David (Dinger) & DD, two of our Explorer Scout leaders, share more about the Explorer Unit's overseas trip during the summer...
On 2nd July, 12 intrepid Explorers and Leaders assembled at Glengall Street on the start of our long-anticipated adventure to Bosnia-Hercegovina. Inspired by Race across the World, an advance party of Dinger and Carlos had left two days earlier to collect Jamie, travelling via a family wedding in Italy. Dinger had kindly distributed assorted gifts amongst the remaining group to deliver to our hosts in Bosnia, and so it was that DD found himself trying to explain to airport security in Dublin why exactly he was in possession of a sharp metal silhouette of a horse’s head in his hand luggage, much to everyone’s amusement! Thankfully his plea that it was for Pegasos Riding Centre for Disabled Children must have tugged at heartstrings and he was permitted to board with the offending weapon. Dinger, Carlos and Jamie were waiting to meet everyone on their delayed arrival at Split airport; shortly after midnight we were finally leaving the EU and heading towards the Bosnian border. Dinger collected everyone’s passports and was soon out of the minibus trying to negotiate our smooth entry; a task he had almost accomplished when one of the border guards suddenly became agitated and demanded everyone leave the minibus- someone had taken a photo of the checkpoint! A sheepish Jack, probably the most unlikely of suspects, owned up and deleted a photo from his phone as the guard inspected closely; only when we were back onboard and safely on our way to Konjic did DD disclose that he had also taken a photo!!
A long journey through mountainous roads followed before we reached Konjic just before dawn and were warmly welcomed by the owner of Mini Hostel who had also vacated his own apartment for the Leaders. Dinger and DD were up early, locating a bakery to purchase some ‘greasy meaty things’ to feed the rabble, before heading off to attempt to register everyone as ‘legal aliens’ within 72 hours of arrival; a task which took them to the police station, the bank, the post office and back to the police station again over the course of four hours! That afternoon, now legally entitled to explore the country, we ventured to Tito’s secret nuclear bunker, hidden in the hills around Konjic. A fascinating tour showed us how air was filtered and water purified, as well as the sleeping and eating quarters of the Communist elite, including Tito and his wife, boasting Cold War era décor and furnishings, as well as the then state of the art communications hub. That night we ventured out for dinner in a local resturant and a tour of Konjic at dusk.
Early the next morning we were on the road again; our destination Emek Beraka or The Valley of Blessing, where we were to assist the Novi Most Charity and members of the Evangelical Church of Bosnia in preparation of their campsite for a series of children’s camps during the summer. We truly were blessed during our short but meaningful three days at the Valley of Blessing. Beki soon put us to work – collecting and hauling stones from the river up a steep path to a waiting jeep to landscape their new building (and losing Ollie’s expensive sliders in the process, last seen en route to the Adriatic coast); we also shovelled a lot of stones and soil, cleared out several stores of obselete assorted junk and scrap wood, and prepared and marked out volleyball and football pitches (poor Cody was still washing off the smell of the whitening powder several days later). We also helped to move equipment, worked in the kitchen (where we met Pam from Birmingham, a dead ringer for our own Betty, and henceforth referred to affectionately as Brummie Betty by DD) and gave the newly built indoor accommodation a thorough clean - Carlos and Simon mopped from the bottom to the top of the stairs- meaning they had to sit as these dried, watching out of the window as the rest of us toiled in the sweltering heat!! We were fed well and made very welcome by our hosts and teams from Birmingham and Coventry and from USA visiting at the same time. In the late afternoon, we ventured down to the lake with our hosts to cool off at the hottest part of the day- some impressive diving would have left Tom Daley in the shade; Lewis and Jack demonstrated their caring side- gifting Dinger a lily pad to cover his growing bald spot from the sun!! In the evenings some of us played football with our American friends; Dinger, Gareth and some of the Explorers accepted an invitation to the worship night and prayer meeting. If only someone had told Noah where they where- while we were all quietly praying he decided to look for Dinger, calling his name loudly from an open attic window – the voice from the sky seemed like an instant answer to prayer – Dinger, Ollie and Jack cringed with embarassment and kept their eyes firmly closed!!
