Hiking to Lukomir and the Rakitnica Canyon

After our short visit to Mostar, we planned to do some hiking around Lukomir. It is a village up in the mountains so the nearest city to hitchhike to was Konjic. We made our way to the edge of the city and after an hour, Malik picked us up. What a small world it turned out to be - he was a cyclist too. He is a member of a mountain biking (MTB) group in Sarajevo and was very excited to hear about our world cycling adventure. Malik also knew the high calorie diet that we needed so he kindly treated us to a generous meal.

Amazing view from the highway restaurant

One kilo of roast lamb and potatoes

After exchanging contacts and farewell, we got dropped off in Konjic. It was late afternoon when we got off the car so we had to think about where to sleep for the night. There was no way we could reach Lukomir in time, so we started ascending the hills. We wanted to hitchhike but the chosen road had barely any traffic! It was after an hour walk we heard a car coming. Desperately looking at the driver, they stopped to ask where we were going. We replied "Lukomir" but they weren't going there. Instead, they got us to a small village Dzepi. It had the perfect spot for us to camp the night.

A beautiful bridge in Konjic

Sharing the spring with our bleating neighbours

The real hike begins

The next morning was sunny so we packed up and got on our way. Again the road was quiet and we barely had any traffic. The road had a gentle ascent and easy to follow so it made for a pleasant morning hike. Soon enough we heard another vehicle coming up and got ready to hitchhike. And jackpot! The driver let us join him for a 4km ride. We hopped on the back of the ute and had a nice view from behind.

We got dropped off at a quiet fork with a picnic table and spring. We decided to have morning tea. Afterward we had no other vehicle passing through so we carried on hiking until we reached Lukomir at 4pm. The village was very small so 10 minutes exploring was enough for us. The main attraction to this area is the surrounding nature and landscape.

To Umoljani or Bobovica

Outside the cafe was a sign showing all the hiking routes in this area. It would have been nice if this was online so we could've been more prepared. There's enough hiking trail for almost 2 weeks! We decided to take the route over to Bobovica because Matt really wanted to cross the swing bridge.

The trail started out very beautiful as we were on top of the Rakitnica canyon. We were so lucky to have such a beautiful sunny day. The hike took us 2 hours and we took so many photos of the beautiful trail. Before arriving into the village, we camped a tree with views of the mountains.

The hiking continues

We weren't really sure how long we could continue hiking in this area. Our food supply were running low and we haven't seen a decent shop for a while. So we decided to carry on hiking north towards Sarajevo. There were no more hiking trails so we were walking on the highway most of the time but it was very safe because only one car passed per hour.

Source: "Krompirusa Dish"

Later we were walking past a restaurant in the Sabici village and the owner's son was outside cleaning the tables. Semin kindly offered us a place to rest seeing as we were carrying the heavy backpacks. We had been meaning to find a place to have lunch so we decided to take up on his offer and have a rest. He then proposed us free herbal teas if we write a review on Google Maps for him. We accepted his offer. After five minutes he brought out the tea with some very red looking honey that was sourced from the nearby mountains. We sat and chatted for about an hour and it was very nice to get to know his story. After the drink we said goodbye and carried on hiking towards Sarajevo.

---

Now we are back in Sarajevo waiting patiently for the return of Pheng's passport. Bureaucracy has been the least favourite part of our trip but what can you do?

---

View this post on TravelFeed for the best experience.