We Do Adventure

After a busy weekend in Sarajevo, today was a day off. I decided to make the most of the sunshine and head out on my mountain bike around the lakes near Jajce. I'd been going about an hour when I stumbled across this sight: the super-sized marriage of a decoy duck and a pedalo. Obviously, a photograph was essential, not just for its comedic value but because it illustrates an important attitude we have to our work here. Last summer we ran a month of activities with Novi Most for young people in Jajce. At the end of August we asked those who been involved for some feedback. Of the seventeen who filled out our questionnaires fifteen acknowledged they had some new experience over the summer: for some it was visiting a new city; for others it was going down a water slide at an aqua park; others went up an escalator for the first time. Having new experiences, at least fun, positive ones, is an exciting thing. The young people we worked with over the summer ended up with a better sense o...

Last Thursday we posted a picture of the Plivsko Jezero looking wonderfully wintery. Yesterday I got my mountain bike out - the first time this year - to go see what things were looking like at the lakes. This video will let you do you own bit of compare and contrast.

The sun came out today and in it the temperature could almost said to have been warm. Warm enough, at least, to wander around with no hat and your coat unzipped. Warm is of course a relative term. Yesterday I thought the bedroom was feeling warm until I checked the thermometer and realised it was only 9C, although that's a lot better than it has been. Whatever the temperature was out today it too was a lot better than it has been, meaning that much of the snow around town suddenly disappeared down a drain. We were hopeful this might mean our frozen pipes would finally thaw. Then we went for lunch at the lakes. This beautiful view quashed any such optimism. The lakes were frozen over. They looked amazing but it was an unwelcome reminder that warmer does not necessarily mean warm enough. And so our wait for the full return of running water continues.

My last post might have made it sound like anything in Jajce involving water and tourism was experiencing something of a hiatus at the moment. Of course, that isn't the whole picture. This evening, for the first time, we rented a boat from outside Hotel Plivsko Jezero and spent a lazy hour soaking up the early evening sun on the lake. As you can see for the video, the boat had a small electric motor, running off what was basically an oversized car battery. It was slow and almost silent. Although my last experience in a boat involved a powerful engine, an exciting turn of speed and vast stretches of Finnish water I think Jajce's lakes, and this evening's excursion, benefit from their lack of the noisy elements of watersport. Tranquil would be a word well used to describe the experience. This little adventure was part of an unintentionally aquatic finale to our Novi Most summer activities with young people in Jajce. Yesterday, we had the first social gathering between...

I show this photo not to illustrate man's propensity to spread a little around the middle but because it was my favourite photo from our recent camping experience. That it is pains me. Not because I have anything against any of these guys; the photo was the idea of the bloke doing the pointing and I thought I'd do them all the favour of blurring their faces to spare their blushes. And it's not that I dislike the photo. I like how it captures the happy wind down after a mad five minutes that mixed testosterone and a diving board. My pain is because of all the good photos I didn't manage to take. Four days camped out at Boračko jezero, the lake you get a glimpse of in the picture, came with some fantastic sights that did not include excessive man flesh. The sunlight, the mountains, trees, clouds, weird and wonderful bits of wildlife: all of these I tried to capture. I failed. The photos I downloaded from our camera this afternoon have no mystique, no sense of wonder. ...

At a time when there are fears the actions of politicians on all sides are fanning unwelcome flames in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jajce experienced its own unwanted act of arson. We were told today these mills by the lakes survived the war unscathed but last night they did not survived what was surely a very pointless, and mindless, act of vandalism. Although, lest they perished in vain, perhaps they will provide a timely reminder of how beautiful environment is too easily scarred. Nobody benefits from that.

It's like Jajce read yesterday's post about Mostar and thought anything it can do...and turned up the heat. When I left the house at nine this morning is was a grey, overcast day. By noon we were sitting outside a coffee bar in the centre of town, burning up under the midday sun. This season's tan is officially started! At five I had a meeting with a local band out by the lakes. Had I sat the other side of the table I would have spent an hour staring at this view. As it was I concentrated on what was being said instead! Truth be told, Mostar was warmer yesterday but having given friends there a cautious appraisal of Jajce's move towards summer weather I am happy to be proved wrong so quickly.

A piece on the BBC website about the Easter Islands caught my eye this morning. It made me think about a conversation I had on Friday morning out by the lakes in Jajce. I was drinking coffee with a local friend who was saying it was a shame more had not been done to develop the potential of the lakes as a leisure destination. It's true they have huge potential, their banks bear testimony to various efforts down the years to capitalise on this, yet it's fair to say much of this potential remains unfulfilled. I'll confess my knowledge of the Easter Islands runs little deeper than recognising the origin of the giant talking statue in Night At The Museum, but their story got me thinking over breakfast today about the pros and cons of achieving potential. The lakes in Jajce could easily become one of central Bosnia's go-to summer locations, but at what price to the local community. We know the lakes are loved by the local community but perhaps the price of overcrowding an...

This morning my Facebook status announced I was 'very tempted by the clear blue sky and sunshine outside.' Having worked all weekend today was a day off; it's never a bad thing when a day off coincides with good weather. Knowing we should really be in the grips of winter already I decided to give in to temptation, get my bike out and go hunting for the trails a tourist magazine I read promised run around the lakes. I probably found them. It's hard to be sure as the map in the magazine was not particularly detailed. Few maps for Bosnia and Herzegovina are. I have one good one but despite being sold as a drivers map it's basically too big to open inside a vehicle. Today I navigated by Google Earth. Again, the satellite imagery for this country is not their best (drift into neighbouring Croatia and you'll notice an appreciable improvement) but it was good enough to guide me around the lake on the local equivalent of the Great British bridleway. The terrain was much...

If yesterday I pulled my van over to snap a view I was particularly enjoying today I was indulging in a bit of drive-by shooting! Okay, technically, this picture is actually the result of a ride-by: I was out cycling by the lakes in Jajce, soaking up the last of the autumn sun as sunk slowly behind the mountains. I don't know what Ansel Adams would have thought of the digital revolution. Did he ever grab a photo one-handed whilst riding a bike? I doubt it. However, he did create art . Nevertheless, I'm not complaining about this image. Under the circumstances it does a great job of capturing the moment. Less than an hour later the moon was up, but those photos won't find their way online!