I’m moving away from the political situation in Bosnia today, for a brief interlude, and a personal tale from the weekend, in which a relic of the Soviet Union taught me a valuable lesson.
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| Dream car #1, Renault 4, Belgrade |
For some time now, I have had a hankering to have a car – not just any car, but one of two types that you still see a few of on the roads in the former Yugoslavia – the old Renault 4 or the Lada Niva, still in production today. This hankering, a desire to see more of Bosnia, and my landlord’s fixing skills came together on Friday morning, when I bought a red, 1997 Lada.
Saturday morning gave me the chance to take it up past some of the Olympic skiing zone on Bjelašnica, getting used to driving it and getting used to driving on the right-hand side of the road. All went well, even a couple of encounters with friendly and professional traffic police officers in both Republika Srpska and the Federation.
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| Susjetka memorial |
Saturday having passed off without incident, a couple of intrepid explorers from the US embassy here agreed that it would be fun to use the Lada, as yet without a name, for a planned trip down to Foča near the Montenegrin border, and the nearby national park. We found Foča, successfully located the memorial to the Battle of Sutjeska, but after that, somehow our path was not the one we had expected to take. In what was planned as something like a 90-100 mile round trip, we ended up covering 250 miles and all kinds of marvellous terrain, from the mountain peaks around Sutjeska, to lush valleys with meandering valleys, and high flat plains (see maps, below). By the end of the day, we had been through Gacko, stopped to see some medieval tombs (Stećci) of a kind only really found within the shifting borders of the old Bosnian kingdom, and paused, somewhat exhausted to rest and eat in Mostar.
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| Dream car #2, Lady on Bjelašnica |
Lady (as the Lada was named at some point along the way) taught us a lesson as we were sat on the verge opposite the Church of the Holy Martyr Vukasin near Pridvorci. In the hope of joining a main ‘M’ road to Sarajevo, we pursued a paved road north, and continued for some time as it became a track, and further still as it became a track that made it worth putting on Lady’s differential lock.
Once we lost faith in this track and turned round, we started to encounter a number of problems back on the sealed road. Heads were put together in the car, and we figured the diff-lock was stuck either on, or at any rate, not quite off. By this stage its little lever refused to budge in any direction, and the best offer we had was to drive in 2nd gear as far as the town of Nevesinje, at least 10 kilometres away, and hope to get it fixed the following day.
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| Krekovi Necropolis |
It is at this point that one or two sentences, in small italic text, in a guide for new Niva owners, saved us from the ignominy of the slow trundle to Nevesinje, and sent us back homewards to Sarajevo. A New Zealand Niva enthusiast, Mark Baxter has a page for new
Niva users. Here, it is noted that the diff-lock lever can get stuck if infrequently used. And here, Lady’s lesson in life is delivered. To paraphrase:
When things seem stuck, reverse a little and try again. This may take several goes. Sound advice for a sticky diff-lock and sound advice for life.
By one o’clock this morning, all were home safe and sound in Sarajevo, grateful to the various kind strangers who stopped (variously calling up a friend to get a number of a local mechanic or giving us sympathy), and grateful to Lady for an amazing trip round Herzegovina and back up into Bosnia.
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Planned route
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| Actual route |
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