On our way to Bosnia and Herzegovina we made a stop in the Croatian city Karlovac where we took a tour of the Fresh Water Aquarium and to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We spent the night in the parking lot in front of the restaurant Lana Korana (45.48861, 15.56045). The next morning we continued our trip to the National park Kozara in Bosnia, where we hiked past the Monument of Revolution in Mrakovica all the way to the Kozara Stone. We spent the night at the parking lot in front of the monument (45.01278, 16.91309).
The next morning we drove through the city Banja Luka where we bought a 4 GB SIM card (at the M:tel close to the fort Kaštel; address: Carice Milice 2, Banja Luka 78000, Bosna in Hercegovina) for only 6KM (= 3 EUR). Then we drove to the Krupa waterfalls (no entrance fee there) – we parked our motorhome at the football stadium parking lot (44.61687, 17.14654) and walked to the waterfall. Thereafter we continued our trip to the city Jajce and stayed at the Campsite Jajce (12 EUR/night), next to the hostel (44.34104, 17.26205).
The next morning we hiked to Pliva Lake and visited the famous Mlinčići water mills, stopping at the famous fort in Jajce (entrance fee 2 EUR/person) on our way back. We also toured the city of Jajce, where many sad reminders of the meaningless recent war are still very visible. We ate at the restaurant Kod Asima, located in the city wall itself, which we highly recommend – the meals are very tasty and huge, the atmosphere is great and you can watch Jajce town square from above.
In the afternoon we continued our journey to Rama Lake, where we stayed at the small private Campsite Bošnjak (43.81016, 17.51919) owned by the very friendly and helpful host Ante. His rakija is probably one of the best in all of Bosnia. The price was 10 EUR/night and we stayed 2 nights there.
In the morning we hiked to the viewing point (43.82841, 17.47324) located at an altitude of 1.200 meters. The path took us through the village Rumboci. Even though the hike was quite long (20 km return hike), the view we had of Rama Lake was more than worth it.
Next, we parked at the shore of Blidinje Lake (43.61377, 17.48908) from where we first hiked up Borova glava and then all around the lake. The lake is really beautiful, surrounded by snow capped mountains, and it offers many different beautiful spots to park there, and only the garbage that is lying around is something that spoils the complete enjoyment of this natural beauty.
On our way to the city Mostar we drove to Jablanac through Sovićka vrata. Generally the road was in good shape, at some spots maybe a little narrow for the motorhome, and it offered many beautiful views. In Mostar we stayed at the Campsite Neretva (43.36468, 17.81574), which is very nice, clean, peaceful and a little more expensive (25 EUR/night). From here we walked into town, but we could have also taken a taxi to drive us the 3 km into nearby Mostar. We toured the lively and colourful Old town but were reminded on our way again and again of the atrocities that have happened here not too long ago of which the damaged houses and graveyards in different parks tell the story.
The next day we hiked up mountain Hum, situated above Mostar, with its huge Millenium Cross (43.32923, 17.80689), one of the many religious symbols all over town and its surroundings that are being built bigger and bigger and that show that beneath the presumed peace the powerplay continues.
The next morning we left Mostar and drove to near-by Blagaj with the magnificent Buna River Spring. We parked at a secluded parking spot in Blagaj (43.25873, 17.89001) for free and walked 1 km to the famous spring which is a very interesting sight. After that we continued our trip to Medjugorje, where we stayed at the campsite Dane (43.19565, 17.67502) for 10 EUR/night, which we highly recommend – we had a peaceful night there, the owners are nice, all the stores are close-by.
Our next stop were the magnificent Kravice waterfalls, where we parked for free at the near-by parking lot (43.15879, 17.60707). The waterfalls are really beautiful and worth to be seen despite the expensive entrance fee (20 EUR/person). On our way to Pelješac (Croatia) we drove through Čapljina, past Svitavsko Lake and stopped to have one last excellent Bosnian meal in Neum in the restaurant Adriatic (42.91303, 17.62728), which we highly recommend, before crossing the Bosnian border into Croatia
