Skadar Lake in October: What the Boat Still Shows You

What the weather is actually like

The long weather record for this shore is Podgorica, about 25 minutes from the old stone bridge where our boats leave. The Hydrological and Meteorological Service of Montenegro, for 1991 to 2020, gives Podgorica an October average high of 21.7°C and an average low of 11.7°C. Rain for the month is 164.2 mm. July at the same station is 38.5 mm. October is milder than high summer, and much wetter.

Rijeka Crnojevića sits in the same lowland basin, so those figures are the right scale for a lake day. They describe the month, not one afternoon at the dock. Showers can be heavy and then gone. Wind is what stops a boat. A grey hour usually does not. If the water is too rough to run safely, we reschedule or cancel without charge.

The morning of the trip, Skadar Lake Live uses the forecast for this departure point. The afternoon average in town feels different from eight in the morning on the water. Bring a light layer. A rain jacket earns its place in October, and the sun still comes through between showers, so sunscreen is not wasted either.

Lily season is over

White water lilies along the Crnojevića channels flower from late May into mid-July. By October the blooms are finished. A page that still sells this month as lily season is using summer photographs.

The channels stay after the flowers go. Willows, reeds, and the narrow water between the village and the open lake are there through the season. So is the canyon on the way out from the bridge, and so is Karuč, the fishing hamlet where underwater springs leave the water unusually clear. Come for landscape and birds.

Lake level moves with the season. Published figures put the surface somewhere between about 370 and 530 square kilometres, smaller after the dry summer and larger once the autumn and winter rains have filled it. Early October is often still toward the lower side, which is why some edges feel tight and the springs at Karuč are easy to read from above.

Kasaronja, the water chestnut of the shallows

One plant does change colour now. People around the lake call it kasaronja, also written kasoronja. It is a water chestnut: floating leaves, diamond-shaped and toothed, with small white flowers at the leaf bases and a nut armed with horns. The Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts describes the summer leaves as green and the autumn leaves as reddish, dying back as the season turns.

The Academy lexicon lists the plant as Trapa natans and records the work of botanist Milorad Janković, who in a 1983 Academy volume described an endemic form from this lake, Trapa longicarpa subsp. scutariensis. Later papers still use both names. From a boat the argument is beside the point. The leaf shape is not, and neither is the protection.

That same lexicon states that kasaronja is protected under Montenegrin law and is on the Bern Convention list of plants. Nuts were gathered for people and for livestock in hard years, and residents still say the plant fruits better when the summer has been rainy. That is history, not a reason to collect it. Watch from the boat. Leave the nuts where they are.

The thick growth is in shallow, still water, especially along the northern side of the lake. A road viewpoint such as Pavlova Strana does not put you in among the leaves. A boat can, when the route and the water level meet a bay where the mats are growing. We do not push the boat into those beds. In October, if you see reddish diamond-shaped leaves rather than white flowers, that is kasaronja, not a late lily.

Birds that are moving in October

October is the second bird month on Skadar Lake, after spring. Dalmatian pelicans (Pelecanus crispus) are still here, and they are often easier to watch than in July, when heat pushes them farther out. Glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) pass on migration. Common pochard (Aythya ferina) and black-necked grebes (Podiceps nigricollis) start to gather for winter. Pygmy cormorants (Microcarbo pygmaeus) keep to the channels.

None of that is a guarantee on a given morning. Birds shift with wind, water, and food. Dawn is still the hour when the surface is calmest and feeding is busiest. The birdwatching calendar is the month-by-month list for this water, and the pelican guide says where on the route each kind of bird tends to show.

Binoculars help. A phone photo of a pelican at a distance is a speck. We slow the boat when it is safe to do so. We cannot call a bird in.

Swimming, and which route fits the month

A swim stop is still part of the trip when the weather allows. October is the cool end of the window. The swimming guide treats May through October as the months when the water is reasonable, which is fair, with the caveat that this is not August. On a sunny, calm day a short swim is realistic. After wind or a heavy shower, most people stay aboard. Bring a towel if you might go in, and a dry layer for the ride back.

Choose the route for what October still has. Half an hour in the canyon is the Canyon Tour, €45 for the private boat: rock, water, and no need for flowers. An hour in the channels is the Amazon Tour at €85, for willows, reeds, and birds. Open lake plus those channels is €95 and about an hour and twenty minutes. Karuč on its own is €95 and about an hour and ten minutes, for the springs and the hamlet. The Complete Tour, €120 and about an hour and forty minutes, is the one boat that joins canyon, open water, channels, and Karuč. For a first visit in this month, that is the trip we suggest.

Every price is for the whole boat, up to eight guests, from the old stone bridge in Rijeka Crnojevića. Parking there is free. The national park ticket is separate: €5 for an adult, free for children under 15. The cost guide sets out what is included. To compare lengths without the October notes, use Best Skadar Lake Tours.