BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA | MY Via Dinarica Green Trail

After 5 weeks on this beautiful trail through BiH we reached Sarajevo. It is hard to capture all the memorable encounters, views and experience in such a short review. What we can say though is that this trail brought us through small villages, green forests, open fields and semi high mountains. It took us to some beautiful waterfalls, old cities and lovely mountainhuts. But not the least, we met so many wonderful people, which coloured our hike beautifully. All in all a very special trail. Thanks to Eva for putting all the information online! Now some practical remarks; NOTES: - There are still landmines in BiH. We would recommend getting the BHMAC app or check for the maps here: https://www.euforbih.org/index.php/bih-minefield-maps - For the first part of this trail, till Gornji Ribnik, there are a lot of asphalt roads. We tried to find alternatives, but did not always succeed. We would suggest to focus most of your energy on this first part to find alternatives. - We did not have any problems with stray dogs. They are there and will bark, but if you just walk on it should be fine. - OSM is rather limited in BiH. So if you want to find alternatives, we would suggest getting paper maps. Eva did some suggestions here: https://www.evadinaricaproject.com/en/via-dinarica-practical-information/ - The route down from Tvrtkovac is non existing. Eva added a waypoint ‘do not follow me’, however it is a bit late (we found out the hard way). The right turn is probably here: 44,29129, 18,08147 ( 44°17′28.64″N 18°04′53.29″E ). - As it is not possible to add waypoint to the route in OA, we added POI (such as waterpoints, rest areas etc) directly in OSM (through maps.me) ALTERNATIVES: - From Vrs Krh Zvijezda (after Vares) the route seems to go through a mine suspected area. As we wanted to take a shortcut anyway, we went down to Zubeta - Nisici - Dusevine (back on track). This is not a recommendable alternative, it was rather because of practical considerations. - From the Croatian border to Una NP there is a lot of road walking. We did not find a satisfying alternative, but it is a bit better we think. Look for: ‘ Croatian border - entrance Una NP alternative EVA’S Via Dinarica Green Trail ‘ - ‘ Martin Brod - Dvrar alternative EVA’S Via Dinarica Green Trail ‘. Good alternative to avoid road walking and add an extra store along the trail. - ‘ Dvrar - Potoci alternative EVA’S Via Dinarica Green Trail’ . Getting back to the trail. Nice way up and then through forests. - ‘ Potoci - Ribnik alternative EVA’S Via Dinarica Green Trail ‘. Eva proposed a short cut for this part (‘ Short cut Potoci - Vucija Poljana ‘), but we would not recommend that one (it adds a lot of km’s and follows a rather boring road). Our alternatives follows the quiet car road, which is not ideal, but at least shorter. PRACTICALITIES: Food: Izacic, Bihac, Kulen Vakuf, Dvrar, Gornji Ribnik, Jajce, Han Bila, Zenica (off route), Vares, Gajevi, Sarajevo Water: No problem most of the times, just ask at the houses. Long stretches without water are; Ripac - Strbacki buk (20km), 4 km after Dvar just before you go up (houses) - Potoci. Sleeping: most of the times we did gardencamps. There were also some wildcamps, mounainhuts and other accomodation. Usually there are several options along the trail.