High-spirited, wild, pure – this is the river Tara, a mighty flood made by snow and rain. “Europe’s Tear” is located in the area of the national park Durmitor.
The river Tara springs from a mountain massif in the north of the country. Its course is 1,400 m long. It merges with the Piva and makes the river Drina, one of the longest rivers on the Balkans, carrying lots of water.
For centuries, the Tara has carved into its bed of soft chalk cliffs, thus designing a sculpture of rapids, massive obstacles and deep abysses. The canyon, 93 m long, has been formed by over the centuries by erosion. It is the second longest worldwide, only topped by the Grand Canyon in the USA. In some places, it reaches a depth of 1,300 m. The steep banks are covered with a dense forest rising from the coolness and depth of the ravine.
There are only a few places where the Tara gives the impression of a “calm” river. It is even possible to wade through it at these “gazovi”, the fords. Not far from Bistrica, the Tara’s bed is so narrow that, as the locals’ saying goes, it used to be possible to cross the river by jumping over it. This unusual place is called “Devil’s Lies”.
A luxurious vegetation grows alongside the river: black pine, black hornbeam, black ash, elm, some limes. Higher up, above the rocks, common beech, field maple and others can be found. And the highest places, above 1,000 m, belong to fir and spruce. The most valuable one is the black pine forest, especially the “Crna poda” with rare trees with a height of more than 51 m and up to 450 years old.
Today, the canyon attracts tourists who seek adventure and the direct contact with nature.
The top attractions of the most famous entertainment park cannot hold a candle to the real experience: rafting on the Tara. Rafting or floating – almost along the whole course of the river – turns nature lovers into adventurers. The rafts are made of single logs bound together. In the past, experienced and courageous rafters used them to transport their wooden freight downstream.
When you venture this experience, you will forever remember how the new day dawns in the canyon or that the only light of the evening is the narrow strip of sky and swarms of glow-worms.
