Bosnia Part 3
Well neither of us thought there would be a part 3 to Bosnia, but it’s a bigger country than we expected and there is so much to see!
Driving from Sarajevo to Mostar was wonderful, the beautiful Lake Jablanica with its turquoise shimmer, counting the number of lambs each restaurant had in their spits, meandering in and out of gorges.
The only thing that detracts is the Bosnian drivers, who make an art form out of overtaking (sometimes it looks choreographed!) but they also love to cross the white line when taking corners .... as Beastie is right hand drive, it gets a bit stressful at times. But we take a deep breath and hold it in and we’ve managed to squeeze past every time.
Our campsite was one of the best we have been to so far, the staff so friendly and happy to have us there, welcome drinks and fruit (a few times!) and it was situated on the river where you could use their kayaks or just sit on loungers and enjoy the scenery. The water was soooo cold, but Sarah managed a quick swim twice to help cool down. If you are near Mostar, check out Autokamp Blagaj!
Mostar was beautiful, we got there early to beat the crowds and even had the Old Bridge to ourselves very briefly. Lovely old buildings and cobblestone streets with a gorgeous river running through it. Again, it was impacted by the recent war and there was a impressive small war photography exhibition with that gave an insight into life during this time ( by a Kiwi photographer!).
The Blagaj Monastery and the source of the river Buna was so picturesque but also much more touristy than we expected, lots of stalls and restaurants on the short walk to it.
We noticed a lot of winery signs so thought we should check one out! However this was harder than anticipated, with none of the local ones seeming to have shops attached, and after a drive into the mountains we finally found one that did tastings, although the main sommelier was on holidays, so one of the production staff stepped in and we tried a local white, rosé and red. All very pleasant drinkable wines but the red was the tastiest
We found an ‘offroad’ trail between Mostar and Konjic where we played a little with our new winch, the views were amazing. The road became narrow at points but luckily not when we had to pass oncoming traffic (5 cars too many!). When we had finished we realised we were now a 2 hr drive from our camp and we didn’t really want to go back the way we had come. So 2 hours it was, the same drive we had already taken into Mostar a few days earlier so we could enjoy it again.
We also enjoyed a few evenings of drinks with our campsite neighbours, some Slovenians (again from Trgč!), a French couple who had adopted a Bosnian dog a few days earlier (puppy fix achieved) and our Van_JJourney friends who have done an amazing job converting a van into their travelling home. It’s awesome to meet all these people doing their own journeys and swap stories and get inspirations and tips for future travels.
Our last day in Blagaj wasn’t so great - another yellow thunderstorm warning with high winds; we decided to pack up the tent, then headed down to the riverfront bar of the camp to have lunch, watch the thunderstorms warnings and wait out the worst. But there wasn’t much shelter and as the lighting and thunder got closer, and the rains and winds became heavier, we made a run for the nearby concrete toilet blocks and hid in the showers; we were soaked to the skin but happy to be undercover. The rest of the afternoon eased a bit, but we decided to sleep in the car as there were more warnings overnight (but not yellow).
A bit tired and waterlogged the next day, we headed off again, we realised we had stayed here 5 nights!! A quick stop at the Počotelj historic site was a lovely surprise and we really enjoyed wandering the cobblestone streets, climbing one of the towers stairs to the top, and wondering what life would have been like over 500 years ago.
Once again to the Croatian border heading back into the EU, this time we got asked quite a few questions about food, drink and tobacco and our recent destinations. The customs officer even teased Sarah about her poor Croatian pronunciation (understandable as she was probably speaking in Slovenian!), but it was all over fairly quickly and we were back in the EU, off to our next campsite and looking forward to catching up with a friend.
