Epic Hikes of the World ( PDFDrive )

hardcore adrenaline. But the trail is more than that: it is a cultural corridor to be
embraced by time travellers and history buffs for three months or three days. The
path is a lens on to some of the last remaining Old-World, authentic communities
in Europe. Mornings here mean trekkers rustle out of sleeping bags, affix
headlamps, pull on trousers and lace up boots – to be sure. Sunrise also means it’s
time for village farmers to coax and stoke embers in iron woodstoves. When light
cracks the horizon, herders step out of dirt-floor lean-tos in nomadic camps and
survey their flocks amid dew-covered rolling hills, as they have done since time
immemorial.
The Via Dinarica concept is a decade old. However, the route’s building blocks
date back centuries and, in some cases, are prehistoric. The concept, which
stitches together shepherds’ transversals, ancient trading roads, military trails and
mountaineering paths, became official in 2010. In 2013, a project tracked and
recorded much of the trek’s length. Since, the Via Dinarica has become a crossborder,
collaborative chorus for the countries of former Yugoslavia and Albania – a
unified way to promote this previously unheralded adventure-travel playground.
© Elma Okic
a shepherd boy and his charge
“Recent tourism trends are for ‘real experiences’. Well, we’ve hundreds