Our next destination was Mostar. Following a guided tour to orientate us, we had lunch in a traditional Bosnian restaurant, toured the old town, the Mosque, the local market and watched brave locals launch themselves from Stari Most (Old Bridge), the first of many examples we would encounter of such Bosnian Islamic architecture, and made famous by the more recent conflict. Despite their practice at Emek Beraka, much to Dinger’s relief, none of the Explorers accepted the traditional offer to try out on the training boards nearby before attempting the dive from Stari Most themselves. Instead we walked across Kriva Cuprija (Crooked Bridge) - a small stone bridge across the Radobolja river, the oldest one arch bridge in Mostar - and found a local Coffee House, to learn how to make traditional Bosnian coffee, incredibly rich and sweet, and served with a square of delicious Turkish delight. That evening, back at Konjic, we spectated at the local half-marathon where DD and Dinger met up with their old chums from the police station and introduced the rabble with us (instantly recognisable from the mug shots on their passports), and rounded off with a BBQ back at our hostel.
The next morning we were on the move once more, this time to Pegasos Equestrian Centre on the steep hillside surrounding Sarajevo, specialising in providing horseriding experiences for disabled children. Our hosts Tanja and Esther made us very welcome, and fortified by traditional bean stew, we were again soon put to work- mucking out the stables and enclosures, coating a tar-like preservative on to the wooden fences (and doing our best to avoid coating ourselves in the process) and cutting an extensive hedge- at this point we should probably confess that none of the Explorers actually has a qualification in topiary, and DD watched on nervously at their repeated attempts to correct what they had already done and level up the height of that hedge! The nearest shop was in the village several kilometeres away – the Explorers on a quest for cold drinks, crisps and chocolate as the thermometer approached 40oC could not be deterred – sure it was all downhill anyway- they hadn’t factored in the return journey, crawling up the hill towards the mirage that had to be Pegasos now, surely!!??
We were met at the end of our two day stay at Pegasos by the staff from Sarajevo Funky Tours, who transported us in the luxury of an air conditioned coach for the next eagerly awaited section of our trip, SRRC Tara Rafting Centre near Foca, close to the Montenegrin border and Durmitor National Park. A broken-down lorry and impassable road saw us hike the last part of the path to the Centre. Once we had settled into our wooden chalets, we were issued with our rafting equipment before a sumptious three course dinner of noodle soup, assorted meats and cheeses, roasted vegetables and various desserts. The next morning we were up early and piled into jeeps for a drive across the border with Montenegro, through the picturesque mountains and forests of Durmitor National Park in the direction of Niksic. We followed the Tara River to where we were going to launch our rafts just after lunch on the start of our epic two day 90km paddle back to our campsite. We made good progress on our first day through spectacular scenery in the Tara Canyon, stopping frequently to trek up forested hills to waterfalls and caves or plunge from rocky ledges and swim in the deep clear aquamarine water. There was healthy competition between our two rafts, encourged by our instructors, and lots of splashing and wrestling each other from the rafts. That evening we pulled into shore and hiked up a steep hill to a rural mountain hut where a local farming family had kindly agreed to host us for the evening. Once again we were treated to noodle soup, a feast of roast meats and vegetables, breads and cheeses and some locally produced fruit juices; the conversation flowed with our hosts into the early hours, sharing stories and learning some traditional songs. The next morning, fuelled by a breakfast of more bread, jams, meats, cheeses and yoghurts, we thanked our hosts and made our way back to our rafts to resume our journey. Day 2 was physically more demanding than the first as the temperatures soared but the scenery even more awe-inspiring as we paddled onwards towards the fast approaching white water rapids, the Tara River forming a natural border between Bosnia and Montenegro. Along the way, we passed Kamp Grab where the Unit had stayed during our trip to Montenegro in 2017; the relentless flow of the river took us past the border checkpoint of Scepan Polje while Dinger and DD contemplated endless hours of more paperwork or worse – did we remain illegal aliens for the rest of our trip or technically did we never leave Bosnia?? After lunch, now seasoned rafters we tackled the most strenuous and technically demanding part of the Tara River, with multiple whitewater rapids in quick succession, each more challenging that the one before, and providing the thrill seeker with adrenaline overload. Eventually the Tara merged with the icy cold Drina, requiring some skilful manouvering and frantic paddling to turn the raft at just the right time and angle to join the flow of the Drina without capsizing. We made it back to SRRC Tara Raft as darkness descended, a cold breeze replacing the blazing sun of earlier in the day. Equipment stored and revived by hot showers, another amazing feast awaited us in the riverside restaurant.
