Misadventures Hiking Fruska Gora National Park, Serbia

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At first glance, my itinerary of Serbia was looking very heavily focused on the country’s cities. In the hopes of exploring another side to Serbia, I decided to seek out somewhere where I could get out amongst nature. It was this desire that led me to hiking Fruska Gora National Park. Spanning a range of hills and forest just south of Novi Sad, the region appeared to tick all the boxes in that it was not too out of the way.

One of the main draws for visitors to Fruska Gora is the 17 surviving monasteries scattered around the fringes of the national park. The chance to combine some cultural sightseeing with forest hikes proved too hard to resist and became my focus while visiting Fruska Gora.

Normally, I like to keep my destination articles quite factual so that they can be more easily used as a guide. My time hiking in Fruska Gora though, was so plagued by personal misadventure and difficulty, that without it the article would feel incomplete. So instead what follows is my misadventures attempting to hike my way through Fruska Gora, Serbia.

Getting to Fruska Gora and Vrdnik

Although Novi Sad is already close to Fruska Gora, I wanted to stay right by the park to make simplify things. Easier said than done. My visit started poorly when I got off too early at the village of Irig where I was meant to transfer for the bus to Vrdnik. Wandering about and asking locals I got mixed messages. Ultimately a kindly local gave me a lift a few kilometres down the road to the turn off to Vrdnik, passing what looked like the abandoned bus station on the way.

Having passed the bus stop and with no certainty of one even arriving I figured I’d hitch hike the rest of the way. Well hike actually, as this was the one time in Serbia where no-one would pull over. Roughly 9 km in the sun with my pack, I was pretty wrecked when I arrived at my guesthouse, only to interrupt a big family lunch. Then the owner informed me that their property shouldn’t have been listed as available. Thankfully she’d arranged for another to take me and with that news, more walking. In all fairness, I ended up at a nicer looking guesthouse that also cost less, so a welcome twist of fate.

If you’d like to avoid this type of drama and are staying in Belgrade, here’s one of the few tours I’ve found to Fruska Gora.

Walk up to Vidikovac Zmajevac

Despite my tiresome trek to Vrdnik, I was keen to make the most of my time there. After collapsing for a little while, it was time to explore. The map indicated a viewpoint on a nearby ridge only 5km away and I figured I could make it back before night fall. First stop as I made my way out of the village was the Vrdnik Monastery. Entering the gate, I managed to stumble upon another family feast somehow, quickly diverting to head into the chapel. One attempt to take a photo and I was suddenly barked at in Serbian by a riled up nun, despite the lack of any warnings not to.

Hastily moving on, I followed the road leading out of town into the forest. Vrdnik lies right by the edge of the forest so it wasn’t long before I was basking in the cool shade of the trees. Slowly moving up the road, the area took on a slightly unsettling feel. Properties that seemed to belong to the military bared signs indicating no photos. Packs of dogs barked incessantly behind threadbare fences. None of this amounted to anything though.

No, the real problem soon became clear. My first sign should have been the other hiker heading the other way, madly swatting at something as he passed by. What he was doing soon became clear as I rounded the corner and was suddenly presented with a buzzing, moving cloud barring the road in front of me.

I’d managed to time my walk as a local bee farm was in the process of harvesting honey at the end of the day. While the beekeepers safely worked away with their suits on, the aggravated swarm of bees spilled out across the road. Seeing no alternative, I tensely walked at a snail’s pace through the swarm as far as possible from the farm. I made it past the farm with just a single sting, but was terrified about my return trip later.

Thankfully the rest of the walk up was drama free and I reached the Vidikovac Zmajevac viewpoint. Standing on the hilltop, I was able to look out across the forest and hills below, past the village of Vrdnik to the plains that stretched out southward. As the sun kept growing lower, I began the walk back. With no sign of the bees thankfully, I opted to veer off the road and walk back past the Vrdnik Ethno Village, a resort of sorts. Rather than following a major road, this instead led me down a local road to minor trails that would eventually bring me back to the village at dusk.

