Šćepan Polje

Šćepan Polje sits at the far northwestern corner of Montenegro, at the confluence where the Tara and the Piva meet and become the Drina. The two rivers arrive from opposite kinds of country, the Tara out of Europe's deepest canyon and the Piva from the reservoir behind the Mratinje dam, and the meeting point doubles as the border crossing into Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is less a town than a scatter of camps, bridges and river terraces at the bottom of a very deep valley. This is the main starting point for rafting the Tara. Trips run from half-day descents to multi-day expeditions with overnights in riverside camps, taking boats through rapids beneath walls that rise well over a thousand metres, in a canyon protected within Durmitor National Park and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The water is cold and startlingly clear, and the season runs from the spring snowmelt to early autumn. May and June bring the highest, fastest water; July and August are gentler and better suited to families and first-timers. Away from the boats, the valley rewards a walk. On a bluff above the confluence stand the ruins of Soko Grad, a fortress of Herceg Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, the fifteenth-century nobleman whose title gave Herzegovina its name. Tracks climb from the river toward Piva Lake and the Piva Monastery, and the Durmitor high country is within an easy drive to the east. Šćepan Polje suits travellers who came to Montenegro for water and mountains rather than the sea, and it works as well for a single day on the river as for a week of it. Accommodation is mostly camp bungalows and family guesthouses, meals are grilled and generous, and evenings are quiet by design. Bring warm layers even in August: the sun leaves the canyon floor early, and the Tara never really warms up.