does not have any decorations. However, they deserve a little better treatment because I'm sure they would attract the attention of tourists.
Returning home via Plužine, summarizing what we had seen and making a plan where to stop for coffee, we passed through a typical autumn environment that was prolonged this year because in some earlier times, on the threshold of November, there would already be a lot of snow here.
Bonus video:
