Via Dinarica BH-W-11 via Lelija and Zelengora Mountain to Sutjeska National Park

Beautiful stage - great to be back in the mountains - but challenging terrain in parts. Also so many flies 24/7 which drove us mad. Good wild camping opportunities around Golija (we slept there) but make sure to fill water at Jablan Vrelo (spring before Velika Lelija) as we looked really hard for the spring after (Jović vrelo) but couldn’t find it. Rough terrain to Štrinkso jezero which was more swamp than lake - not suitable for swimming, but we got in to thigh high and splashed about. Orlovačko jezero good for swimming and a spring just above it that’s not in the guide. We were a bit confused about the camping situation - a local told us you couldn’t camp by the lake itself but instead just above the woods, and a worker would come and take 10KM each. Few locals with cars camping there, not super nice ground, we camped there (v tired haha) but no one charged us thankfully. Path up to Bregoč is great quality, but worst fly forest of the trek so far going up to Uglješin. Waymarking also pretty much disappears. We had the place entirely to ourselves though which was incredible. We contemplated doing the ridge round but it looks v steep so we stuck to the trail. Don’t think you can swim in Gornje Bare but we did in Donje Bare although it felt a bit swampy. From memory no water between Orlovačko and Donje Bare - we carried 4L. We got a lift down to the road from some people we met and hitchhiked to Foča to resupply - ATMs and lots of shops. We stayed in Motel Bavaria for 23€ b&b 2 people and got a good nights sleep!

Great trail. We spent a night in the mountain hut in Orlovacko. But we are not sure whether the hut was officially open or not. As they were some workers. But the man in charge allowed us to stay. We had a room and some water. But due to the construction work no hot water nor electricity. We wanted to stay a bit at the other mountain hut in Donje Bare but I still do not get why it is on the App. It is managed by the national park. You have to book in advance and when you arrive at the lake you need to hike another 10 k to go to Tjenjisge to pick the key up and do another 10 k the following morning to give the key back. So not useful at all for Via Dinarica hikers. Going up to Bregoc was really nice and worth it.

Nice trail across Zelengora. First 8km you have gravel road, on 8,9km is a spring. Trail on Velika Lelija is signed good and visible. When you return from the peak be carefull to follow the right signs (there are three signed trails at junction under Velika Lelija). Looks like trail that's signed goes around a little bit, so I followed gps track. But soon they match and it's quite easy to follow the signs to Štirinsko (needed some help from gps tracks, one part pretty overgrown) and Orlovačko lake. From there I followed signed trail on Bregoč-I turned right at 23,2km and it was really nice, easy to follow trail to the top. From there I followed the signs (easy to follow) until the beggining of ascent to Uglješin. Here I couldn't find the trail so I just went straight up and hiked on the best looking terrain to the peak. From there you have a visible trail to Gornje bare lake, where I camped for the night. Water from the lake was warm so I filtered it twice (Sawyer+pill). It was a long day, but duable (and I followed wrong trail from Velika Lelija and did aprox 6km and 500m elevation extra). There is a nice trail directly from Gornje bare lake to Dolnje bare lake. Good water source (spring) by Dolnje bare hut.