Miles on trip: 10549 miles
Countries: 22 (+ Bosnia & Herzegovina)
Days on trip: 103
Number of times we have visited a garage/mechanic: 6
The border crossing into Bosnia and Herzegovina took quite some time, and was the longest one we’ve had so far. As usual, we showed our passports and vehicle registration documents, and as expected, they wanted to see our green card insurance certificate. Unfortunately we don’t have one as Admiral don’t/won’t issue them, and instead we need to buy green card/third party insurance in each non EU country we visit at the border. But this time the border guard didn’t understand us. He kept repeating green card and we tried many different ways of explaining that we wanted to buy it here. Eventually, when we showed him our insurance certificate for Montenegro, he understood. He then introduced us to a guy who could speak English(!!), directed us to the insurance office, and finally we thought everything would go smoothly. The insurance guy wasn’t in though, so they called him and we waited for 30 minutes for him to arrive. During this time we’d also been stewing over our lack of currency – either Bosnian marks (bam bams as we would come to call them), or Euros. Magically, after the documents had been filled out, we asked if he accepted British pounds, and he did. £20 well spent.
Back to the border agent now, and there had been a shift change. We showed the new guys our insurance and they stamped our passports. All done, we thought. Then they wanted to chat … in Bosnian. We responded :”English?” and ignoring that request, they went on in Bosnian “Da da da ……”. The only words we got were Mostar and Sarajevo, our two planned stops in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They kept talking, we didn’t understand a word but we think they just tried to tell us a bit about the country and / or those two cities. Nice of them.
Mostar was our first stop but the closest camping is in Blagaj, which is supposed to be a nice little village with a monastery. Unfortunately, just after exiting the border crossing point, we noticed that the car battery wasn’t charging properly. So we drove to the campsite and tried to figure out what the problem was, which involved getting our multimeter out. It seemed that the alternator was faulty, so the plan was to find a garage in Mostar the next day.
We drove to a garage we found with a bit of research on the internet and fortunately the team there were keen to help. They agreed that the alternator needed looking at and in short order set about whipping it out. Yay. So whilst Baloo was in the garage we explored Mostar, which consists mainly of a pretty bridge and some cobble streets with markets. We also arranged accommodation in Mostar so that we didn’t need to worry about when Baloo would be ready. But soon we got the call, Baloo was fixed! Apparently the garage we went to in Klaipeda had bodged a fix for the alternator, and simply replacing the diode pack and rectifier was the best strategy (Klaipeda had attempted to get the soldering iron on it). Fortunately, the guys in Mostar did a great job, and for only 50 euros – a fraction of the price of the bodge!
Our next stop was the Kravice waterfall. We had only just found out about this while in Mostar – a waterfall you can swim in. Andi was very excited about this and so we drove there. The waterfall was pretty and the water was freezing cold but it didn’t stop Andi from going for a swim there and getting as close as possible to the waterfall. Great experience. And suppose the advantage of very cold water was that not many people dared to go in and it was quiet in the water. Naturally, Martin wasn’t so brave, but did take some photos.
Since we left Blagaj very quickly to get Baloo fixed, we hadn’t yet had a chance to visit the monastery. The monastery in the rocks is well regarded, but perhaps we were spoilt by the waterfall. Ah well, at least we knew a good campsite nearby and enjoyed another evening there.
The next morning we headed to Sarajevo, where we had an airbnb near the centre. The sights in Sarajevo can mainly be split into three categories: 1) Religious, there are plenty of churches and mosques. With 1/3 of the population each, Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox they have quite a mix. 2) War monuments or museums, mainly about the Balkan crisis (photos, museums), WWI (the bridge where Alexander II was assassinated) and WWII (the eternal flame memorial). And category 3) Other – a fountain with lots of pigeons and a small archaeological site.
Even though Sarajevo is quite small it was a nice to wander around the old town, and for dinner we explored the outskirts. We found some lovely bars and restaurants but unfortunately smoking is still allowed inside which we struggled with a little.
From here on the plan was to head into Serbia. There were some warnings because Bosnia and Herzegovina recently had a referendum about introducing a Serbian national holiday. The majority of people who voted (mainly Serbian Bosnians voted) were in favour but the government said it wouldn’t accept the vote. So there were warnings of potential unrest and staying away from large crowds and protest. Having said that everyone we spoke to thought that whilst there are still a lot of political problems here it is perfectly safe to continue our planned route.
Road Monkeys 