“No trees have been felled in the park since the 19th century. Some trees in this forest are five hundred years old,” said Radovan.
He was a local, and one of the many who had come to look inside our truck, The Beast, the evening we arrived.
Biogradska Gora is the smallest of Montenegro’s four national parks, but is one of only three remaining large virgin rainforests in Europe. Part of the reason it remained untouched for so long was through royal connections.
When they drove the Turks from Kolašin in 1878, local people gifted the forest to Nikola I Petrović-Njegoš, Montenegro’s last king.
Then, in 1952, the area became a national park.
Its habitats are so important that, in 1977, it was inscribed by UNESCO on the World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
Nevertheless, in our beautiful tranquil park up next to the glacial Biogradsko Lake, we awoke to someone hammering on the side of the truck at 7 a.m.
World Wide Walkies 