Text and pictures: Matyáš ZRNO The first peak that I conquered in Montenegro was Subra above Herceg - New. It was a real "luxury" hike. I left early in the morning, I easily conquered the peak of 1,679 meters above sea level, and returned before evening back. I even got to swim in the sea on the same day. It was before full seven years. Since then, I have crossed most of Montenegro. During all those hikes anything and everything happened to me. At Komovi, they thought that I was alone spy, and I don't even know how many times I had to melt on Maganik August remnants of snow in order to get drinking water. At Kapa Moračka, where normally there is no wood, I made a fire modeled after Tibetan shepherds - from dry cow dung. There are bigger mountains than Montenegrin, there are some that are closer to mine homeland, the Czech Republic. There are the Alps in Austria, a few hours away drive from Prague, there are the Tatras in Slovakia. However, all those mountains what the mountains in Montenegro have is missing. Namely, in Montenegrin there are still shepherds and katuns in the mountains. More precisely, here it is in the mountains still alive. Due to the "white plague" and emigration to the cities, that is, probably, the latter years of this way of life, so typical for former Montenegro and Montenegrins. That's exactly what makes me extremely happy, because I am witnessing at least those last few moments of something that will happen very soon disappear forever. Something that has always managed to be maintained since time immemorial of ancient Montenegro. The road took me three times to the Moračke Mountains, which are the heart of the historic Brda. They stretch north of the line Nikšić - Podgorica, and up to Sinjajevina.Te katuns are held by Bjelopavlići, Moračani, Župljani and Rovci. Tough hillbillies, though extremely good and honorable people. Niksic was my starting point every time. Where does the city come from? transportation to the mountain village of Morakovo. In a few hours I will reach Morakovo, to of my good friends who live in Rekočica – the first katun on this road.

Real shepherd hospitality begins in Rekočići: "drink brandy", "drink more", "come on a little more", "here, there are a few more liters here..." Never me in Montenegro, there was not a completely clear distinction between hospitality and love towards people. But because of that, I know very well why I had to postpone it several times your journey. Afterwards, I don't even know how many kilos of cheese were offered, cream and sour milk, and especially after the "hot one" - it's a long way was very often almost impossible. The surroundings of Rekočica are full of beautiful forests. Better said: it was full beautiful forests. Unfortunately, it is one of the parts where the human is visible destructiveness. None of the bureaucrats in the Ministry of Environmental Protection, probably, he still hasn't found time to come here and see what's right "wild" felling of trees in the ecological state of Montenegro. It's like here it became a rule to cut down trees without any rule or supervision. Rekočice is not far from Prijevor, from where you can see the monumental peaks Tali and Lukanje čelo, which already belong to the Kapa Moračka mountain massif.

Prijevor is a saddle (pass) used by shepherds, on the south side of the mountain they drive the cattle and horses under the load to the katuns located on the second side, according to Velje Dubok.

To the east of Prijevor is Međeđi vrh (2139 m.a.s.l.), and it is right next to it Kokot's peak (2,000 m.a.s.l.). Among my fellow Czechs, that name is "kokotov" always be a loud laugh, because "kokot" in spoken Czech and Slovak means "penis" in the language... Crush, crush and only crush. However, sheep are also in this karst they always know how to find some grass. Shepherds are most often old women who in in search of sheep they know how to run, with surprising speed.

On the other side is the road to Medjeđi vrh, which gave us a rare the possibility that we can be covered in snow in July.

From Prijevor to the famous Captain's Lake, as the crow flies, there are a little more than ten kilometers. But in these mountains, those dozen kilometers, means two days of hard walking. Especially if you are leading a larger group which moves more slowly. Not a drop of water anywhere. And that means it is according to this one in the summer heat, you need to carry at least eight more, along with all the other equipment liter of water. Once again, it is worth noting that the terrain here is very rough impassable, but extremely attractive for hiking.

