Perućica: walking through one of Europe's last jungles

Most of Europe's forests have been logged, replanted and managed for so long that true wilderness is almost gone. Perućica, in the heart of Sutjeska National Park, is one of the rare exceptions — a strictly protected primeval forest so dense and untouched that Bosnians call it a prašuma, a jungle. It is widely cited as one of the last two old-growth forests of its kind on the continent.

Walking in (only with a ranger or guide, and only on the permitted route) you move among beech and fir trees that are centuries old and over fifty metres tall. Fallen trunks are left exactly where they drop, slowly returning to the soil and feeding the next generation — the full, unmanaged cycle of a forest you can almost never see elsewhere. From the Vidikovac viewpoint the whole green sea of it spreads below you, with the Skakavac waterfall threading down through the trees.

This is also bear and wolf country, on the flanks of Maglić, Bosnia's highest peak. You are unlikely to see the big animals — but knowing they are there, in a forest that has looked the same for a thousand years, is the whole point. Come with a guide, stay on the path, and tread lightly.