Names vary between operators and between the two banks — for part of its course the river is the border between Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and both sides named the water.
On the Brštanovica – Šćepan Polje run
This is the 18 km section. Operators describe it as having roughly two dozen rapids of varying strength. The names that come up most often are:
- Brštanovački buk — near the put-in, usually the first real rapid of the day
- Borovi
- Tarina pošta
- Ćelije
- Vjernovići (also written Vjernojevići)
- Bailovića sige — named for the travertine formations on the bank
Further up the canyon
The longer trips start higher up — Tara Kula Raft's 36 km trip ends at Radovan Luka, and its two-day trips continue from there. Names cited for the upper and middle river include Đavolje lazi, Sokolovina, Bijeli kamen, the Tepački bukovi (upper and lower) and Čegrlo.
How to read a rapid from the boat
- The tongue — the smooth V of green water pointing downstream. That is usually the line the skipper is aiming for.
- Standing waves below the tongue — where the boat gets wet.
- A hole — water pouring over a rock and folding back on itself. Skippers steer around these.
- An eddy — water circling back upstream behind an obstacle, where boats pull in to wait.
You do not need any of this to enjoy the day, but it makes the hours on the water more interesting once you can see what the skipper is watching.
Where the names come from
Many place names on the river go back to the timber rafters who floated logs down the Tara and the Drina from the late nineteenth century. Some are said to remember accidents on the water; others follow landmarks on the bank. The origin of most individual names is not documented, so we will not guess.