One of the perks of backpacking is the recommendations you
get from other backpackers. You can
become overwhelmed and inundated with the number of things to do. The more I’ve traveled, the less I plan. I learned about Drina Tara, a rafting center
in Bosnia near the border with Montenegro that offers adventure tourism. I emailed them to book a three day adventure
before hitching a ride from Sarajevo.
Two hours later, I entered into the Republika Srpska, which is an
autonomous region in Bosnia. Whereas,
Sarajevo and surrounding areas are largely Bosniaks (Muslim), Srpska is ethnic
Serbian and Orthodox Christian. Because
of the war, this area is pretty much its nation. It’s not a problem for a foreigner to travel
between the two with no problem, but for Bosniaks and Croatians, things can be
a bit dangerous. The car I was traveling
was stopped by local police and we were ticketed for a hundred euros for not
having a seat belt in the back seat. The
driver was given a ticket of a hundred euros for not enforcing me to wear my
seat belt. We told the police we did not
have two hundred euros on us, so he “allowed” us to pay a bribe of about twenty
euros. Giving into corruption, we were
on our way.
I soon arrived at my destination. This area,
Foca and old Herzegovina is known also as the 'land of canyons'. In addition to
the canyons of Tara and Piva as the most popular ones, there are canyons of
Sutjeska, Bistrica, Otesa, Hrcavka, Ćehotina and many other smaller rivers. Immediately, I was impressed with the
center. Beautifully set along the Tara
River, the camp has seventy triangular bungalows with a large lodge that
provides three meals a day, nighttime entertainment. The camp is surrounded by gorgeous green
canyons with a spacious sky, the sounds of birds, and rushing river water below.
After
eating an all you can eat barbecue buffet, it is easy to just sink into a
hammock looking up at the night sky. I
retired to my bungalow early, as I had to be up early for rafting. And this is where my little piece of heaven
was infiltrated by bed bugs. Yes, once
again, I had a sleepless night trying to figure out how to deal with my
situation. It was well past midnight and
everyone was asleep. I decided to return
to the hammock and try to recover there until morning. I’m a pretty tolerable traveler, and wasn’t
going to throw a fit with management.
Just give me another bungalow and we were good. Yes, it sucks have a trail of bites on my
hands and neck but what can I do? Roll
with the punches, I was about to white water raft down the second deepest gorge
in the world! (so, they claim)
So, we
began, leaving the camp by jeep and crossing the border with Montenegro, to
begin our rafting trip. When we arrived at
the departure point some thirty miles downstream, we were joined by other
rafters from other camps. The scene was
magnificent. Colorful boats full of
joy. The rapids at this time of year was
slow and steady. We spent the rest of
the day drifting down crystal clear waters and gorgeous moving panoramic views
of the canyons above. We parked our
rafts at a riverside kiosk to have some cold beers and swim a bit. Then we were off for the camp and arrived
just in time for another all you can eat barbecue. I enjoyed a bottle of wine with other campers
and live music before retiring to my new bed bug free bungalow.
The third and
final day, we had a jeep excursion to Sutjeska National Park. The park is home to the only prime rain
forest in Europe with a glimpse of the 81-meter-high waterfall Skakavac. From there we headed to a mountain crease
known as Prijevor, which gives you the best panoramic view of the national park. From here we embarked on a four-hour back and
forth hike to an observation tower.
On our
return to the camp, we stopped by one of the largest outdoor pools in Europe. We didn’t stay long as I decided to join a
couple who had a car and were leaving in the late afternoon for
Montenegro.
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