Snow melting is usually the only possibility here to reach much-needed quantities of drinking water. However, few people here know that water obtained by melting snow, it does not contain any minerals. Even if drink a large amount of such water, it can be very dangerous for health. Therefore, mineral tablets must be added to the water. If there are none, it can pour milk powder or at least put some grass. It's redundant note that the final product is water with a very interesting color and taste. But certainly when a person is really thirsty, it is better than beer! The reward for a hard journey, the traveler is certainly given a beautiful view to the surrounding mountains.

And finally comes the Captain's Lake, which offers the possibility of a wonderful bathing. A man has a house there, and a small shop in it. Once in a word – luxury. It seems that even the calf is looking forward to our arrival...

From Kapetanovo jezero we go to Mrtvice canyon, with an extraordinary a beautiful and clean river. Everyone uses another possibility, to get well bathe and enjoy the clear river water.

And again we go along the tops of the mountains. First, of course, we say goodbye to relatives of my friend, Belgrade journalist Bud Bukilić, who live in the village of Liješnje.

We are going to conquer another unforgettable peak - Tali (2,063), which can can be seen from the car from the road towards Bijelo Polje, near Mioska. From the top Tali se see Sinjaevina, which is almost right across the street. We didn't know then that we will carry from those peaks, from which we observe a wonderful panorama the other one whose knee was injured by a rock.

Then we just knew that we had to go down, into the Morača valley, which leads the road from Mioska to Šavnik and climb up again, but this time up Sinjaevina. This area, until the 70s of the last century, when when the road was finally broken, it was the most isolated region in Montenegro. Exactly because that is why the American ethnographer Christopher Boehm chose it in the sixties of the last century, to study among the local population - Gornjo Moračani blood feud. ( Book: "Blood revenge in Montenegro" Christopher Boehm )

And here, on the left, you can already see the road to Šavnik. On the right side is the main road to Bijelo Polje, and between them is a bridge over Miošca. The view is from 2,000 meters above sea level. Magnificent and fantastic!

One part of our team stays in Ropusnica katun.

That part of our team tries to return the hospitality to the shepherds. At least on the way they left some mountain food to feed themselves chickens...

And while the four bravest are struggling on Sinjajevina, the others are going around this extraordinarily beautiful area, towards the top of Vojnovac.

And Sinjajevina? The biggest part of it is wonderful and peaceful. Like this katun Barley to above Lipovo, where, according to the locals, during the second World War I once housed Draža Mihailović's main headquarters. This one the picture is from 1998, when the road to the top had not yet been broken. Afterwards many years and promises, the inhabitants of this place have finally passed also met - the end of the road.

The largest part of Sinjajevina mountain is meadows and plains. It's very little violates If there were adequate roads and infrastructure, this mountain could be a true paradise for herders.

However, the small southeastern part are real mountain peaks - Babin zub (2227) and Sto (2457).

On Babin Zub, we climbed almost to the top. Since we didn't have any mountaineering equipment, we didn't even dare to master those few last meters.

The worst started only when we started to descend these rocks, below the peak of Turin (1993).

After the unfortunate stone that hurt our friend, we had to that we painstakingly retreat by the shortest possible route towards the main road. Although it is as the crow flies, the total distance is less than four kilometers, the descent is extremely slow and complicated. The terrain is rugged and difficult, which is difficult to master without quality terrain maps. In situations like this, it helps me the most to have at least a few on hand old maps used by the former JNA (Yugoslav National Army)... These are places where there is no shepherd, and when there is no shepherd - there are no paths either. Because of that's why our descent to Mioska lasted almost a whole day. Thanks to my good friend Izo Gušmirović from Bijelo Polje, we will soon be in Bjelopolska hospital received all possible help. Fortunately, everything went without consequence. This is what our trip looked like two years ago.

Matyáš ZRNO Prague, Czech Republic (The author is the vice president of the Association of Friends of Montenegro in the Czech Republic)