An hour and a half after leaving Pristina we arrived at the beginning of ‘Rruga e Lubetenit’… or at least that’s what it is called on Google Earth! It’s hard to believe that the ‘road’ has an official name besides ‘that rocky track that winds its way up the mountain’.

At 2498m (8196 ft) Ljuboten is not the highest peak in Kosovo, or even the highest peak in the Sharri Mountain range, but it is the prominent peak to the south west of the Pristina – Skopje road, and can even be seen from Pristina.

This track is not to be attempted in anything less than a 4WD, and even then I wouldn’t try it after rain or after the first snowfall unless you are very confident in your vehicle and off roading skills. I wasn’t very confident in either… but crawling uphill for 2.5 miles, dodging deep canyons and rocks in my city SUV was all part of the adventure! And more importantly we didn’t want to spend 3 hours walking up and down the same track we had done last year.

It’s not too hard to find this track; head south toward Skopje and head west (turn right!) at the major crossroads a few miles south of the Ferizaj intersection. You can see from the attached Google Earth image that you need to head south again (turn left!) after a few miles… there’s a small village there with friendly cafes and a bakery, so stop there for provisions and directions.

The dirt track that you need to hike/drive up is on your left, and there should be a guard there to lift the barrier to allow you in – as we all know illegal logging is a problem, but he also informed us that he’d know if we didn’t make it back by nightfall. Fairly reassuring.

After that just follow the track and keep walking up! The going is tough in places but the views of Kosovo and into Macedonia are amazing. I’ll let the photos do the talking…

Check out http://kosovoguide.com/?cid=2,166,139&view=all for info on hiking tours.

Tags: hiking, environment, sport