Into Rural Bosnia

After leaving Sarajevo late Sunday afternoon we drove 50kms or so towards the town of Konjic in search of a peaceful park-up for the night. Travelling in the opposite direction to us was probably the most traffic we have seen in Bosnia, as all the locals return to the Capital after their weekend escapes.

The next morning we headed back through Konjic and out into a deserted river valley and parked up at an anonymous locked gate. At exactly 11am the gate was opened and we were allowed to drive through into the complex.

We had arrived at the site of President Tito’s (previously) highly secret and massive nuclear bunker, which is discreetly accessed through the garage of a small house. A tunnel snakes deep into the mountainside until it reaches thick metal doors and the actual bunker.

With space for 300 troops and 50 VIPS the bunker was built to withstand a 25 kiloton blast and had a hidden hydrolelectric power plant to provide power, as well as massive generators and diesel fuel if the hydroelectric was compromised. Built between 1953-1976 at a massive cost of US$4.6 billion, which is the equivalent of more than US$20 billion today, the bunker was kept secret until after the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990’s.

All of the equipment in the bunker is still in perfect condition having never been used and apparently all in good working order. The guide even turned on the air conditioning unit to demonstrate this. The whole bunker started thrumming with the pulse of fresh, clean air.

The tour was really fascinating and it felt like stepping back into the years of the cold war.

After leaving Tito’s secret bunker we drove into the centre of the country towards the very big and very beautiful, Ramsko Lake.

Here we settled down to enjoy the scenery at a campsite on a small peninsula jutting out into the lake, where we were able to park right on the waterfront and enjoy swimming in the surprisingly warm water.

Just opposite us across the water was a monastery with a small museum of local history. The most entertaining bit of the museum was the top floor which held dioramas of stuffed animals from the region.

The owners of the campsite didn’t speak any English but they were incredibly friendly and we managed well with the help of Google translate. The woman who helped run the campsite came to see us each morning with a carrier bag full of freshly picked cherries from her orchard (which were delicious) and when we left she also gave us a bottle of their home-made moonshine, which we haven’t opened – yet!

We spent a few really enjoyable, lazy days here by the lake but eventually had to leave and headed next for the town of Travnik.

Travnik is a really pleasant town with a big pedestrianised centre and a relaxed vibe. The top tourist attraction is a mosque dating back to the 16th Century called the Many-Coloured Mosque.

We also visited Travnik Castle which is up a steep hill from the town centre and had some fun trying out the archery.

Our next stop was the town of Jajce where, for the first time in a while, we saw some other campers and other Brits. There is a large youth hostel next to the town’s supermarket which has parking for motorhomes overlooking the river.

Although Jajce is only a small town, it is very pretty and there are a few things to see and do. First up, the town’s main attraction, the waterfall with a 21m drop on the Pliva river.

Then it was off to the castle which has a commanding aspect above the town, followed by a visit to the underground church/ crypt.

We took our bikes for a lovely ride along the river to the pretty Pilva lakes, which can be quite busy with picnickers at the weekend (and a music festival while we were there), and between the two lakes are the Mlincici, a collection of 20 tiny watermills which look like wooden shacks on stilts that date back to the middle ages. The mills were rented out by the owners to different families who each had one day of the week to grind their grain.

Finally we also enjoyed a couple of delicious meals out, one of which was a shared meat platter for two, which was definitely enough for three or more!

Once our time in Jajce was done, we headed South over an upland plateau where the highest ski resort in the country is situated at the town of Kupres and came back out of the high country to the town of Livno. The drive between Jajce and Livno was absolutely stunning and worth it just for the views, although we also passed many derelict, bullet-holed houses and once or twice what seemed to be whole abandoned villages. The war is present even deep in the countryside.

We had heard about a nice campsite near Livno with a rare and much needed washing machine! Kamp Sturba was down a narrow single track road about 5km away from the main road. On arriving though we realised that the drive to get there was definitely worth it.

We settled in on a pitch right next to a small river, with a couple of pools deep enough for full immersion, although it was very cold (like many of the Bosnian rivers).

We enjoyed a welcome drink of home brewed Rakiya from the owner Bruno, which was actually very good and we met Bruno’s father who was cooking something in the outdoor charcoal oven. A casual enquiry into what he was cooking quickly led to an invite to dinner with the family.

Dinner was a tasty spread of pork with potatoes and veggies, bread and salad. Despite offering to pay they were adamant that we were guests. Bosnian hospitality is amazing.

We settled in at this lovely campsite for five days, which is a long time for us to stay in one place, but we really relaxed, cooked BBQ’s, went for walks, enjoyed cooling off in the river and of course, managed to do our washing. The nights here were lovely and cool and our spot was in the shade so we were really comfortable.

We couldn’t stay in Livno for ever though and our next stop was in the far West of the country in the Una National Park.

The Una National Park covers some of the length of the beautiful Una river, the source of which is just across the border in Croatia despite most of its length flowing through Bosnia.

The river itself is around 8 degrees centigrade in the national park as it rises from an underground spring not that far away. You are not allowed to wild camp in the National Park so our first night was at a campground with a swimming pool and access to the river. It was a nice site but it didn’t have any shade to park in and it was quite busy so although we were able to cool off in the water we only stayed one night before moving on.

One oddity of this campsite was that they only had power and cell signal for a limited time (from 8pm to 9am). From speaking to other campers we learned that this was apparently because the power came from Croatia and they only turned it on for part of the day.

From the campsite we cycled to the Martin Brod waterfalls which cover a vertical drop of 50m in total. There is one main and very impressive waterfall however.

A short walk from the waterfalls we visited a local house where we were shown the owners working watermill where he demonstrated how grain had been milled for centuries as well as an amazing medieval washing machine that used the power of the water to clean large items like carpets and blankets.

The highlight however of Una National Park is the Strbacki Buk waterfall. This has a main drop of 18m which is over 40m wide and is very impressive.

We met one of the National Park Ranges, a former Olympic Kayaker, who told us some terrible stories of executions at the waterfall during the 90’s. There doesn’t seem to be one corner of the country that was spared from this terrible conflict.

This waterfall was only a 5km cycle from our second Una campsite, the very rustic but perfect for us, Kamp Vasva and Hasim. We managed to park up here in the shade of the trees, side on to the river and, as we were the only ones here, we had the swimming spot to ourselves. Although cold, the river was teaming with fish and it was a lovely place to stay.

I also took the opportunity to get the kayak out and kayaked a couple of km’s upriver to a small waterfall and back.

After a great month in Bosnia it was time for us to make our way to Serbia, the next country on our Balkans tour.

We headed for the border on the other side of the country, stopping again at Jayce and then the Krupa waterfalls, just south of the town of Banja Luka.

Our final stop in Bosnia was at a homestay where a German/Bosnia couple had just finished building an enormous expedition truck which is now for sale for €300,000. They gave us a tour of the inside and the quality of the workmanship was outstanding.

Unfortunately overnight we saw the first rain for some time and the area we were parked turned into slick mud. On leaving our wheels started spinning and we were stuck. For the first time we deployed our very flimsy looking, plastic mud mats and to our surprise they actually worked! Despite having to move forward half a metre at a time and replace them each time they were spat out the back, we were soon back on the gravel drive and away. Although not before hosing ourselves, the matts and the tires down which were all clad in a thick layer of stickly mud.