On our second day in Mokra Gora we woke up to find that it had snowed quite heavily overnight. We weren’t expecting this as the day before it had been bright and sunny, we were just wearing t-shirts! We had already decided that we would go for a long walk in the mountains, as there was many picturesque walking trails just behind our cabin. We started walking on very steep roads that led up the mountainside, most of which were dotted with quaint wooden cottages. Many of these lovely homes had allotments where different fruits and vegetables are grown depending on the season, and some have livestock such as chickens, pigs and sheep. As we walked higher we came across the tracks of the Sargan Eight railway. This is a traditional steam train that winds around the mountains, taking tourists through a beautiful scenic route during the high season. Unfortunately we missed this experience as we visited Mokra Gora during the low season, and the Sargan Eight stops running for several weeks due to the lack of visitors. We made up for this by following the train tracks on foot, and we were able to take some great photos on the way.
It can be tricky getting a photograph of both of us, so I took this one using self-timer and wedging my iPhone into a glove and into the snow!
Stephen took this video when we had walked fairly far up into the forest which covered the uppermost part of the mountain, we didn’t find any more houses at this point and our view over the landscape was incredible. Having spoken to some of the locals (more about that later!) we knew that bears, wolves and other animals inhabited this area, but we were assured that we wouldn’t come across any on our walks. Even though I knew it was very unlikely we would come across any signs of these animals due to the close proximity of farmers and humans in general, the thick forest started to become quite eerie and as you can see in the video, I did not want to keep walking further into it! It was also freezing cold and I was a little afraid of getting lost. Although he pretended to be totally relaxed about the possibility of being eaten by a bear, Steve walked back down the steep hill very quickly!
It was great to see so much unspoilt, natural beauty as we explored the mountain, but the fresh deep snow did have one drawback. As we walked through the forest alongside the currently abandoned train tracks, we spotted some very large pawprints in the snow! There are many stray dogs in Mokra Gora, but we were unsettled as all of the dogs we had seen were fairly small terrier-types, and these prints were huge! By now I had convinced myself that we were about to become lunch to something in the forest, and we navigated our way back down rto where we started. We had taken sandwiches in our backpacks to eat in the forest, but it was a great relief to go back to our warm little cabin and eat these and drink some tea. The lovely family that were hosting us in the cabin had come in whilst we were out walking and put fresh wood on the fire for us, so we spent the rest of the afternoon curled up with our newly adopted cat who refused to leave (probably because we plyed him with salami and sardines!).