The narrow – gauge railway-Mokra Gora
The scent of the mountain of Šargan, whose slopes are covered with pine trees, and from which a narrow-gauge railroad, the famous “Sargan eight” descends into a valley, spreads around the place. This museum railway, is unmatched by its attractiveness in the whole Europe. The “Ćira” train can be heard rattling along it, slowly as it once did, but miraculously, luring with its nostalgia. At the foot of the route the curable “white water”, with healing features. Opposite the railway, on the other hill, the famous “Wooden Town” of Emir Kusturica, and there everything is in ethno style just like in the most comfortable hotel, with the church, the swimming pool, a gallery, sports courts, a spacious skiing area nearby. All around the place there are hills teeming with hard-working places, beautiful houses, tradition in accordance with the modern. Even such peculiarities as the places where the tar can be found, which has been here for centuries, and which the coachmen from Mokra Gora used to transport and sell across Sumadija, alongside the Scots pine.
These are the scenes of Mokra Gora, the wonderful place where it is becoming more and more common that the hosts decide to develop village tourism. They build new suites and reconstruct old wood cabins, breathe in the air of the new and interesting and so far forgotten testimonies of the past. They offer different facilities for all those who do not prefer the hotel accommodation or for those who truly want to feel the magic of a country holiday. The ones who would rather have the wooden cart in front of the house, the scents and colours of the past, old crafts and fresh fruit, than modern hotel buildings which are everywhere to be found – will be welcomed most cordially by the hosts of Mokra Gora.
There is a great variety of such facilities here. The buildings, for example, are situated amidst an idyllic surroundings of stony slopes, in the picturesque landscapes by the river. The houses are covered with wood from the outside, their interior is suited to everything a contemporary guest could wish for, and in there are playgrounds in the open, too. The nature surrounding this place abounds in surprises: unusual edifices, old churches, herbs. All hosts make the curable plum brandy, their wives are so skilled in making the winter stores and they often offer a jar of it to the guests to take home when they leave. Handicrafts are also preserved as well as the production of tar and Scots pine. In the summer one can take a walk or swim in a clean river, in the winter it is sledging and skiing. And in the vicinity there is everything that you need: a shop, the first-aid station, a souvenir shop, the bank, the post office, as if it weren’t a village.
And just to mention a scene from one of the places where the tar is made: the one which is older than the famous “Ćira” train. An old tar maker put the kindling in it and started baking Scots pine, in order to make the tar out of it. He took about 700 kg of Scots pine which was enough to get about 60 kg of tar. He did the same as his father, grandfather, great grandfather had been doing. And while he was telling of how this product had been used since the earliest times as a natural remedy for curing warts, eczema and a lot of cattle diseases, the tar was coming slowly out of the stove with an intoxicating smell. The craftsman was narrating, drinking brandy, the one made in Mokra Gora. The brandy which was perfectly clear, the one that did not cause a headache…
