Croatia, Bosnia and cold

So, we have moved on from the warmth and familiarity of Western Europe and entered a new phase of the trip.

We crossed the border from Slovenia to Croatia through a small village called Vinica. The nearest big town close to the border we went through, was Crnomelji, which is not very big.
As we went through farmland and small villages we could not help but notice the difference between reasonably well off Slovenia and the little corridor of Croatia we cycled through. Ais is very curious to see how different the coast of Croatia is, compared to the farming area.

We made a stop at Plitvice Lakes National Park for a day and ended up camping on a farm. The man who owned the farm was building a small guest house and as it is now low season, allowed us to use the kitchen, when it rained. We were very grateful for that!

Plitvice Lakes NP is very beautiful. It is made up of a sequence of lakes at different levels which are connected by waterfalls. It is truly the kind of place where you think magic takes places or fairies would live! But of course life is not like that and there are more practical, geology type reasons for the lakes formations, such as build up of rock deposits and porous rock letting water through. It is well worth a visit if you ever go to Croatia.

We did not spend very long in Croatia as we head down to the coast further along our route. As we approached Bosnia we were quite surprised at just how many abandoned buildings there were. Some homes still had pock marks of bullets from the war. Some houses had plastered over these, but they were still noticeable. We did not find any supermarkets during this part of the journey and what shops we did find, had hardly anything. We struggled to make a meal with the stuff available. We found plenty of cafe bars, but these don't sell food so we could not eat out. It was clear that this part of Croatia has not yet recovered from past recent events.

As we entered Bosnia we continued to see what appeared to be small villages, abandoned, with only the shells of houses left. In the 1990s, who would want to live here, by the border, on the main road to Sarajevo? It felt strange to be here, even eerie at times. Yet, in Bihać a Bosnian town close to the border of Croatia, there were a number of hotels (all over priced) and a good quaility campsite. Bihać is one of the few towns that appears in our Lonely Planet book. Apparently it is a well known white water rafting area. But about 10km from here we saw landmine warning signs at the side of the road.

Now we are in Jajce, a pretty little town, which we think will take off in the next ten years. It has a waterfall, some pretty houses, which did not get destroyed from the 1990s war and a section of old walled town. The town suffered badly in the last war and that is still clear to see, with burned out houses. pocked marked walls and signs in english, letting the tourist know that a building had been here for a few 100 years, but did not survive the 1990s war.

We still have some hills left to climb to Sarajevo but hopefully the snow/rain/sleet will not be too bad!