KOTLENIK (Veliki vrh 749 m)

The trail starts at the wooden church in the village of Cvetke. Distance between Belgrade and Cvetke is 170 km (2 hours by car). You must travel by the Ibar highway. Cvetke is located between villages of Ladjevac and Milocaj.

From the church, you will see Velika Gradina (590 m), one of Kotlenik peaks.

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The path to the highest peak of Kotlenik, Veliki vrh (749 m), starts from the wooden church. The trail is a wide, macadam road. At the first junction, I turned left, because Veliki vrh (Big peak) is on that side. Also, I could have go right, and then search for a turn in the woods.

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At this part of the trail, there are no markings at all! Just follow the macadam road for some 2.5 km. Then turn left, somewhere below the top of Orlovo (666 m). The trail goes through the forest all the time and intersects with many side paths. Brain, navigation and orientation; that’s all you need. I relied on my intuition and a map, and turned left after 2,5 km. And the markings appeared 🙂

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From this point, markings are OK, but, after a while, they disappear again … However, I managed to get to Veliki vrh! From the starting point, it took me about 2 hours of walk (6 km) and 350 m of ascent. There are almost no lookouts on the trail, but I managed to shoot a photo of mountains Ovcar and Kablar.

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I returned by the different path, which merged with the one I came. At the end of the trail, you can see mountains Bukovik, Ostrica, the top of Ciker at mountain Stolovi, and, again, Ovcar and Kablar. The tour lasted 5 hours (13 km).

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This tour is ONLY for the experienced mountaineers. For the others is better to stick to the marked mountains!

August 2021.