We Do Adventure

Rowan was reminded of ice daggers, the sort plunged through the hearts of unfortunate, and probably unsuspecting, victims in fairytales; shortly before some wholesome, heart-warming hero arrives on the scene to heal the hurts and ensure everyone – except, perhaps, the ice-wielding bad guy – lives happily ever after. I had images of old-school platform games, or perhaps even a Nintendo original hand-held classic like Donkey Kong. The aim was to complete a successful dash through the Tunnel of Doom, while dodging the game-over inducing objects regularly falling from the ceiling. Earlier this week we were telling friends in Mostar that our walk to work – or the supermarket – was a relatively easy one in all weathers as half of it was through the road tunnel under Jajce's castle. As if to prove that nothing in life is really that simple the weather threw us a curve ball this morning. This is not photoshop, a fairytale or Nintendo's finest; those really are icicles over three ...

We’ve discussed many things tonight but one of them is Britain’s obsession with ‘health and safety’. These often futile directives have all the freeing powers of a hungry boa-constrictor. If there was a prize for stifling adventure is surely belongs to the stuffy bureaucrats whose fickle and fearful sensibilities get enshrined in law. The ‘health and safety’ adherent becomes a person planning for every negative eventuality, almost willing on disaster to enable the implementation of their contingency plan or to vouch for the veracity of their risk assessment. Earlier today we’ve visited Počitelj, “ one of few urban ensembles in Bosnia and Herzegovina preserved in their integrity to the present time developed through the several phases of the history, beginning with the medieval period .” Put simply, it’s old. It’s a small old village built on the side of a hill with a tower at the top and ramparts around its borders. Being boys, my sister-in-laws husband and I had to climb the tower. St...

When you bring home pictures of bullet-ridden buildings it's only natural for people to ask just how safe it is to travel to Bosnia Herzegovina. There are parts of the country where they estimate it'll take the next hundred years to clear the landmines - mostly because they were conveniently left unmarked! But a new danger sprang to life this morning when a colleague handed me a newspaper clipping, undoubtedly from that bastion of truth The Daily Mail . It seems there is a man in northern Bosnia who has attracted the ire of extraterrestrials, at least that's what he believes. He's had a steel girder reinforced roof put on his house because it has been struck by meteorites five times in about as many months! They quote Mr Lajic as saying "I am obviously being targeted...I don't know what I have done to annoy them." I don't know either, but I do know in the 18 short days I've spent in the country I've yet to feel unsafe.