Jajce is a UNESCO candidate and well worth a visit. It was our next stop on our short overland road trip in Bosnia-Herzegovina, on the way to Sarajevo. We were looking forward to seeing the Watermills and relaxing next to lake Plivsko Jezero before exploring the town tomorrow.

Over the last few years of doing Overland Travel trips in Europe and the Balkan states, we have learnt that we enjoy the journey more, if we slow down and take shorter hops. Today was one of those days we drove around 150km to Jajce from Bihac, arriving with plenty of time to soak in the local vibe.

The drive itself was easy, following the road numbered 5 for Sarajevo. Jajce was before Sarajevo but road signs did not appear until about 70km after we departed from Bihac.

Police and I

I have this thing about having to have my headlights on in the summer, I know it is the law in a lot of countries. But I just don’t like it. I would understand in the winter, but in the summer it does nothing but waste fuel!

Anyhow this again got me pulled over (again) by the Police (it also happened in Serbia twice and once in Montenegro), I did not see them in time to put the lights on, a grumpy cop pulled me over in a Serbian part of the country as we passed through. I apologised pretending to be forgetful, he asked me to get out and demanded documents, we had everything so he did not seem too fussed. The Police officer asked where we were going, I pointed at Jajce on the map. He sent us on the way. Having been release, we joked that had it not been in the Serbian part the cops would not have cared. We did pass lots of Police prior to the incident and got away with it, not sure why this person cared.

Oh well. It was fun, I am stupid and the interaction leaves me richer!

Chilling at Plivsko Jezero lake, Jajce

Anyway we got to Jajce in time for lunch under the trees by the lake, followed by a swim and a beer in the local lake side restaurant.

Cassie spent time looking at the fish and getting Damsel flies to land on her hand. The lake was nice and had interesting mills, we enjoyed refreshing in the cool waters although we are not really fans of the weed undergrowth!

Later we went looking for the “Autocamp” we had passed, it was simple, not next to the lake and once we were in, fairly pleasant.

We spent the afternoon catching up on admin stuff. Reading on the grass and checking maps etc. I also checked out routes to Lukomir, which was one of our other planned visits near Sarajevo .

By the way, Jajce is a candidate for a UNESCO site. You should check out this UNESCO book and other useful books we have used to plan our overland trips.

We finished the evening by having dinner and several locals beers. We also booked into a Sarajevo Hotel online to allow us to explore tomorrow. Tomorrow we planned to have a look around Jajce and head for Sarajevo.

Exploring the Old Town of Jajce

Having packed up fairly sharpish in the morning the plan was to have coffee and breakfast in Jajce, then explore.

We got in to town easily from the campsite and managed to find parking. Dan accidentally purchased a day of parking for 5 KM (about 2.5 euro). Jajce is a candidate for a Unesco site, so we expect to find something rather special.

As we walked into what we thought was the Old Town, the traffic was immense. The heat was already building and we decided to stop and have a coffee and breakfast before we headed out to explore. This was easier said than done.

All the cafés were a little strange, so we opted for the most full…going with the thought process that if it’s full, it must be ok. We decided to order a cappuccino instead of a coffee…we will not do this again. We promptly drank up and left.

After wondering around and down a slippery, pebble polished stairs (from all the wear caused by foot traffic), we had no idea where we were going. We couldn’t find the Old Town or the waterfalls mentioned to fall from Jajce.

As we still had not eaten, our stomachs won and we headed for the Pekara (bakery) we had seen on our way in to get some breakfast, or maybe now, brunch?

Cassie asked if we could go to the underground church, the catacombs of Jajce she had seen a sign for, so we headed for that. Low and Behold! We were in the the Old Town. We should have simply headed that way to begin with.

We paid 6KM for all of us to go down into the catacombs. They were a lot cooler than outside as the heat was blaring by now and really interesting. It is a shame that on many of the walls there was engraved graffiti.

After the catacombs we wondered up to the top of the Old Town walls, we had a look around, but the heat kept it short, if only we had discovered this part earlier in the morning.

Because of the heat we decided to start our journey to Sarajevo. The drive was going to be a hot one.