Via Dinarica XVII, Foča to Piva Lake, climbing Maglič

Friday, July 12, 2024, Foča to spring at 43.25764°N 18.74015°E
We arranged with Bosko Krezovic, the taxi driver who took us to Foča, to pick us up at 6 am. He came just before 6 and messaged me to let me know he was waiting for us. He drove us to the Via Dinarica turnoff past Tjentište, the village that we'd previously had to reach by road-walking.
We set off to climb to Trnovačko jezero. We didn't see anyone during the initial climb that led to Prijevor. Two farmers were there, one of who advised us to fill our water bottles at the nearby spring. As I was filling my bottles, I turned around and was surprised to see a couple of cows drinking from the trough. "They're thirsty too", the farmer said.
We continued to the lake, a total climb for the day of 3,000’. At the lake was a kind of reception area/bar. I looked inside the hut which had solar power. A guy came down, gesticulated, and spewed a bunch of Serbish, then went away.
"What did he say?", I asked Patsy. She said she thought he meant I should help myself so I went back inside for a better look around but then the guy returned and he was very annoyed to find me inside the cabin. "Passports", he demanded gruffly. Okay. I gave him our passports, which he made a note of, and then he charged us €1 each entry fee to the Park.
There was camping here, on the lake shore, but the guardian was so unfriendly and it was still early, so we decided to continue along the Via Dinarica and head to a spring, that required a further 2,000' climb up a steep scree path. I heard a noise that sounded like thunder. Some Czech women passed us on their descent and cautioned us to beware of the approaching storm.
We continued until we reached the Maglič junction then turned off to find the spring. We were so happy to find it was running, but where to camp? We were on a hillside and there were no obvious flat camping spots. I searched high and low, eventually settling on a low spot. It was sloping and lumpy but the best place I could find. The storm, meanwhile, amounted to nothing.
9.5 miles, 5,500' gain
Saturday, July 13, 2024, spring at 43.25764°N 18.74015°E to the hydroelectric power plant on Piva Lake
I made hot water for coffee, and then we struck off to climb Maglič, the high point of Bosnia-Hercegovina at 2,389 m (7,838’).
It was an easy climb, belying yesterday's steep scree slope. We could have slept on the summit as it was spacious, flat, and grassy but it would have meant carrying everything, including water, up another thousand feet. Oh, and there was that threatening storm.
Back at the tent, it was already uncomfortably warm so we sat in its shade and ate second breakfast. From that point on, we followed a rocky trail until we reached a small settlement where an enterprising woman was selling cold drinks. Sign us up! I had a beer and Patsy had homemade raspberry juice.
We road-walked all the way to the village of Martinje. The bar-kiosk on my GPX track looked as though it had been abandoned for years. We sat in a covered shelter for a while and made a pot of tea before continuing to Piva Lake. This is a huge man-made hydroelectric plant and reservoir. We were carrying a gallon of water between us and thought we would be able to camp somewhere along the lakeshore at 2,200’.
It soon became apparent that not only would we not be able to camp at the lake, we wouldn't even be able to retrieve water from the lake because the banks were so steep.
The dam was at the far end of the lake, where we were headed. There were buildings on either side of the dam so we figured they must have water available.
Upon reaching the closest buildings I had a quick look around but didn't see any external faucets. I checked the door and it wasn't locked so I went inside and was promptly met by the security guard who tried to shoo me out but I explained we needed water. He was okay with that and directed me to the bathroom. We filled all our bottles plus a 2.5 L bladder, for 7 litres total.
We still needed to find a place to sleep. My topo map showed a short road leading to the Via Dinarica behind the building on the other side of the dam so we walked across the dam.
Sure enough, behind this building was a dirt road that looked perfect as a campsite. We sat on a concrete block in the shade of the building and made a pot of soup. Then we figured we were still short of water because we didn't know how easily we could get water tomorrow. Patsy took our other 2.5 L water bladder to this building and met with a similar reception to mine but the guy was also happy to fill the bladder and was impressed when Patsy told him she’d climbed Maglič yesterday.
We planned to cowboy camp, i.e. sleep without a tent, but the mosquitoes arrived when the sun went down so we hurriedly set up the tent and retired inside.
13 miles, 1,000' gain, 5,700' loss
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