Towards the end of the rafting trip, Carlos and Ollie felt a little queasy and skipped dinner; initially we put this down to the excessive heat and dehydration but with the rapid onset of vomiting and diarrhoea, we realised that one of them could be patient zero and that the ‘Bosnian plague’ was upon us- well a mild dose of norovirus, most likely acquired from contaminated food or water at the mountain hut (but try telling that to our group who, sharing close contact, one by one succumbed over the next few days -or later as we travelled on to Srebrenica and then Sarajevo - to 12 hours of forceful vomiting and diarrhoea and then just as rapidly recovered, revived by generous quantities of dioralyte and a dip in the centre’s outdoor swimming pool. Cody and Dinger did not progress from prolonged mild queasiness, which became known as the Cody subvariant strain, a fact Dinger attributed to fastidious hand-washing and some dubious charcoal concoction he acquired in the local Pharmacy. (Miraculously Callum and Jack seemed to be entirely immune!) The next morning, those deemed medically fit set off on a hike through Sutjeska National Park, which includes the country’s highest mountain peak of Maglic, one of only two remaining primeval forests in Europe and, as we discovered, home to many bears and snakes. The Park is also famous as being the location of the Battle of Sutjeska in 1943 during World War II between the Germans and Italians and the Yugoslav Partisans, led by Tito, which marked a turning point in the war in that region. There are even links to Gilnahirk, with the late Ted Ross having served as an RAF wireless operator, parachuted into Yugoslavia to support communication efforts between Tito’s Partisans.
The next stage of our itinerary found us travelling through rural Bosnia to Srebrenica, via Foca, Visegrad and Zepa, stopping at the memorial in Gorazde linked to one of the most distressing massacres during the Bosnian conflict of 1992-1995; that evening we were hosted for a meal in the home of a local Bosniak Muslim family affected by the genocide, and we continued to learn more about the conflict later that night from the family who owned the local hostel in Srebrenica. The next day we paid a very moving visit to Memorial Centre Potocari, where a survivor of the conflict provided a guided tour of the UN compound and we watched harrowing documentary footage of actual events during the height of the genocide in which more than 8000 mostly male Muslim Bosniaks and some Catholic Croats were massacred, before touring the adjacent cemetery. The Unit has been asked to make a short film of our experience to share at the 30th anniversary of the massacre during Holocaust Memorial Day 2025.
From Srebrenica, we made our way to the capital, Sarajevo, and our home for the next two nights, Hostel Franz Ferdinand. Partnering with the excellent team from Sarajevo Funky Tours, we visited the site of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, which sparked the start of World War 1, the war tunnels under the airport used as an escape route in 1990s during the height of the Bosnian conflict, the old Jewish cemetery and the abandoned bobsleigh track from the Winter Olympics of 1984 at which Torvill and Dean won iceskating gold. We also enjoyed breakfasts and dinners with our hosts in some traditional Bosnian restaurants, and toured the markets and bazaars, stopping once again for some delightful Bosnian coffee. A must was the Euro final which we viewed on a giant screen on a balmy night in a square in downtown Sarajevo.
The final part of our journey saw us make our way slowly over the course of two days back to Split via an overnight stop in the charming town of Stolac. Along the way we visited the walled settlement at Pocitelj, the monastery at Dervish Tekke built in 1520 near the historic village of Blagaj, and the medieval tombstones of the Radimlja necropolis. A highlight of our last day was a swim in the majestic Kravica Falls, well-worth the long trek down to the lake and back. Having successfully negotiated the border once more, and safely back within the EU, there was just time for a walking tour of Split Old Town and Harbour, before the last meal of our trip together and the journey back to the airport, arriving back in Dublin in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
An action packed 15 days have created lasting memories for us all and the breathtaking scenery, rich history and culture, and kindness and friendship of the people of Bosnia-Hercegovina have left their indelible mark. A huge thank you to our tour guides (Sarajevo Funky Tours and Zoor Bosna), our rafting instructors at SRRC Tara Raft, our amazingly generous hosts at Pegasos and Emek Beraka, and to all those families who welcomed us into their homes for meals and shared something of their country with us, especially the impact of the conflict in Srebrenica which touched us all deeply. We are already thinking about our next trip to Eastern Europe and would encourage other Units in East to take the plunge and consider a visit abroad. If we can help you in any way by sharing from our own experience of planning an international trip, please ask!
David and DD, Ballyhanwood Explorer Unit
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