Uvac Special Nature Reserve

Uvac Special Nature Reserve tickets and tours: which one to book

The Uvac is a river in the mountains of south-western Serbia, not far from the borders of Montenegro and Bosnia, which has cut through a limestone plateau a canyon whose tightly coiled meanders, seen from above, have become one of the most reproduced images of the country, and the reserve that protects them is equally well known as the home of Serbia's griffon vultures. It lies between the small towns of Nova Varos and Sjenica, some 250 kilometres, four to four and a half hours by road, south of Belgrade, and an hour and a half from the mountain resort of Zlatibor, from which, and from Belgrade, organised day trips are run; there is no useful public transport, and a night at Nova Varos, Sjenica, Zlatar or Zlatibor is advisable. The reserve is visited in a particular way, which combines a boat and a walk.

Licensed local boatmen, based at several landing places on the Uvac lake, of which the one below the Rastoke dam, reached by a signposted road from the highway near Nova Varos, is the most used, take visitors in covered motor boats on a trip of three to four hours: the boat threads its way up the flooded canyon between cliffs, under the ledges where the vultures nest, stops at the Ice cave, where a guide leads a visit by torchlight, and lands at the foot of the path to the Molitva viewpoint, a steep climb of about twenty minutes to half an hour to a fenced platform on the rim, from which the famous view down on to the meanders opens, with vultures sailing past at eye level or below. A reserve entrance fee is collected with the boat fare. It is also possible to reach the viewpoints from above, by a rough dirt road across the plateau from the Sjenica side, best in a four-wheel drive or with a local driver, followed by a short walk, and marked walking routes link several viewpoints. Kayaking is offered in summer.

Visiting Uvac Special Nature Reserve: what you will see

The special nature reserve was first declared in 1971 over a small area and enlarged in 2006 to about 75 square kilometres, along the middle course of the Uvac, a tributary of the Lim, which rises on the high, cold Pester plateau and flows north-west for 119 kilometres. Over millions of years the river, winding across what was once a level surface, held to its looping course as the land rose, and cut it down into the limestone, producing entrenched meanders of an extraordinary regularity, a series of hairpin bends in which the river doubles back on itself round narrow, knife-edged spurs, so that a boat travels several kilometres to advance a few hundred metres, between walls a hundred to three hundred and fifty metres high. The present appearance of the canyon owes something to engineers: between 1962 and 1979 three dams were built on the river for hydroelectricity, and the meanders lie at the upper end of the largest of the resulting lakes, the Uvac or Sjenica lake, whose still, green water fills the gorge and makes it navigable, though its level falls markedly in dry summers and autumns. The limestone is riddled with caves, the largest of which, the Usac cave system, more than six kilometres long, is among the longest in Serbia, and the Ice cave, entered from the lake, has chambers with stalactites, stalagmites and draperies.

The griffon vulture, a huge, pale brown scavenger with a wingspan of up to two metres eighty, once nested in gorges all over the Balkans, and was destroyed throughout the twentieth century by the poisoning of carcasses put out for wolves, by shooting, and by the decline of extensive livestock farming, which deprived it of food; by the early 1990s only seven to ten pairs were left at Uvac, and the species was on the point of vanishing from Serbia. A group of biologists and local enthusiasts then set up a feeding station on the plateau, supplied with slaughterhouse waste and dead farm animals, which the villagers were persuaded to bring instead of burying, guarded the cliffs, and campaigned against poison, and the colony has since grown to several hundred birds, with well over a hundred nesting pairs, one of the largest in the Balkans, from which birds ringed here wander as far as Israel, Turkey and Yemen. Egyptian vultures, golden and short-toed eagles, peregrines, eagle owls, goosanders and some 130 other species of birds also occur, the river holds the huchen, or Danube salmon, as well as trout, chub and barbel, and the surrounding plateau, of pasture, hay meadows and pine woods, where cattle and sheep are still grazed in the old way, shelters wolves, bears, wild boar and roe deer. The district of Zlatar, above the lake, is known for its cheese, and the medieval monastery of Mileseva, with its celebrated fresco of the white angel, lies an hour away.

Uvac Special Nature Reserve: best time to go, seasons and hours

The boats run from about April or May to October, depending on the weather and the level of the lake. Late spring and early summer, from May to early July, are the best time, when the lake is full, the plateau is green and covered with flowers, and the vultures, which lay in late winter, are feeding their young on the ledges; in July and August it is hot, up to 30 degrees, though cooler on the water, and busy with Serbian holidaymakers; by September and October the lake may have fallen so far that the upper meanders are reduced to a stream between banks of dried mud, and the boats cannot reach the usual landing places, so it is worth enquiring before going.

Autumn colours are fine in October. Winter on the Pester plateau is among the coldest in the Balkans, with temperatures below minus twenty and deep snow, and the viewpoints are then reachable only with difficulty. The vultures are most active in the late morning, when the rising warm air lifts them from the cliffs. Wear walking shoes for the climb, and bring water, a hat, a windproof and binoculars. Allow a full day. Zlatibor is an hour and a half away.