BALKAN 4x4
DEFENDER ADVENTURE
THE BALKAN
The Balkans is a fascinating region full of rich history, diverse cultures, and beautiful landscapes, making it perfect for an epic road trip. As you drive through countries like Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria, you’ll discover a mix of ancient ruins, charming cities, and stunning nature. This road trip will take you through a region where history, from the Ottoman Empire to the former Yugoslavia, comes alive.
WELCOME PEPE!
After our awesome outdoorsy experiences with Boggy in Romania, we knew we wanted to head back to the wild, wild east. This time, there was a new four-legged travel buddy on board: welcome Pepe!
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In order to make the experience for both the humans and the dog enjoyable, we had to consider two things:
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Pepe would need a place to sleep in, so we ordered a crate and got him used to it at home with lots of yummy snacks fed inside the crate. It wasn’t a big deal, since he already loves his car box and in general likes to snuggle into covered spaces.
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We would be travelling in a car without A/C and didn’t want to expose him to too much heat, since dogs can’t handle heat as well as humans (meaning, they don’t sweat like pigs). Also, we didn’t want to stretch Pete’s eagerness for car rides and had to plan for shorter dayly drives than usual.
Heading Off and going east.
As always, we took off without further planning, trusting our gut feeling and Park4Night to find us some nice spots to sleep.
After a 5h ride – including a McDonald’s dog friendly rest stop - we arrived on a campground close to Lake Bled. The owner has a huge fenced training field for his two German shepherds and guest dogs are allowed as well! Early the next morning we hiked up a hill with a famous look out over Lake Bled - we were all by ourselves, people were only starting to come up once we were on our way down. Afterwards, it was time for a classic parking spot breakfast and then off we went towards our next stop: Croatia.
For most countries in the European Union you need some kind of badge for the road toll – and it wasn’t always easy to figure out what kind of category Boggy fell in. For Croatia, the relevant information seemed to be the height of the hood and since we had no clue, the shop assistant and Katharina figured it our with the help of a folding ruler.
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​Heavy thunderstorms were expected in the area where we stopped for the night, so we decided to get a room. A restaurant was attached to the guest house, including very large glasses of wine and dinner prepared with fresh vegetables from the garden.
SERBIA 🇷🇸
Cruising along the river banks of Drina.
The next day, we finally entered Serbia. At a small lake, Ljeskove Node, we stopped for breakfast went on a quick hike and took a refreshing dip before moving on.
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Next day, same procedure: it was pretty hot, so breakfast somewhere on the banks of the river Drina which is also the border between Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Benzino attempted to swim across said border but was stopped by the strong currents.
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By that time, Pepe had gotten fully used to the new way of travel, exploring every new area excitingly. Sitting on the river bank all by ourselves, enjoying nature we realized that this is what we love about travelling with the Defender: exploring as we go, stumbling across pretty places without planning.
Hiking Tara National Park.
We were headed towards Tara National Park and after a pretty hot day in the car we found a small campground among pear trees – which where planted to produce Schnaps, as we would soon enough learn from the owner.
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​In Tara National Park we went on a strenuous 12km hike with beautiful views and Pepe was pretty happy we took his Power Shot with us – very much deserved!
TARA NATIONAL PARK
Unique sundowner on the roof.
Next on the list was the Uvac Canyon. We found a great overnight spot on iOverlander and were excited for an unique sundowner on top of Boggy. Unfortunately, the owner of the field did not allow us to sleep there, so we ended up at the next best spot we found, deep in the valley right next to the river.
The next morning we ticked off Uvac Canyon: very isolated with an impressive population of vultures that fly along the cliffs, screeching to each other (Pepe was fascinated and we had to make sure he wouldn’t go over the cliffs). Benzino got all melancholic again, sitting on top of this canyon and saying to himself ‘this might be the prettiest natural formation that I’ve ever seen’. Must have been the heat. Well, but it was actually quite scenic to see the river winding his way through the canyon.
UVAC CANYON
MONTENEGRO 🇲🇪
Climbing Bobotov Kuk.
After very hot days with temperatures close to 40 degrees, two days later we were back in Zabljak, where we had been 4 years prior. High up in the Montenegrin mountains, the weather was cold, windy and rainy. Just the right conditions for our second attempt to climb Bobotov Kuk which we had failed to do the last time due to snow and ice in April.
Now, we were off to a good start with even some sunny spots but the weather changed quickly and shortly before the top we were stuck in a thick cloud that made us turn around -again! Well, we will be back! Pepe nonetheless showed off his impressive climbing skills, sometimes resembling a mountain goat more than a dog.
BOBOTOV KUK
After solitude in nature we’re always happy to get back to a city for some people watching. This time in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina. To be honest, the stop wasn’t exactly planned. On a quick grocery run, Boggy gave up on Benzino and once more we enjoyed a ride in a towing truck in a foreign country. After some stressful research (with Pepe handling everything like a champ), we found an AirBnB in the Center of Mostar only to learn that the owner also owned the only vegan/vegetarian restaurant in Mostar (which he only opened to impress his vegan girlfriend!). We must have looked pretty exhausted because he treated us to a free take-out dinner!
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 🇧🇦
An unexpected stop.
Change of plans are non big deal for us (since there are basically no real plans), so we explored Mostar, learned about the cruel Yugoslav War and learned about the Bosnian coffee ceremony.
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After Boggy had been fixed, we encountered the next, much more uncomfortable hick-up: Bosnian Belly Bug. Sparing you the details, I will only say as much: we had to get yet another place to stay since we were not able to travel. It was a pretty apartment right by Lake Konjic where Pepe took advantage of his weak owners to go off and chase some ducks.
LAKE KONJIC
Once we felt alive again, we booked a tour in Tito’s infamous underground bunker which had actually never been in use. The history of Bosnia-Herzegovina is still omnipresent, mostly in form of bullet holes in buildings.
Looking at photos we realized that people our age had grown up during a brutal civil war where many crimes against humanity had been committed. We learned a lot about that dark chapter and the still ongoing conflict between the different ethnic groups.
Back to Munich.
After the Boggy’s breakdown, followed by our own, we decided we were ready to head back home. We took 3 days to get back to Munich, including a couple of hikes, another cute campground next to a river (including a Balkan Beats party we were not invited to across the river!) and quality time with our best travel buddy.
FINAL WORDS.
Thinking back, it was another great and unique experience with our Defender. The struggle on the way maybe just adds to the adventure. Our learning for the next trip, though: Let’s focus on one country only and explore it into depth. We have Bosnia on our list and will be back for a full round tour to explore this unique country. Until then – no more Ajvar for us, I think.
Well and Pepe?! He made it easy for us to take him on this trip, barely complaining about anything as long as we give him enough food. We had to adapt our roadtrip lifestyle a tiny bit but it was great to have him with us and he proved to be a perfect addition to the crew.
RELIVE THE JOUNEY WITH POLARSTEPS.
IMPRESSIONS
