When one of the women on the minibus to my next yoga retreat asked “so what is the general feeling on bringing alcohol?” I knew that we would become friends. Eight of us had just joined the bus in Belgrade, driven by a man who was built like the mountains he was transporting us into and who didn’t speak a word of English. My instructions on finding him at the meeting point were ‘he’s a big guy, you can’t miss him – he speaks no English and has a white van’ – what could go wrong?! Nothing as it turns out – when we stopped for delicious food and drinks enroute to the Tara National Park it was apparent that he was a sweetheart as demonstrated by the local kittens who couldn’t get enough of him.

I sold out against my principles to do this entire trip overland and chose to fly to Belgrade from Podgerica, instead of taking the 11 hour train (I was put off by stories of several more hours of delays and operating within a narrow window to enter Serbia with my negative result from a brutal PCR test I did not want to repeat), having signed up for a week with ‘My Yogic Adventure’. The lovely woman behind this brilliant yoga holiday concept is Marija, whose philosophy is if she doesn’t love it, she won’t host it. And this week she is hosting a group of 12 at a traditional mountain lodge in the perfect, peaceful setting on the Tara Mountain, close to the Bosnia and Herzegovina border. It’s so good I don’t really want to share it!

The Lodge is called Tarweek and can also be booked independently, ideal if you have a car. It’s fairly simple (single rooms have shared bathrooms) but has a huge kitchen, living area and the slopes of the mountain as a garden. Best of all is the group of like minded women it has attracted – within a few hours it’s like we’re old friends.

All aboard the school bus on our way to the mountains, we stopped at a small shop to panic buy snacks as only breakfast and dinner are included. Why yoga retreats like to skip lunch I don’t know?! Back to the pressing question, Marija has said that we are all adults and can decide for ourselves if we want to drink or detox, so red wine was added to the shopping list along with a ridiculous amount of bread and dried fruit.

We settled into a daily routine of rising early for silent mornings (that means no talking!) and two hours of yoga and meditation before breakfast prepared by our gorgeous Russian chef Katya who cooks our meals whilst also working as a translator and riding around on her motorbike.

Breakfast is usually followed by a group hike through the forest to one of many viewpoints, before an afternoon yoga / stretching session and wonderful sociable dinners. The days conclude with evening games, stargazing or songs around the fire wrapped in huge blankets – the temperature drops considerably up here and I finally got to make use of my fleece. September is in fact perfect hiking weather, a refreshing change to the heat of the Balkans.

There is an abundance of wildlife in the national park and on the first hike I almost tripped over this beauty, nothing less than a Viper as it was hanging out on the path before making it’s way into the bushes. The unfortunate video commentary ‘it’s just a shoelace’ referred to another much smaller and likely already dead snake, and either Ivana didn’t have her glasses on or Serbians only count the poisonous varieties!

Sadly despite many warning signs I didn’t see a single bear (“Bear Brown Lay Down, Bear Black Fight Back, Bear White Good Night”) and I think I was the only person who wanted to see one – but there were plenty of dogs roaming around, observing our yoga practice and accompanying us on sunrise walks. Though this particular dog ensured it was the least silent sunrise of the week.

No yoga retreat would be complete without a fire, this time accompanied by intention setting under the New Moon, some tunes on the guitar and red wine thanks to second wine instigator Julia.

The night sky here is astounding. You need to be on a mountain to see the Milky Way like this – the following photo is stolen from fellow yogi Sen’s father Darius, the only man on the retreat.

Silent mornings and in particular silent sunrise were a revelation. This is peace and quiet to enjoy the nature but you’re not alone. This type of retreat is not prison – everything is optional – but most people choose to take part in most activities. 20 mins of meditation may seem daunting, as may getting up at 5.30 for sunrise, but when you have the quiet support of people around you it becomes doable. I was further sure this is my kind of yoga retreat when Marija offered me an afternoon expresso and I could enjoy my snacks in public with the rest of the group rather than guiltily in my room like in Montenegro.

Maybe I was lucky to find a group with a wicked sense of humour – laughing is also therapy, proven when we went kayaking and Janet (minibus wine instigator) and I got stuck going in circles as the rest of the group disappeared around the Canyon. Eventually we decided to chill instead of chasing them and had a very relaxing time, arriving back just five minutes before the group – of course nobody believed that we hadn’t been lazing in hammocks the entire time. We found out later that the instructor didn’t completely give up on us, he was apparently checking we were still upright via his mobile phone camera albeit using the zoom facility to the max.

One of the more bizarre attractions is the peat bog in Crveni Potok which is fenced off to preserve it (you can jump up and down and feel how springy it is elsewhere in the forest). A sign said it dates back 9000 years but neither Janet nor I could muster much excitement over this particular view.

Time flies when you have a routine and all too quickly the week came to an end. I was unsure how I’d survive the city and make my own decisions on what time to eat or what to wear… Separate post on Serbia’s cool capital, Belgrade, coming next.