Tara National Park - two in one: the "Banjska stena" viewpoint and the "Mitrovac na Tari" resort

Full four decades ago, in 1984, as a second-grade elementary school student, I spent an unforgettable two weeks of recreational classes with my school class at the "Mitrovac na Tara" resort.
The resort "Mitrovac na Tara" is located in the center of the National park Tara, Serbia, surrounded by forests and natural beauty.
Those two weeks remained in my memory so fondly that for the last 10-15 years I have been thinking about visiting this location again.

But how can I persuade my girlfriend to drive 200 km, in the middle of a mountain and a forest, so that they can see a resort that I have fond memories of?

I had to come up with something else along the way, some attraction that would be reason enough for her to go to Tara with me.

I researched the experiences of other nature lovers and found out that near the resort there is a lookout point "Banjska stena", which offers a fantastic view of the river Drina and Lake Perućac, which was created artificially, with the construction of the Bajina bašta hydroelectric plant.

We park the car in a clearing and walk through the thick forest, which is normally the habitat of the brown bear, to the viewpoint.

We were lucky, we didn't encounter a bear, but I learned from talking to other pedestrians that this is not a rare case. they also saw a bear, but also a wolf.

The only creature that was photographed was "Duskobgd" that hid in a hollow tree.

The stone cliffs remind us to be careful how we walk, and to take pictures only in a fenced area.

The view of the river, the lake and the slopes of the hills of Bosnia and Herzegovina, across the Drina, leave us breathless.

We use a telescope and enjoy the details on the river and the lake.

We photograph this beauty and take a longer break to enjoy nature and the view.

I also found one chair, set up for taking pictures, but since there were not many tourists, I could take a little longer break on it.

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When we had enough of enjoying the view from the viewpoint, we headed to the resort, which was secretly the first on my priority list, to see.

The beautiful mountain pavilions brought me back to my childhood. Unfortunately, in these buildings there is not even an iota of the splendor and beauty they had 40 years ago.

Irregular maintenance, without reconstruction, has led to the fact that the buildings now look beautiful only from a greater distance.
Old doors, old windows, broken tiles on the driveways, damaged roofs... It's a shame that this resort has not been reconstructed.

I moved away from the neglected pavilions and in my mind I remembered the time when I played around them with my school friends, when those pavilions were new, shiny and tidy...

The nature around the resort is still beautiful. There is a forest, with a specially arranged space for a forest workshop for children, where there are some information on the boards about the animals that can be seen in this national park: wolf, chamois, otter, with their paw prints.

On one of the boards, the types of trees are listed, which you can recognize by the shape of the leaves

There is a board with the names of the birds that live here.

There are also benches where you can take a break after a hard walk, and some can even lie down 😀

Further on, when we headed for the parking lot, we come across another attraction, a well-kept park with trees on which there are signs with some quotes and instructions.

Blessed is he who knows how to understand the murmur of the forest

There is a belief that this Omorika fulfills wishes

And finally to the Park of Youth, symbolic for me at that moment, because this place absolutely brought me back to my childhood.

Youth park

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Thank you for stopping by my post and I hope you enjoyed the photos and the story I shared with you

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All photos are my property, taken with a mobile phone

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