Serbia and Montenegro are probably not figuring highly in people’s travel plans yet, even some years after the end of hostilities. We last went there when it was part of Yugoslavia and the civil war and troubles in Kosovo were all in the future.

In any case the WHS of Durmitor is, I suspect, likely to be relatively unknown to most travellers – its presence on the list is justified by its geology and, straddling as it does, both Mediterranean and Alpine climates, it apparently contains an “exceptional range of species”.

Much of this is likely to go unknown and unseen by the casual visitor. The scenery is pleasant but not outstanding in World or even European terms. There are some snow capped mountains (or at least they were in early June) up to that of Durmitor itself at 2523 metres (and a winter ski resort at Zabljak), a number of lakes, meadows, forests and deep valleys. In fact the valley of the River Tara is claimed (at between 1000 and 1300 metres) to be the deepest gorge in Europe (I don’t know how they calculate this but there are a number of other claimants – eg Verdun in France, Samaria in Crete). This gorge lies outside the Durmitor National Park but within the boundaries of the inscribed area. Fine as it was I didn’t get an impression of a mighty canyon of continental proportions (photo) although the road North and South of the gorge which you will need to follow, at least in part, to reach Durmitor Park, fully justifies its green marking on maps showing that it is scenically striking. At the bottom it crosses an impressive concrete bridge which is still 135 metres above the river. The river was recently threatened with a hydro-electric dam planned with nearby Srpska (the Serb part of Bosnia) which would have flooded a significant part of the gorge and this threat was only removed as recently as April 2005 (just in time to avoid criticism in Durban??). Interestingly it was the government of the Republic of Montenegro (in which Durmitor is situated) which eventually decided against building the dam – a reminder that this site sits in a corner of unstable frontiers. Montenegro may yet vote for secession from its federation with Serbia, and Kosovo is not far away. Any Montenegran frontier with Serbia would lie on the plateau north of the Tara River (far side on photo).

So should this be a WHS? Well, compared for instance with USA and Canada, Western European countries have inscribed relatively few “National Parks”. I guess that Durmitor is as significant in European terms as eg Glacier/Waterton in N American! And is it worth seeing? There will be some fine climbing/walking (http://www.summitpost.org/mountains/mountain_link.pl?mountain_id=2584)

but, as a sightseeing destination in my opinion, it only just about justifies a detour if you are already in this corner of Former Yugoslavia and if you are mobile. Montenegro is an interesting destination in general and is well away from the normal tourist routes so if you like such places still close to W Europe it could be worth considering. The WHS of Kotor is just down the coast from Dubrovnik and the capital town of Cetinje and the mountain of Lovcen can be reached by a spectacular road over the mountains from Kotor.