Lukomir

Thu 19/9/24

We woke up to the sound of heavy rain this morning. So we only managed to get a 2 day window of sunny days without rain at Mostar. We were lucky to have pictures and flew the drone yesterday morning in clear weather. Partner in Crime quickly made his way in the rain to the bakery to buy burek for breakfast today. We took our time today morning as it was raining and waiting to arrive at Restoran Kovacevic in Jablanica at opening time to try their roast lamb as recommended by a Malaysian uncle that we chatted with yesterday. 

We left Mostar at 9.30 am and arrived at the restaurant at 10.30am. We enquired if the roast lamb was ready - it was ready indeed. So we had brunch of 2 dishes of roasted lamb with potato and tea which cost 56 BAM. 

view of Neretva river from the restaurant in Jablanica

roast lamb at Jablanica

From the restaurant, we drove towards the village of Lukomir. We were directed to the offroad path somewhere after Vrdolje, about only 20km to the village but felt like forever as there were loose rocks. At one point I had to get out of the car to remove some loose rocks to give some traction. 

turn right towards Džepi

starting the offroad

start of beautiful scenery to Lukomir

offroading with beautiful views to Lukomir

We finally arrive at our homestay Etno Koliba at 2pm in the pouring rain. Our room cost EUR 32 per night with breakfast booked through booking.com and paid by cash. We also ordered dinner from our hosts Zineta and Duran for EUR 10 per person since there are no restaurants around here.

our homestay at Lukomir

The people of Lukomir village rear sheep and will bring their sheep to graze at the fields in the morning and herd them back before dusk and they have sheep dogs to herd and guard them. They still live in the traditional way and our homestay is heated by the traditional heater cum oven. I watched Zineta grill the red bell pepper in the oven to make ajvar as sauce or dips.

ajvar

traditional oven cum heater with firewood

Since it was still raining, we rested a bit in our room until it stopped at around 4pm. We ventured out soon after and walked about 10 minutes towards the a beautiful view point with views of the mountains and canyon. There was no one here so we flew the drone and took pictures here.

Lukomir viewpoint

Lukomir viewpoint

Lukomir village behind

mountains behind

beautiful mountain views from Lukomir viewpoint

Lukomir village is one of the stops to stay the night for hikers so by 6pm we saw some hikers arriving at the village while we made our way back to our homestay for dinner. There is a waterfall nearby about 45 minutes hiking but we didn't have enough time to return home before sunset at 7pm so we only partly walked he path to the waterfall to see views from the other side of the mountain.

the way to the waterfall

For dinner we had pita with cheese filling, corba soup with beef and yogurt drink. The cheese and yogurt is locally made from the sheep milk of Lukomir village, according to Duran our host. The freshly made pastry was fluffy and delicious. After dinner we called it a day and retired to our room. 

pita

corba soup with beef, tomato (as salad) and yogurt drink

Fri 20/9/24

We woke up at 6am the next day and I caught the sunrise from our large bedroom window. It was blissful to wake up with views of the mountains and fresh crisp air outside. At 7am we made our way out to walk towards the direction that we came from yesterday. There were sheep dogs guarding their herd of sheep at a nearby pen. 

morning walk at Lukomir

morning walk at Lukomir

sheep dog guarding sheep

We could have made the trip to the waterfall this morning, but we already told Zineta that we would have breakfast at 8am, so alas, not enough time for that. We went back to the view point of the mountains before returning for breakfast. For breakfast today we had a local type of savoury donut with eggs and tea. Duran chatted with us using the translator app on his phone about our country and we likewise about his country.

simple breakfast of savoury donuts and fried eggs with tea

There was still plenty of time to enjoy at Lukomir so we sat outside in the homestay garden sipping hot tea and enjoying the views of the mountains and sheep grazing. It was simply peaceful and relaxing.

the view in front of our homestay

homestay garden

At 11am we said our goodbyes to Zineta and Duran and drove towards our final destination of our Bosnia & Herzegovina trip - Sarajevo. It is located only 52 km from Lukomir and we would be taking a different route with much better road condition. We already reached the tarred road within 30 minutes compared to yesterday where we were on the offroad path for almost 2 hours.

more sheep otw from Lukomir to Sarajevo

sheep crossing