I’ve always loved to roam the mountains of eastern Serbia, ever since I was a kid. This vast space of mostly uninhabited wilderness is a sanctuary for all the freedom lovers who want to lose all connections with modern civilization and it’s set of rules, to escape absolute surveilance and endless “do’s and dont’s”. Actually, this is one of the few places in Europe where you still have large chunks of land that are completely out of mobile range, so you can really lose the faintest idea what is happening in the outside world. A world war could start, and you might well not realise it before it’s over!
We’ve completed the video from our premiere 2019 Ancient Trails tour, which took place in June 2019. Lots of rain and mud, struggle with the elements, but also enjoying the incredible scenery of central Serbia. Don’t miss our next Ancient Trails tour in May 2020!
Material from our 2019 season is starting to be added to our gallery – there are two new albums from some very inspiring tours that took place in the wilderness of Serbia in June and July. There is a widespread belief among overlanders that Serbia is the least interesting of the Balkan countries. We’re sure that, looking at these albums, you will get the opposite impression! Serbia has a broad diversity of different landscapes, probably being more diverse than any other of the Balkan countries, and offers fantastic possibilities for wilderness exploration, especially with some, in places quite demanding forest trails. However, if you take on Serbia, you’ll have to be ready to confront vegetation on a daily basis!
Ancient Trails is our brand new tour covering the mountains of central and southwest Serbia, and Secret Carpathians is our by far most popular tour, covering the serbian part of the Carpathians in eastern Serbia, continuing into the awe inspiring Balkan mountain range along the bulgarian border. Pictures speak much louder than words in both cases!
Offroad tour season 2019 will be a breath of fresh air in the Rustika Travel routine of traditional overland expeditions – many of you have been to all the places we’ve been taking you so far, so we desparately need completely new, 100% undriven tours for our faithful visitors.
Here they are – Rhodopean Quest (Bulgaria), Overlanding Ancient Trails (Central Serbia) and Morocco Desert Adventure (Morocco) are three journeys that are completely new in our 2019 programme! So we have a bit of everything – all of our traditional tours in the Balkans are still here for newcomers who’ve heard raving reviews about them to enjoy, but there’s plenty more to choose from.
The editing of the video from the September / October tour in the south of Balkans (Albania / (North) Macedonia / Greece) is finished, and the video has been uploaded. Take a look at the highlights from this 13-day journey through magnificent landscape in this video!
Interested to take part in a Balkans Wild Tracks tour? You can find all the info here!
Serbia is one of the best places in Europe for overlanding nomads to enjoy their way of life. It’s mountain wilderness offers some really stunning scenery, with wild campspots unmatched by any other in Europe. Take a look at the way we enjoy one of the best campspots in Serbia and judge for yourself 😎
The Montenegro Highlands is definitely one of the most breathtaking overlanding tours in Europe – nowhere can you find so much natural beauty and unspoiled high altitude wilderness in such a small area than there. And our tour covers the very best of Montenegrian landscape in 10 days. Take a look what it was like last September!
Although I spend most of my time exploring the world in a 4×4 vehicle, I drifted away from the mainstream offroading community long ago. Every invitation to a local 4×4 offroading event was a big bore to me, and over time the guys in the community started regarding me as some sort of an arogant asshole, who thinks is “above” them and something special. But the truth is that, for some reason, what they were doing was unbearably boring to me. Pushing the pedal to the metal, inventing artificial obstacles to master and competing against each other, simply didn’t light my fire.
Early springtime mud fun in the mystical eastern Serbia
The Homolje mountains are a place where green pastures and rich forests on steep slopes were home for shepperds for centuries. And the hidden valleys, like a maze well tucked away from civilization, inspired people to resort to magic and sourcery, so it’s full of legends. But one of the strongest local traditions is that of gold panning in the rivers! So the locals will teach us that art, in the midst of touring caves of breathtaking beauty (also known as places of hidden gold), and conquering demanding offroad trails that surpass everything that you can expect in those, seemingly tame and pastoral hills. Embark on a unique early springtime 4×4 adventure!
What is owning a 4×4 vehicle all about? Offroad racing? Certainly not (at least not for us). The purpose of having an offroader is, in my opinion, in being able to reach some remote, hardly accessible places deep in the wild, where you’re certain that nobody would bother you in a million years, and enjoy them with your friends. And the confluence of Perast and Tisnica rivers at the border of Kučaj and Homolje mountains in eastern Serbia, is one of such places. A real heaven on earth, a hideout for those who know how to get there.