Hiking to Besenovo Monastery via Jazak

The next day it was time for the real hike. Having looked at the maps, I’d found a few monasteries that were reachable on foot and some trails that appeared to link them up. From Vrdnik, I set off southwest through several neighbourhoods of the village. Eventually I passed the last home on the road and came to a turn off where a trail was meant to begin. Going off the map, it was meant to cut straight across to my first point, Jazak Monastery.

Walking down the rural road, at first nothing was appearing where the map said the track should be. After walking a while, I doubled back and only then did I spy what looked like the overgrown entrance to the trail. Venturing in, I soon found what can only be described as a rubbish dump in the woods along the path which soon became blocked by tangles of plants. It was simply too early in the day to be attempting this trail so I bailed and made my way back to the road. This more than doubled the walk to Jazak but I soon found myself at the village’s monastery.

A great big building at the end of the village’s lane, I was surprised to find a tour bus load of visitors heading in as I arrived. Making my way through the small gateway, it was into the manicured gardens of the inner courtyard. As the tour group mulled about, I popped my head into the ornate chapel didn’t linger as the group continued to file in. The monastery and the artwork inside all date from the mid 18th century, making this isolated monastery even more compelling.

Keen to keep moving, it became clear that the next trail that I had planned to take did in fact exist. The small path leading along the side of the monastery lead off into the dense foliage that acted as a buffer for the forest. It wasn’t long before I was walking along a simple mud road in the dark undergrowth of the Fruska Gora forest. There had obviously been a heavy downpour in the last day or two as there were plenty of stagnant pools of water, home to plenty of flying insects, not to mention frogs.

As the path continued to head higher and higher, the quietness and stillness of the environment started to creep me out a little. It was clear that people do use the trail, with footprints and tyre tracks and yet I never saw a soul. The somewhat claustrophobic feel of the dense forest probably didn’t help, nor the occasional narrow path above the adjacent valley. Gratefully it did open up after a while, but not before I spotted several birds of prey (maybe eagles – they were large with that kind of beak) simply standing about on the ground floor, which seemed unusual.

After almost 40 minutes of moving through the silent forest my nerve eventually frayed and I made a quick exit for the nearby road. Although most of the way had been clearly marked with red love heart signs on trees, the intersection of several routes had gotten me nice and confused. Anyway, I was a bit relieved once I made it out into the fresh air again. The plan had been to take another nearby trail to bring me the rest of the way to Besenovo Monastery but again the trail eluded me. Thus all was left was the long walk around along the road to finally reach my end point.

Reaching Besenovo Monastery I was a little disheartened. I was unaware that the immense Besenovo Monastery was actually destroyed during WWII. What I arrived to was the current construction of a new monastery in its place. Besides a home, tower and the church being built, it was more work-site than tranquil religious sanctuary. Perhaps a fitting stopping point to my imperfect hike.

Getting Back to Vrdnik

Already fairly weary at this point, it was time to make the trek back to Vrdnik. Despite what various online maps indicated, the walk back was going to be roughly 15km. One of the few benefits of walking back was that I could take a different route than before. Rather than cutting through the forest again, walking back allowed me to pass the Mala Remeta Monastery with its large orchard out front. It also treated me to views of the Vojvodina countryside from one the many hills along the way.

Blissfully though, it was just after walking through the village of Mala Remeta that I was able to get a ride and hitchhike back to Vrdnik, saving me more than half the walk back. Regardless, upon reaching my guesthouse I was ready to fall down.

In the end, hiking Fruska Gora from Vrdnik proved far more challenging than I ever would have anticipated. From being unable to find trails shown on the maps, to local swarms of insects and far more walking that I anticipated, the whole experience was tiring but oddly fulfilling. Often my most fondly remembered hikes are the ones that don’t go to plan and these two days definitely apply.

Have you ever had a hiking destination that presented you with more challenges than expected? If visiting this part of Serbia or Europe, would you consider hiking Fruska Gora? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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