Adventures in Mostar

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08 June 2013

Many years ago we were impressed by a television programme showing the residents of Mostar taking part in a diving competition from their 16th century Ottoman single span bridge spanning the Neretva River. Several years later we were horrified to watch it being destroyed when Mostar old town was on the front line during the Yugoslav War. It has subsequently been rebuilt using international aid and we hoped that one day we would have the opportunity to visit it.

Mostar is in Bosnia and Hercegovina and as we don’t have insurance to drive the van in that country so we made several enquiries to find out if it was possible to do a day trip using public transport. After several attempts, a helpful man in the Dubrovnik tourist office suggested we should go to the border town of Metkovic and catch a bus there for the 45k trip.

We left Prapratno early and arrived in Metkovic soon after 9. It took us some time to find the bus station but when we did and with help from a delightful English speaking young lady we boarded a rickety bus for a 90 minute journey through the hills calling at numerous villages and finally driving down a series of hairpins to arrive at Mostar. Our guardian angel found out that the last bus back left in only 90 minutes. She phoned for a taxi, left us with our profound thanks ringing in her ears and we were soon joining the throngs of tourists admiring the bridge and the green fast flowing river below. Then it was back to the station to catch the bus which this time took us along the beautiful Neretva valley back to our starting point. Quite a frenetic and adventurous trip!



We had had enough excitement for one day so we drove to the nearest campsite and after one failure found a beautiful and quiet place, Kamp Uvala Borova, which we found out later only re-opened last year after having been destroyed in the war.

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Comments

[Ian Sanderson]

Been watching your progress from time to time. Seems to be a terrific trip and reminds me of all the things that draw me back to Europe every few years. Regards Ian