The “Kissing Cats” Hike in Prokletje

Prokletje National Park is Montenegro’s newest park, very close to the borders of Albania and Kosovo. Its lack of popularity means that if you come here, you basically have the trails to yourself. But, that also makes it hard to find information about available hikes.

Based on this limited info, we decided to try the “Kissing Cats” hike today, or “Šuplja vrata”. This is ostensibly a four hour loop – perfect for a weekday (we try to be back by 3pm, or 9am Eastern Time). Since this hike does not reach a mountain summit, we assumed it would be relatively flat.

LOL.

We reached this bench about an hour into the hike, and at this point, the map suggested that we were less than 20% of the way into the loop. Indeed, you can still see the road in the photo. We thought about turning around, but instead we pressed on. We were fools. FOOLS!

The hike became increasingly ridiculous as we continued on, until the trail was basically directing us to go straight up the mountain.

Near the top of the hike, we encountered a fluffy retriever-like dog. James was dismayed because he had already given the dog food he brought to a different dog at the trailhead. Nevertheless, we gained a faithful companion once more.

Just a man and his temporarily adopted dog.

At this point, the “trail” is literally just a huge mound of loose gravel.

Can things get even more absurd? Of course they can. They always can! (The dog did not accompany us up the cable section).

Doing it for the plot, and the stunning views.

Now, the thing about having climbed up a ton of loose gravel is that you also have to get down it somehow.

Thankfully, a brief gravel reprieve.

In total, the hike took us about 6 hours, making us 90 minutes late for work.
And like the fool I am, I would do it all again.