We Do Adventure

As is the way with mountains, you get to the top only to see another higher peak staring down at you as if to quash your sense of achievement. Yesterday we spent a day off at Vlašić, a mountain in the very centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is the view from the top of the drag lifts that serve the mountain's Babanovac resort. It's a very pretty place, and to my taste anyway, all the better without the weekend crowds. We waited for a lift once, for about a minute, the rest of the time we walked straight on. Most of the the time we could see a couple of others of the slope we were on, although a few times we had a stretch all to ourselves. Part of me would love it to always be like this but I also see there is space for others to discover the joys of snow sport in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It may not cater for full on adrenaline junkies but there is plenty for beginners, and those who like to take in the surroundings as they make their way down a mountain. If you need a l...

One of the temptations I constantly fight during much of the driving I do is the desire to enjoy the view. All too often something spectacular is trying to catch my attention, but narrow, twisty roads are notoriously unforgiving of lapses in concentration. This morning was a rare treat. I was alone in the van on a empty mountain track with the sun breaking through the clouds, bringing the snowscape to life. The view was amazing, although it made for a very stop-start decent as I kept stopping to take photographs. As usual, these fail to fully capture the beauty, but they have a good go. With the track completely covered in snow, I also took the opportunity to check how our van would handle emergency stops, the odd swerve or two and generous tugs on the handbrake. Over the next few months I'm likely to do a lot of snow driving so I figured a bit of foreknowledge about any quirks wouldn't hurt. While I don't plan to make handbrake turns a habit I'm happy the report ...

This weekend we took a group of young people to Sanski Most, a town about an hour and a half north west of Jajce. As an unplanned part of the trip we ended up visiting Dabarska pećina, a large cave just outside the town. I had a torch and camera on hand to capture the adventure but YouTube has been distinctly uncooperative since returning, flat out refusing to attempt to upload my video! So this post will instead present you with the view from the view from our kitchen window! We went up to the ski centre near Jajce this morning to bid our formal farewells to this season's snow. I climbed up the slope to the point where I could get a clear view of where our house is, not that it was really visible with the naked eye. However, it gave me a strange sense of satisfaction to take the reverse of a photo I've posted far too often on Instagram. (If you want to spot Jajce it's about 3/5 of the way across the photo, looking from left to right, just above the tree line. If you want t...

We'd watched it grow but we'd never been up. Yesterday, we visited the Avaz Twist Tower in Sarajevo for the first time. The decision was made by its proximity to the place we were spending the night but mostly by the gloriously clear blue skies stretched over Sarajevo. Although they had postcards pushing a parallel with the Empire State Building the two are very different experiences. For one thing there are no snow-topped mountains to be viewed from Manhattan. Without a double the Avaz Twist Tower does offer the best panorama of Sarajevo. If there was one disappointment it was that the open-air section of the 36th floor viewing gallery was closed, meaning the 35th floor cafe bar provided the better views. But as it would be wrong to gain that much elevation without stopping for coffee we did have time to savour them.

We're just home for a quick break - the chance to eat and check Facebook! - before our gig tonight. In a hour we'll be wandering back to Mostar's Stari Grad to make music or noise, depending on what your view on alternative punk rock is! I took this picture after our soundcheck. It's our backdrop to rock: the view over our little mixer, out of the window and up towards the mountains. It's by no means a great photo but in reality it's a great view. Not that it'll be n show tonight as it'll be dark at least an hour before we kick into our first song. This is Gilgal's third gig in this bar and we're experimenting with a third way of squeezing us and all our equipment into a tiny corner. Hopefully we've chosen well, although I'm aware I run the risk of getting a clip round the ear from a Musicman headstock if I step out of line!