For the love of the lake
"This is my office!" Ivana says, flinging her arms wide to present a pristine expanse of lilypad-carpeted water backdropped by a distant Albanian mountain range.
During our two-hour trip on her traditional wooden fishing boat, we learn that dolphin-shaped Lake Skadar, which straddles Montenegro and Albania, has been twenty-two-year-old Ivana's workplace for a decade. And though stewarding hundreds of sightseeing tourists across the calm waters every season is how she makes a living, it's clear Ivana's connection to and affection for the lake and its flora and fauna is far more than surface-deep.
"It's not just a job," she explains. "It's helped me mentally, and it's helped me to grow up."
Ivana has always called the pocket-sized Montenegrin village of Virpazar home. As the gateway to Skadar's National Park, it's from here that visitors to southern Europe's largest lake can purchase countless cruises from the ticket huts lining the village streets. Bargain hunters might take a gamble on discounted excursions promised by touts crowding hire cars on the village’s narrow gravel track entry.
In Virpazar, there's no shortage of people keen to take you out on the water to marvel at the abundant plant and wildlife. But Ivana's Golden Frog Boat stands out from the other identikit tours. For one, the quirky name sticks in your mind. Secondly, the family-run company's collection of small boats and kayaks float on a quieter inlet over the bridge and away from the village's hectic heart. Awaiting discovery rather than vying for attention with pushy sales tactics.
But most of all, it's the care and infectious enthusiasm Ivana adds to every fishing and birdwatching trip from sunrise to sunset, keen to share knowledge from a life spent in Skadar's presence. She recalls how her passion for the lake bloomed when as a young girl, she'd see burgeoning groups of tourists wander by her home, metres from the shore.
"They'd ask me about the birds, flowers and plants on the lake, and I loved talking to them. It meant I could practise and improve my English and other languages too."
After school, she'd sweep and clean the boats and kayaks and make shy approaches to sell excursions to Virpazar's visitors to support her uncle's tour business. Ivana's work ethic paid off. A few years later, when her uncle returned to a previous career, she bought the Golden Frog, making her, at just twenty-two, something of a boat business veteran.
When we visit, we're eager to soak up Skadar's bountiful birdlife and buy the requisite National Park tickets from a ramshackle wooden hut. Ivana's diligent with the mandatory ticket-checking process but wants to see more of this income directed into protecting the lake's biodiversity. Lake Skadar has yet to attract huge developments and still feels untouched. Still, its growing popularity has taken a toll, with fluctuating water levels, jet skis and illegal fishing as some of the activities threatening its leafy and feathery inhabitants.
It's hard to imagine why you'd want to interrupt Skadar's tranquil demeanour with the roar of a jet-ski motor. As we slither through channels so narrow, the boat's edges brush reeds aside to reveal an endless wetland tapestry with egg yolk yellow and white lilies interrupting the green. We duck when sailing under crumbling low stone bridges. The boat holds almost still as we slow to gaze at a remote, primitive hillside village accessible only by water. Still, we barely scratch the surface of this enchanting expanse.
But despite the peace, we're far from alone, Skadar is a bird haven, and the 270+ migratory species means a feathery encounter is never far away. Unfortunately, visiting in September ruled out glimpses of the rare Dalmatian pelican - an early-season lake guest. But cormorants and their pygmy versions performed a wing-drying display from waterlily perches. Blinking could miss the royal blue flash of kingfishers, but the more sedate yellow herons and egrets hang around long enough for admiration. Beneath the surface, the lake's rich carp, eel and bleak selection stayed hidden. Later, we spotted them dominating the menus of Virpazar's family-run restaurants or konobas.
With a steady stream of international tourists on board the Golden Frog, Ivana often flits between several languages daily. Exposure to life beyond the lake and studying for a law degree in the nearby Montenegrin capital of Podgorica has fuelled her interest in travel. But much like the seven rivers that flow into Lake Skadar, Ivana knows her destiny lies back on the water. She sees specialising in environmental law as key to conserving the area for which she cares so deeply.
"Connecting my studies to the lake would be my dream job," says Ivana.
"Nature was here well before us, so we have a responsibility to protect it."
Post a comment