Uvac Canyon Meanders

CanyonsZlatibor,Serbia

A Serbian river doubling back through loops of almost 270 degrees, sunk 300 metres into limestone, below the largest griffon vulture colony in the Balkans.

September·Peaking now

Sep–Nov

Boats run to the end of October.

Year-round Griffon vultures hold these cliffs year-round, fed all winter at Manastirina, and the dammed meanders never change shape; but the boats, ice cave and clear road are a warm-season affair.

The Uvac River doubles back on itself so tightly that some of its bends swing through nearly 270 degrees before the water finds a way on. Those loops are sunk 200 to 300 metres into limestone walls, 350 metres at the highest, and you cannot make out the pattern at all from water level. It exists only from the clifftops. Three hydroelectric dams built between 1960 and 1979 drowned the gorge floor, so the water threading the bends today lies still and deep green rather than running. The climb to Molitva, the best-known lookout at 1,247 metres, takes about 45 minutes of steep, shadeless walking and opens the whole panorama at once. The reserve's other headline nearly vanished. Griffon vultures were down to seven birds here in the 1970s. A feeding station opened at Manastirina in 1994 and has put carcasses out for them ever since, and the colony has climbed back to roughly 110 nesting pairs and close to 500 birds, the largest in the Balkans. They nest on ledges below the clifftops, so from the viewpoints you look down onto their backs as they ride warm air out of the canyon on 2.8 metres of wing. Boats from Nova Varoš run the bends at water level and stop at the Ledena Pećina ice cave, one chamber of the 6,185-metre Ušak system, the third-longest in Serbia. Southwestern Serbia has protected the gorge as a Special Nature Reserve since 1971, and in 2008 Serbians voted it one of the country's seven natural wonders. Nests are off-limits, drones are banned, and the wardens enforce it.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The vultures leave the ledges mid-morning, not at dawn — they need the air to warm before it will carry them, so the dependable window opens around 10am as the first thermals build.
Molitva gives the famous frame, Veliki Vrh the quiet one — both are steep and shadeless the whole way, so carry water and wear shoes that grip loose rock.
Boats leave from Nova Varoš and fill up on summer weekends — book ahead, and bring a layer for the ice cave stop, where the air stays cold whatever the season outside.
Drones are banned and the nests are off-limits — a startled griffon can lose the single egg it lays all year, and the colony is watched by camera and satellite tag.

Things to do

1
Climb Molitva for the 270-degree bend
Forty-five minutes of steep, unshaded path end on a small railed platform with nothing between you and the drop. The river lies far below in a loop that almost closes on itself. The scale of the thing — pale rock, flat green water, the sheer distance down — only lands once you are standing on the edge.
2
Watch griffons drop off the cliff ledges
Wait through the cold early hours and the birds sit hunched and motionless on the rock. Then the air warms, one tips off its ledge, spreads, and stops flapping altogether — riding the rising column without a single beat, turning below you close enough to hear the wind come off it.
3
Ride the bends at water level
From the wide, calm arm of the reservoir where the floating houses are moored, the boat noses into the gorge and the walls close in. At this level you lose the shape entirely — no loops, no pattern, just one blind bend opening into the next, which is exactly the opposite of the view from the rim.
4
Go down into the Ledena Pećina ice cave
The boat ties up and a stairway drops into the hillside, into a hall of stalactites where the temperature falls away within a few steps. Voices go flat, the air smells of wet stone, and the heat of the canyon you were standing in ten minutes ago stops meaning anything at all.

Watch

Nearby

63 km