Jajce – two lakes and countless watermills

Jajce is an historic town just outside of Banja Luka known for its natural beauty. I chose to stay here for a day in order to break up my two stints in “rest and relaxation” places (my five nights on Jablanica’s lake and my upcoming stay on a farm). Even though it’s a quiet town, it’s nice to have a change.

5km away from the town centre are the delightful Pliva lakes and their watermills. The watermills are more apparent they are watermills(!) in the months outside summer, when there is more water, but they are all original and rather quaint. It’s a quiet place with local atmosphere to while away the hours – I counted two hog roasts and four barbeques whilst I was there.

Separately, the strays of Jajce made me chuckle. As like much of the Balkans, Bosnia has a significant number of stray dogs but the strays of Jajce are really something else. Adorable, confident and adorable in their confidentness!

Tomorrow I travel onto my farmstay in Una National Park, which will be my final location in Bosnia & Herzegovina. TTFN, x

Jablanica – five nights on a picture perfect lake

I’ve literally not stayed this still in one place since 2014, in Egypt with my parents.

I fully expected to get antsy and hire a bike to go explore but swimming in the lake and cruising on my rubber ring all day has been utterly delightful.

The guesthouse has a wonderful view out onto the lake, I’ve eaten freshly caught trout each night, I have a balcony looking onto the lake, the water is warm enough to swim comfortably, and I’ve read a book a day – bliss!

T

TTFN, x

Sofia day trip – Belogradchik Rocks and Magura Cave

Yesterday was a very long day (my alarm went at 5am and I didn’t get back to Sofia until gone 10pm) but it was so worth it.

Belogradchik Rocks

I had originally planned this day trip to just see the Belogradchik rocks. This is a famous day trip from Sofia, even though it is a little difficult with public transport (well, not difficult, just long – there is one viable train there and back, and it leaves early and gets back late, is 4 hours long, and stops a town over from Belogradchik because Belo doesn’t have a train station. As I said, long day).

It is a fortress sitting on top of some very spectacular rocks, with an unbelievably gorgeous view.

Before the fortress, there was a monastery and a nunnery on top of the hill. Legend says that after an earthquake flattened the monastery, God turns the monks to stone. You can definitely see faces in many of the rocks (and / or the cast of The Muppets!)

Very beautiful, I personally would say worth the 8 hours of trains, and you could comfortable spend an hour there (I spent a bit longer eating my pack lunch and enjoying the place to myself after a school group had exited).

Magura Cave

I knew it was going to be a long day and a long journey, so I decided to research other things in the area which I could see whilst I was there and I stumbled onto Magura cave.

Getting to the cave was quite tricky.

There is a bus which goes from Belogradchik to the village near to the cave (Rabisha), but it’s at an inconvenient time (you’d need to rush through the rocks very quickly) and you’d miss the bus back. It’s a small village, so I don’t think there would be a taxi there to take you back to Belogradchik or Oreshets (the town with the train station).

I bit the bullet and got a taxi, but even that wasn’t easy. There are two taxis in town and they weren’t keen to leave the town for an extended people as people in the village would rely on them for lifts. So one of the drivers drove me up to the fortress (2km uphill from the bus station) and asked the boy on the refreshment stand to drive me instead. So him and his sister packed up their refreshment stall and joined me on this little day trip (with what I am sure was their parents car). It was 60 LEV for the taxi (about £27) which is definitely more than the refreshment stand would have taken that day so I don’t feel too bad.

Magura cave itself is HUGE. It’s definitely the biggest cave I have ever been in – the trail through the cave is 2.5km long.

But the reason I came is because there is a newly discovered “gallery”, a separate wing to the cave, where there is prehistoric cave paintings(!) I have never seen cave paintings before, so maybe I am just easily impressed, but it was the most breathtaking experience I have ever had travelling.

I had to slide through a teeny tiny corridor to get to the gallery and I could see tiny bats circling the entrance (with an alarm in my head going “RABIES! RABIES! RABIES!”) but it was so worth it. I was the only one in the cave the entire time (I think this was just by chance, as there are some tour groups which go here) and it was well worth the 10 LEV ticket.

There weren’t any description signs by the paintings (in Bulgarian or any other language) so I was left to interpret. I am almost certain that most of the scenes are hunting ones, as you can so clearly see animals and weapons, but there are also many people with their arms above their heads so I think this must be part of a hunting ritual?

Utterly mindblowing. Madness.

Today, I was going to hike to Boyana before catching a night bus to Kosovo, but I am going to take it easy and mooch around Sofia instead.

TTFN, x