"Hiking in the Djerdap National Park" Donji Milanovac Things to Do Tip by tayloretc

The Djerdap National Park stretches more than 100km along the Danube River, and hiking here is fantastic. It’s a beautiful landscape, with only a few small towns and villages within its 650sq km. The park isn’t that wide, but beyond the park is a lot more old-growth forest (protected by other organizations), and small farms, so when you’re here, you’re really alone in the woods. And the woods here are beautiful.

The official map of the park indicates ten marked trails, ranging from two to twelve kilometers (one way), but doesn’t give details. Trailheads are mostly off small side roads, and are marked only with very small signs in Cyrillic. Once you find them, the trails are pretty well marked with white and red bull’s-eyes on trees and rocks. There are no amenities, so bring food and water.

Besides the official trails, there are trails into the woods all over the place – the problem is that none of them are marked, and there are a lot of crossing trails, so unless you know where you’re going you could be lost for a long time. I’ve heard there was a good detailed map of the entire park (including distances and elevations) at some point, done by a German group. In 2011 it wasn’t available, but ask.

Two (possibly three) of the official trails are within specially protected areas and require that you get permission to visit and pay a fee at the main office in Donji Milanovac. (The photo above is from one of these – you’re looking at the Danube and the Carpathian Mountains in Romania from about 750m above sea level.) The offices are open during regular business hours, Monday-Friday. There are people patrolling those specially protected areas, so if you haven't arranged permission you will be kicked out.

Getting to trailheads. You'll want to ask at the park office. Getting to some trailheads requires a 4x4, which you can hire there. You can also get directions to some of the harder-to-find trailheads.

Note The park office isn't really for tourists - they maintain the park, doing everything from patrolling for illegal activity to putting out forest fires - and only a few people speak anything besides Serbian, but everyone is friendly and helpful. Also, I was originally told I was required to go into the specially protected places with a guide from the park service, but was later told that as long as I had permission and knew where I was going, that isn't necessary. The rules appear to change depending on the management, so check.

Website: http://www.npdjerdap.org/en_index.html