Plav

Plav sits at the edge of a glacial lake of the same name in Montenegro's far east, hemmed in by the Prokletije range, the Accursed Mountains, which carries the border with Albania. The lake is fed by the Ljuča and drains north into the Lim, and the town has grown along its shore, low houses and minarets set against a wall of peaks above 2,500 metres. Zla Kolata, the highest point in Montenegro, stands on the frontier ridge a short distance to the south. The town's history shows in its buildings. The Sultanija Mosque is one of the oldest in the country, founded in the early Ottoman period, and the Redžepagić Tower, a fortified house of stone and timber built to defend a family rather than a garrison, is the best surviving example of its kind in the region. Plav's population is largely Bosniak and Albanian, and its food, music and long social evenings reflect a culture with more in common with the highlands across the border than with the Adriatic coast. Almost everything else here is walking. The valleys of Grebaje and Ropojana, reached through neighbouring Gusinje, open into amphitheatres of grey limestone and rank among the finest approaches to mountains anywhere in the Balkans; the Peaks of the Balkans trail, which loops through Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo, passes this way. Higher up lies Hridsko Jezero, a small forest-ringed lake that local stories fill with fairies, and the Ali Pasha springs between Plav and Gusinje pour out cold and clear enough to be a destination in themselves. Plav rewards hikers, fishermen and anyone drawn to places where tourism has not yet set the terms. Summer is short and green, with wildflowers into July and swimmable lake water in August; September and early October bring colour to the beech forests and the clearest air of the year. Winters are long and heavily snowed in, and the high routes then belong to experienced parties only.