Framedlight

The road from Blagaj into Mostar descends on to a green plain. The summer temperatures here can reach into the 50's centigrade and although it was October Mostar was pleasantly warm. We drove straight to our pension, the Villa Fortuna and booked in There was a little courtyard with a small stone building in it which was modelled on a Turkish style kitchen with antique furniture inside, looking as it might have done a hundred years ago. The cooking and eating areas used to be kept away from the main house to stop it smelling of food and getting too hot. We took a glass of wine down with us but the lady who had checked us in showed us round the building and offered us more wine and a bowl of olives. She then left the bottle with us! We drunk a little of it and then went out to find something to eat. It was dark but we were not too far from the centre and we walked through quiet cobbled streets until we found a restaurant we fancied. We were starving so chose a shared mixed grill pl...

After lunch we moved from the Republic Srpska into the Hercegovine area where the road became higher with views sweeping across to a distant castle. Rubbish removal did not seem to be high on the list of priorities here and we found a small herd of goats dining from a tip on the side of the road. I played around with 'perfect goat placement' for a picture and thought that they looked quite biblical. Coming downhill a sign appeared to Blagaj and its monastery so we followed it. We passed a Muslim graveyard on the way with its curiously shaped headstones. And also some historical stone buildings. The Dervish monastery or tekke, which is still used for prayer, was built under a cliff by the source of the River Buna in around 1520 and is a national monument. There was a cafè on the bank where we had a cup of rather disgusting raspberry tea before we commenced our tour. A Dervish is a member of a Sufi Muslim sect known for it's po...

We said goodbye to Slavko, our host in Dubrovnik and took the time to walk down to the base of the concrete steps that led from our apartment to the shore. I took a couple of photos, not that it was particularly pretty, but as a record. Anne had booked us into a pension in Mostar for the night so the only thing to do was to decide how to get there. Her guide book (Rick Steves) suggested 3 routes. We chose the longest and most remote, mainly because it went past a rather spectacular lake, or so it looked on the map. We crossed the border (no stamp this time) and drove to Trebinje a small town were we could find a cash point and get some Bosnian Marks. Some of the town looked quite eastern European but there was a great market which we had a walk round. The scenery was of rocky hills with sparse vegetation, quite Mediterranean.We came to the lake which was really a reservoir, Bileçko Jezero and stopped where it met the road. Here were the ruins of a rat...